I think it’s pretty much axiomatic that kids are expensive! However, how does that affect charitable giving? That’s the topic of this post.
I was able to find an interesting dataset from Statistics Canada which was created based on charitable giving data from 2013 (I know, I know. It’s quite old at this point!). They summarized donor rates and charitable donation totals, averages, and medians by presence of children at home for Canada overall and each of the provinces.
I took that dataset and of course felt the need to turn it into a fun little dashboard.
I’ve got a few observations about the dashboard below on how kids affect charitable giving, but please feel free to explore and come to your own conclusions
Some Observations
- Canada-wide, those with no children present had the highest median annual donations at $144, compared to those with school aged children ($100)
- Although not a huge difference, when looking at the Canada-wide results, 82.6% of those with no children gave a charitable donation, vs. 87.7% of those with both pre-school and school aged children. This is actually kind of surprising to me, as I’d think that having no kids would mean you’re much better able to make a donation, but apparently it slightly reduces the chances that someone will make a donation.
- Of note, and I don’t understand why, households with school aged children only are the least likely to make a charitable donation, measuring in at 80.1%.
Aside from these observations of the Canada-wide data, you should explore differences in charitable giving by presence of kids based on Province. You’ll be surprised at how different they are!
In conclusion, it does appear that there’s some evidence to support that having wee ones at home does have at least some negative impact on charitable giving amount, even if it appears to have a positive impact on donor rate in at least one instance.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little exploration 🙂