By Wendy Rinella, CEO
Well, it’s summer and not only the beginning of the annual planning season at The Foundation but that time of the year when I reflect and share a “Top of Mind” blog about some significant issues in the sector.
In the past, I have shared thoughts about the Me to We Charity Scandal, the Disbursement Quota policy debates and last year’s focus on Climate and Youth. This year I’m thinking about the relationship between community and philanthropy.
About 5 years ago, The Foundation Board adopted “Building Community through Philanthropy” as the stated purpose of the Oakville Community Foundation. At the time, our Treasurer, Vik Sachdev — a partner at PWC — advised that a purpose was a more meaningful way of discussing an organization’s role than the traditional “vision and mission”. We’ve been using this “purpose” as our North Star for the past 5+ years.
It’s easy to see this purpose in action within The Foundation as Fundholders come together to pool their charitable gifts, invest them and use the proceeds to help build benefits for our community, like health care and educational facilities, outdoor trails, gardens, and recreation facilities, and to support bursaries and scholarships and every charitable activity in the community through GIVEOakville. Through our community philanthropy, $65 million has supported charitable activity in our 30-year history, of which $24 million was granted during the five years between 2019-2023.
Recently, I was watching Bruce McDonald from Imagine Canada share their State of the Non-Profit and Charitable Sector report in a webinar discussing the trends in giving from tax filer data for the years 1997-2022. The number of tax filers claiming donations has dropped over the past 25 years from over 25% to 17.1% in the 2022 tax year, the lowest ever recorded.
This trend started well before recent inflation concerns, taking shape around 20 years ago, as indicated by the first image (Yes, that is Bruce in the top right corner).
The one saving grace has been that although the number of donors has decreased, the value of donations has increased, as the next slide shows. It is heartening to see that Canadians responded to the COVID-19 crisis as there was a hearty jump in the 2020 tax year corresponding to the crisis. That jump was followed by a drop in 2021 but not too far below the 2019 giving amount. It will be interesting to see the data in future years to gauge any changes in this trend.
It has also made me reflect on how the GIVEOakville campaign had a similar dip in 2021 after peak giving during COVID-19 in 2020, dropping from $764,000 in 2020 to $575,000 in 2021. Last year, the GIVEOakville campaign increased to $740,000, up 8% from 2022. So hopefully our OCF community will continue to chart its own growth pattern for donations.
What is striking is that less than one percent of Canadian donors are responsible for 38% of donations over $25,000. While 69% of donors are providing less than $1,000, they make up 8% of all donations.
I have heard many reasons for the drop in donors including: the increase in the cost of living, the decrease in the middle class, the decline in attendance of church and other faith-based organizations, the increase in new technologies like Crowdfunding that don’t offer tax receipts, and the decline in “trust” of the charitable sector as a result of scandals like “WE Charity”.
While I am sure that there is an argument to be made for each of the above points, the one explanation that has made me pause and reflect is offered in The 2024 Giving Report: From Disconnection to Collective Action, here. Interestingly, the report identified the decrease in social connection as a key cause.
Here is a quote from a Charity Village interview with Julie Fiorini of Canada Helps.
“… there absolutely is a correlation between Canadians who have smaller social networks and their propensity to donate and volunteer. And when we say social networks, we’re not talking about the number of friends you have on Facebook or the number of followers you’ve got on Instagram or TikTok. We’re actually talking about real human social connections. And that’s through your family, through your friends, through your work networks and that type of thing, your neighbours.
From 2013 to 2022, the stats show that the number of Canadians with six or more close friends has declined by 40%. And so from 2013, 37% of Canadians self-reported having six or more friends. That number has dropped in 2022 to only 22% of Canadians self-reporting that they have six or more friends. And then with those who actually do report having many close friends, more than 80% of those donate to charity. And those who claim to not have many close friends, just over half of those donate.”
So the point of interest as it relates back to our purpose, is not only that we build community through philanthropy, but we also build philanthropy through community. Increasing social connection is correlated with increasing donations, which kinda makes sense as donors want to feel that they are part of something bigger.
Donors are not only inspired by philanthropy but inspired by community connections.
As we move towards 2025 plans, I intend to keep these ideas at the forefront. Our first opportunity will be a charity showcase as part of our 2024 GIVEOakville campaign launch. We will be inviting Fundholders and GIVEOakville donors and charities together to learn, connect and inspire each other.
This Charity Showcase will take place on the afternoon of Sunday, November 17th at Appleby College.
We can build our community and build our philanthropy together.
I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas, please send them to my attention through info@theocf.org
