Recently, Statistics Canada posted their yearly update to their lovely dataset: “Summary of charitable donors”. I really like it, because it gives you a stark perspective on the state of trackable charitable giving in Canada.
I’ve been following it for the last few years and used this year’s update to refresh a dashboard that allows you to explore yearly trends in the various metrics they make available.
I added a new feature to the dashboard this year. When you click on the “Cities” option in the sidebar, you’ll see that it gives you the option to display a ranking of all cities by “YOY % Taxfilers”. Basically, the cities at the top of this table are the worst offenders in terms of their yearly decline in % taxfilers. Those at the bottom are the least problematic!
I hope you enjoy this!
A few notes for you to ponder as you explore:
- % Taxfilers Who Donated: This shows you to percentage of everyone who lives in that geographical area who reported charitable giving. This makes for a more fair comparison vs. raw # of donors.
- Donation $ per Income $: This is the ratio of median donation dollars to median income. I like it because it allows us to see a yearly trend of how generous people were feeling in their charitable giving despite yearly fluctuations in the economy.
- Is the overall amount of money donated in Canada increasingly resting on the shoulders of our oldest citizens?
- The percent of taxfilers reporting charitable giving is declining in EVERY province, and almost every metropolitan area. Is this because people are finding other means of donating and not reporting it, or do we have a serious problem with philanthropy in this country? If there is such a serious problem, what can we do to solve it?
- How come it looks like Quebec is so stagnant when you look at median donation dollars, and donation dollars per income?