Charitable donations dipped this holiday season and London organizations are feeling the pinch
CBC
Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, some London-area organizations say they have noticed a decline in donations this holiday season.
The Salvation Army London and United Way Elgin Middlesex are among local charities that say they are behind their fundraising goals, and are hoping for a final push before the year's end.
"It's been a very challenging year from our perspective for fundraising," said United Way Elgin Middlesex president and CEO Kelly Ziegner. "When it comes down to putting food on the table or presents under the tree for your kids, charitable giving is often one of the things that falls off the table."
The United Way raises funds to support programs that help people living in poverty, including housing stability and food security initiatives. While the organization didn't set a specific fundraising goal this holiday, Ziegner said she expected Londoners would have raised $4 million by now, but they're about half a million behind.
The Salvation Army London's Christmas Kettle campaign has raised more than half of its $650,000 goal this year, but that's about 12 per cent behind what the organization raised at this time last year, according to local spokesperson Cortney Harkin.
Data from Statistics Canada show a steady decline in charitable giving over the years.
In 2019, 20 per cent of London tax filers donated to charity. The most recent data from 2023 shows only 17 per cent donated to charity that year.
Research released this month from Nextdoor Canada and Angus Reid found that a third of Ontario residents have donated to a local food bank this holiday season. Just under one-third said they don't intend to donate at all, the survey found.
However, Joannie Tremblay-Boire, an associate professor at Carleton University who studies philanthropy and non-profits, said the data does not necessarily paint the full picture of how Canadians give.
“That does not include more informal giving … That does not capture things like GoFundMe where people can give straight to individuals, it also doesn’t capture the full range of charitable behaviour in cultural communities,” Tremblay-Boire said.
Still, she said it's not unusual for Canadians' donating habits to change when economic times are tough.
Tiffany Houston, the CEO of the Shine Foundation, which supports young people with disabilities, said recurring donors are giving less, and there are hardly any new donors connecting with the charity.
"When butter and bread become a luxury, charitable giving is not on the top of a lot of people's minds, sadly," she said.
Ziegner said the United Way typically receives most of its donations through workplace charity campaigns and partnerships, but those have been less reliable this year.
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