Trends in Charitable Giving in Canada and the US
Charitable giving trends in both Canada and the US are the same:
Fewer people are giving
Fewer people are attending religious services.
This wasn’t news to me, unfortunately, and I believe the two trends are deeply connected. References at the end of the post.
Generosity is a spiritual discipline like prayer, it’s something we can learn. We can talk about giving and encourage each other to practice generosity. My short counsel to church people is:
say thank-you
pay attention
tell stories.
Say thank-you
If you’re leading worship, thank God for the generous donors who support your congregation’s ministry. If you’re a church leader, make a thank-you call or write a note.
Pay attention
Christians can prayerfully talk about hard things, it’s what we do. “Lord, help me to be generous” or “Lord, help me to talk about generosity” might be good places to begin.
Tell stories
Tell a story of how the church was able to make a hospital visit, offer prayer support, help a community member access resources. Be specific. If you work for church ‘head office’, good stories are especially important because the connections to people in the pews tend to be weaker.
Discipleship opportunity, rather than a budget problem
People give to causes they care about, to people they trust and where have some connection. I encourage Christian leaders to approach these giving trends as a discipleship opportunity, rather than as a budget problem.
Browse my blog for posts on how to cultivate gratitude and generosity, including offering prayers, sample thank you letters, examples of using Bible stories to talk about bequests and more.
References and Source Documents
Fewer people are giving
Talking about the State of Faith and Giving by Elizabeth Lynn and David King, Lake Institute on Faith and Giving. September 2024. They note a “marked decline in the overall percentage of households that are engaging in charitable giving of any kind.”
A TIPPING BALANCE? TRENDS IN CHARITABLE DONATIONS 1997 - 2022 Research Bulletin by David Lasby, Imagine Canada. February 2025. The report notes that “successive generations are becoming markedly less likely to donate at any given age, though those who do give tend to give larger amounts.” (p. 8)
Shout out to David Lasby, author of the Imagine Canada report. I read the whole thing in detail, including the Appendix on data sources and methodology. Lasby has been tracking charitable data for years and his analysis is spot on. I particularly appreciated his observation that higher-income donors didn’t start out as higher-income donors; they began as middle-income donors and kept giving as their income increased over time (p.20.) His analysis confirms something I’ve observed also; people don’t magically become generous at a certain age or a certain income bracket. Rather, people who give out of wages when they are younger continue to give as they get older and have more resources.
Fewer people are attending religious services
Lake Institute “decreasing rates of religious attendance and affiliation”
Imagine Canada “decreased religiosity” (p. 13)