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Angela Riley says she’s not surprised to hear Canadian charities are seeing smaller donations from working-class and middle-class people.

Riley, the founder of Scotian Shores, an organization that cleans up Nova Scotia shorelines, said luckily her organization has a social enterprise side that sells art and crafts to help keep revenue consistent.

“Do I put food on the table for my kids or do I give that money away to someone else who’s struggling?” she said. “It’s a hard choice, but that’s what people are, I think, facing a lot of today.”

Duke Chang, president and CEO of CanadaHelps, a charity that supports other charities with donation processing, said the smaller donations are not the result of Canadians not wanting to help, but not being able to.

He said another trend is that wealthier donors are giving bigger donations, which helps offset some of the lost revenue.

“Fewer and fewer Canadians are participating in giving to charities over time, but those who are are stepping up and giving more, and that’s not really surprising given the economic climate,” said Chang.

‘How does anybody afford this?’

Riley believes the housing crisis is one of the reasons why some people are not donating as much as they used to.

“I bought a house before the pandemic,” she said. “Lucky me, so it’s like $1,000 per month,” adding that she has seen one-bedroom apartments in Halifax rent for more than $2,000 per month.

“I’m like, how does anybody afford this?”

According to Food Banks Canada, one in every four Canadians is food insecure.

Difficult decisions

In Digby, N.S., Lynda Griggs said she sees many people in her rural town struggling.

“You gotta think about the kids and your food bill before you drop money,” she said.

As the director of Society for the Friends of Ferals, Griggs said her organization depends on donations and small craft shows to keep the feral and stray cats of Digby happy, healthy and fed. 

She said while the organization is able to finance its day-to-day operations with what it takes in, it does not have enough to carry out bigger goals.

“We’re trying to raise funds for a shelter and we’re struggling with that,” she said. “We have had in the past several large donations, but that was years ago.”

‘Canadians are generous,’ says CanadaHelps CEO

Griggs said people oftentimes find creative ways of contributing. 

“There’s a few fishermen and they’re very good at donating lobster and fish for our raffle,” she said, adding that local businesses sometimes donate products for silent auctions. 

Chang said that people are still trying to support causes.

“Canadians are generous. We’ve always been generous people. I think it’s in our DNA,” he said.

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