CanadaHelps Launches Small Charities Week and Unveils New Data Spotlighting the Challenges Facing Small Charities

Canadians called to action as rising inflation and growing demand for essential services place unprecedented strain on small charities

TORONTO, Sept. 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CanadaHelps, the country’s largest platform for donating and fundraising online, today launched Small Charities Week, an initiative to highlight small charities across Canada, many of which are facing significant shortfalls in funding and increased demands. As small charities with annual revenue of less than $500,000 experience the biggest drop in donations — a decline of $1 billion in receipted revenue (or 25%) between 2019 and 2020 — CanadaHelps is calling on Canadians during Small Charities Week to learn about the role small charities play in communities across the country, gain insights about the challenges they face, and learn about ways in which they can support them.

Throughout the week, CanadaHelps will also be leveraging its vast resources to provide educational programming to more than 1,100 charity professionals from small charities across Canada to help them effectively plan their fundraising efforts for the upcoming holiday season. Small Charities Week runs from September 12 to 16, 2022. For more information on Small Charities Week, click here.

Small Charities Facing Increased Demand for Services
To better understand the challenges faced by Canadian small charities, CanadaHelps surveyed more than 600 small charities across the country in August. Among those surveyed, most fall into the following categories: 28% provide social or community-based services, 17% are focused on arts and culture, 16% are aligned with religion, 12% provide educational services, 10% are immersed in health, and 7% direct their efforts to animals.

Survey Results Highlight the Significant Challenges That Small Charities Face:

• 41% of charities saw an increase in demand at the start of the pandemic but demand has returned to pre-pandemic levels for only 5% of charities. Charities that saw a high demand at the onset of the pandemic has now become the new normal for 14% of respondents, while 23% of charities continue to face rising demand. 32% of charities saw a decrease in demand at the start of the pandemic; while half of these charities have returned to pre-pandemic demand levels, 11% of respondents — many of which offer vital community building services — have not seen demand rebound, and 5% of respondents see demand continue to decline.
• 29% of charities saw an increase in donations at the start of the pandemic but two thirds (20% of total respondents) have returned to pre-pandemic levels. 51% of charities saw a decrease in donations at the start of the pandemic. This drop in donations became the new normal for half of these charities (25% of total respondents) while for one in five of these charities (10% of total respondents) donation dollars continue to decrease.
• 59% of charities note that demand exceeds their capacity, while only 27% have the capacity to meet the demand.
• 83% agree that inflation has increased the costs incurred for service delivery and 65% agree that inflation has decreased the donations received from individual Canadians.
• Just over half (51%) agree that increased demand for services and/or reduced funding is resulting in higher levels of staff burn out; while 55% have seen a decline in volunteers, with the number of volunteers continuing to remain below pre-pandemic levels.
• With reduced funding from donations, 39% of small charities believe the quality of their programs will suffer, 38% will need to make cuts to their programs, 32% will not be able to meet demand, and 17% will need to reduce staffing.

“Many Canadians may not be aware of the critical role that small charities play in communities across this country or how much they are struggling to deliver services,” says Jane Ricciardelli, Chief Operating Officer and Acting CEO of CanadaHelps. “With inflation impacting discretionary spending for Canadians and increasing both the cost and demand for essential service delivery, it is more important than ever for those who are able to step up and help ease the strain on small charities.”

CanadaHelps Empowering Small Charities to Optimize Online Fundraising
Throughout Small Charities Week, CanadaHelps is providing a series of free webinars and resources for small charities to learn about ways they can optimize their digital fundraising as the demand for services remains high and operating revenues are under strain. This includes a Small Charities Master Class program that teaches easy-to-implement digital fundraising best practices, enabling small charities to learn from the best and brightest in the fundraising sector.

Fast Facts About Canada’s Charitable Sector
The Canadian charitable sector is one of the largest in the world, with approximately 86,000 registered charities. Based on the most recently available Canada Revenue Agency data for the calendar years 2019 and 2020, we see small charities falling behind:

• Small charities (less than $500,000 annual revenue) experienced the biggest drop in year-over-year receipted donations, declining $1,016 billion (-25%). In contrast, large charities (more than $2,500,000 annual revenue) grew year over year receipted donations by $731 million (+6%).
• Of great concern, small charities experienced a decline in margin (the difference between total revenue and expenses) of -2% while medium and large charities were able to manage expenses to revenue and achieve positive margins of 5%.
• As noted in CanadaHelps’ annual Giving Report, 78% of Canadian charities are classified as small charities. Of those, 90% employ 10 or fewer full-time staff and 58% are solely run by volunteers.

About Survey Methodology
Results are based on a survey that was sent on August 12th and completed by 702 charity professionals of which 657 (94%) work at small charities with receipted donations and revenue of under $500,000.

About CanadaHelps
CanadaHelps is a public foundation advancing philanthropy through technology. For Canadians, it powers CanadaHelps.org, a safe and trusted destination for discovering and supporting any charity in Canada, and UniteforChange.com, where Canadians can learn about causes and easily support the collective work of charities addressing a cause they care about. CanadaHelps also develops affordable fundraising technology used by more than 25,000 charities, and free training and education so that, regardless of size, all charities have the capacity to increase their impact and succeed in the digital age. Since 2000, over 3.6 million people have given more than $2.3 billion through CanadaHelps. Connect with CanadaHelps on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Nicole Danesi
Senior Manager, Public Relations & Unite for Change
CanadaHelps
media@canadahelps.org