We’re not as generous as we like to think
Study finds giving in Canada pales in comparison to U.S.
OTTAWA — Fewer Canadians are giving to charity and those who do are donating less, says a new study by a public policy think-tank.
The annual generosity index from the Fraser Institute notes that “the extent of charitable giving fell in virtually every Canadian jurisdiction” from 2001 to 2011, when the most recent tax figures are available.
Only Newfoundland and Labrador saw an increase in the percentage of people claiming donations to registered charities on their taxes over the last decade, with 20.9 per cent of residents claiming donations in 2011 compared to 20.6 per cent in 2001. However, Newfoundlanders donated less of their incomes in 2011, with the province giving an average of 0.44 per cent of its aggregate income, compared to 0.56 per cent 10 years earlier.
Prince Edward Island, Ontario and New Brunswick saw the greatest drop in the number of donations to charity since 2001, with residents there also giving less of their incomes to charity than they had a decade ago.
When compared to their neighbours to the south, Canadians appeared positively Scrooge-like.
“We like to think of ourselves here in Canada as a very generous population, but the data doesn’t bear that out, particularly when we compare Canada to the United States,” said study coauthor Charles Lammam.
While more than a quarter of Americans — 26 per cent — donated to charities in 2011, only 22.9 per cent of Can- adians could say the same. Americans gave 1.33 per cent of their aggregate income to charities — more than double that of Canadians, who donated just 0.64 per cent of their aggregate income.
Lammam said Americans are also on a trend of donating less, but that the gap in generosity between the United States and Canada has widened over time.
In 2011, the average Canadian donation was $1,519 while the average American donation was triple that at $4,596 US.
And Lammam notes that American donations could be understated because Americans can choose to file itemized or non-itemized tax returns. Charitable donations can only be claimed on itemized returns, which were completed by just a third of American tax filers.
“The difference between these two countries may, in fact, be larger,” Lammam said.
The report estimates that if Canadians had donated as much of their income as Americans had, charities here would have received an additional $9.4 billion.
Lammam said his study did not look at why there is a difference in giving, but other research indicates a number of factors influence why Canadians don’t appear as generous as Americans.
Canadians lose more of their income to taxes than Americans do, while Americans receive greater charitable tax deductions than Canadians.
Lammam also notes that the Canadian government provides greater support to charities than the U.S. government, which can cause a “displacement effect” in which charities fundraise less and taxpayers give less because they believe the government is taking care of charitable responsibilities.
Within Canada, Manitoba was the most generous province for the 15th straight year with the highest percentage of residents giving to charity and the highest percentage of aggregate i ncome given to charity. More than a quarter — 25.9 per cent — of Manitoban tax filers donated to charity in 2011 and 0.89 per cent of the province’s aggregate income went to charity.
New Brunswick, the province with the lowest proportion of donators, saw only 20.7 per cent of tax filers giving to charity. Quebec, the province that donated the least, gave just 0.3 per cent of its aggregate income to charity.
The generosity index did not look at volunteer time or non-monetary donations, such as donations of food items to food banks.
In total, Canadians gave $8.7 billion to registered charities in the 2011 tax year.