Trends in Christian Giving

I see two big trends in Christian giving in Canada: fewer Christians and less giving. How’s that for cheerfully succinct?

People who attend religious services regularly donate the most. A decline in religious attendance impacts charitable giving, not just for places of worship but for other causes like community charities.

Fewer donors, reduced giving

There have been fewer donors each year for years. However, these fewer donors gave more and overall donations increased. That hid the problem. In 2022, there were fewer donors and they gave less. The trend holds true in the United States, according to data presented the opening session at AFP ICON earlier this month.

I’ve been tracking the percentage of Canadians who claim charitable receipts on their income tax. When I did my DMin thesis almost 10 years ago, 23% of Canadians claimed charitable receipts. In 2023, 17% of Canadians did so.

There’s crowd funding, cash giving and other kinds of giving that doesn’t generate receipts. However, I’d argue that a crowd-funded campaign usually supports individuals more than causes e.g. someone with cancer more so than cancer research. If you have more data on this, please reply to this email! (Or if you’d just like to say hello!)

Fewer Christians

35% of Canadians choose “none of the above” as their religious affiliation. “Nones” are the fastest growing group in Canada. [See None of the Above by Joel Thiessen and Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme for their excellent work here.]

The Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches publish their numbers. There are roughly 300,000 donors and 5,300 congregations combined in these three mainline denominations. On average, that’s fewer than 60 donors per congregation.

(Sources: PCC Acts and Proceedings 2023 p. 502 assuming that 75% of households give. United Church Statistics Dec 31, 2021 Dioceses of the ACC, Church matters by Neil Elliott )

What does that mean? Trauma, for starters. It’s a difficult and heart-breaking business to close a church. It impacts giving. Donors hesitate to leave a bequest to their church if they don’t think their church will still be around.

Trauma impacts trust. Trust is local. Denominations have a big and important job in maintaining connections.

Don’t lose heart! The church is more than buildings. God has not given up on us, and never will!

I’ll close with an infographic I shared in a previous blog.

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