10-year runway: Declining number of charitable givers
“Fewer Canadians are giving to charity. A majority of their donations are coming from fewer and older people. There is a 10-year runway before giving in Canada could plunge off a cliff.
Those are some of the key findings from a new report by Imagine Canada, an umbrella organization for almost 300 Canadian charitable organizations.”
John Longhurst’s article for Canadian Affairs is spot on. I agree whole-heartedly and judging from the activity when I recently posted it on LinkedIn, many of my peers in the philanthropic sector do too.
Some commenters mentioned economic pressures on younger generations as the reason for the drop in giving. While increasing income inequality hurts us all, that's not the only story here. The older faith-based donors I've talked to in my research learned generosity when young (Great Depression, WWII). They became higher-income, older donors but they began as low/middle income donors. Places of worship nurtured their generosity and I don't know what institutions will fill this gap as religious attendance drops.
The article notes decline in religious participation and quotes Bruce MacDonald, CEO of Imagine Canada: “Older people routinely say they learned to be generous at Sunday school and church”. For MacDonald, the question is: “What can we do to create a society like the one that created that generous generation?”
How can we create a society that nurtures generosity? Generosity requires trust and connection, both of which take time to grow. If you know an older, faithful donor, ask them how they learned to be generous. Share and honour their stories. They have much to teach us about how generosity develops over a lifetime.