By Jane Ricciardelli
As we enter the third holiday season since the pandemic began, charities are more at risk than ever before. For many, donations and other forms of revenue are down or flatlining, and service demand has skyrocketed. The staff working in these charities are close to burning out as they manage these trends at work, on top of their own challenges navigating a multi-year pandemic and 40-year high inflation. Successful fundraising during December will be more critical than ever.
When we look at demand, the numbers found in CanadaHelps’ research with Ipsos are startling. Twenty-two percent of Canadians are expecting to rely on charity services to meet basic needs like food and shelter in the next six months. This number increases to 35 percent for the 18-34 age group, and 26 percent for the 25-54 age group. More than a quarter of parents (27 percent) expect to access these essential services. Charities across sub-sectors are also reporting an increase in demand for their services, even those that would fall outside of the “basic needs” category.
New Beginnings Support Program works with low-income and vulnerable women in the areas of career and personal development. Adapting to the pandemic meant having to provide access to laptops for online programming for 50 percent of their clients, renting larger space to accommodate safety protocols, and trying to keep up with the spike in demand for their services and for the care packages they provide, which are filled with grocery and basic need items. Their costs have increased across the board in the past two and a half years, while donations decreased by 75 percent and have not rebounded. The organization is now facing tough decisions: without a boost in funding, they may have to reduce programs and staff, and ask the remaining already overworked staff to do more. The women that New Beginnings support have experienced trauma and violence, and the pandemic has further contributed to poverty, anxiety, depression, and social isolation. Without the organization’s services, these women will be less able to find quality employment and move towards independence and hope.
In other cases, especially in sub-sectors like arts and culture, demand for services may be down, leading to significant funding gaps and a risk they’ll have to close their doors. For example, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, a fifty-year-old institution, relies heavily on enrollment to its post-secondary program to fund operations. Now into their third school year since the pandemic began, enrollment sits at only fifty percent, and their future — the future of a critical training pipeline fueling the arts sector — is uncertain.
One piece of good news for the charitable sector is the ambivalence that many Canadians are feeling about receiving material gifts this holiday season. Another new Ipsos poll commissioned by CanadaHelps revealed that nearly half of Canadians (47 percent) would prefer to receive a charitable gift such as a Charity Gift Card, eCard, or a donation for a virtual gift instead of a material present this year.
Charities can use this news as an opportunity to tailor their messaging to donors, and create compelling email and social media storytelling campaigns. For example, by creating a virtual gift or adding a gift guide to their website, charities can share the impact of their work and make it more tangible to both the donor and the gift recipient. Looking at the CanadaHelps Gift Guide, a gift of $15 could buy a chicken through Oxfam Canada, $80 can feed a family of four through Edmonton’s Food Bank, and $250 can cover the cost of a spay or neuter surgery through the Peterborough Humane Society.
Our research also shows that more than a third (35 percent) of Canadians expect to spend less on holiday gifts, and 20 percent of Canadians plan to give less to charity this year. Knowing that budgets are especially tight, fundraisers need to encourage different methods of giving. Promoting the benefit of tax receipts for charitable gifts over traditional gifts can make the expense easier to rationalize, and so too can promoting the benefits of giving smaller amounts monthly. Gifts of securities, which are tax-effective thanks to the elimination of capital gains tax on direct donations, can be a very appealing option for donors and many charities don’t promote this at all.
The strength of charities correlates with the strength of our communities, but the challenges the charitable sector is facing this year will not be easy to overcome. We must do all we can to share this important story, and tap into the generosity of Canadians this holiday season.
Jane Ricciardelli is COO & Acting CEO, CanadaHelps. CanadaHelps is Canada’s largest platform for donating and fundraising online. Over the last 22 years, CanadaHelps has raised more than $2.3 billion from more than 3.6 million Canadians.
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