The State of Giving: Giving Tuesday 2024

November 28, 2024

We’re now in the thick of the holiday season, which means we’re opening our wallets and taking advantage of sales and deals. And it’s understandable; the cost of living and affordability in Canada continue to be top of mind of many Canadians and businesses, so ways to save are critical for many.

Amidst the sales and the shopping is also a very important date – Giving Tuesday. On this day it’s important to shift our focus and our dollars to the non-profit sector and the charities that are providing basic services for more Canadians than ever before. 2024’s The Giving Report found that one in five Canadians turned to a charity last year to meet a basic need (Ipsos & Canada Helps, 2023, pg 1). And of this group, almost 70% utilized a charity for this purpose for the first time, meaning there has been a sharp increase in demand in just the last year. Charities across Canada are struggling to keep up.

In this blog we put Giving Tuesday in focus today and take a look at key takeaways from the 2024 Giving Report, how the non-profit sector has fared in the last year, plus encouraging trends and opportunities for average Canadians and charitable organizations to embrace in 2025 and beyond.

The State of Giving

Financial and cost of living pressures on Canadians right now are strong: interest rates, while showing signs of improvement, remain high. Housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable for many across our country and our health sector is under strain in each province. These are just a few of the current elements at play that have impacted charitable giving and charities themselves.

At the same time, for the 11th year in a row the number of Canadians giving to a charitable organization decreased in 2023 (The Giving Report 2024, pg 5). This is a significant challenge given the need for services provided by charities is growing at an incredible rate. What’s behind the decrease?

Social Disconnection and Lack of Clarity on Impact

There are a number of factors driving the trend of declining donations from Canadians to charitable organizations. Two significant contributing factors identified by The Giving Report 2024 are social disconnection and potential donors having a lack of clarity on the impact of their donation.

We’re all well aware that we live in a digital age, with a fast-growing population spending increasing amounts of time on digital platforms which niche communities. The pandemic helped to accelerate this change in behaviour, and today we see that more and more Canadians have fewer close friends and spend less time with friends, family and their communities.

This trend towards increased social disconnection is tied to lower rates of charitable giving (The Giving Report 2024, pg 5). “Over the past decade, the number of Canadians with 6 or more close friends has declined by 40%, and just under half of Canadians feel lonely” (The Giving Report 2025, pg 6). There is a correlation here with this increase in isolation and philanthropy: more than 80% of those with a strong social network donate to charitable organizations, almost 30% more than those with few close friends (The Giving Report 2024, pg 6).

Why does social disconnection seem to have an impact on charitable giving? The connection to others and our communities are important ties that bring us into a shared world where we feel the impact of our collective action. This is the idea of the commons in which we all recognize our shared space and the role we all play in our impact and support.

Understanding impact is an important piece for Canadians too. Environmental charitable organizations are increasingly under strain because of a lack of clarity on the impact of donations. People may not clearly see the way their donation is going to positively impact the cause, because the cause itself, the climate and environment, is so large and feels intangible. It also feels out of the realm of their control, even at the donation level. However, there is a positive correlation between strong social connections and fostering environmental donations (The Giving Report 2024, pg 7). The more likely Canadians are to engage in their community and with a social network, the more likely they are to donate to an environmental cause.

Positive Shifts in Charitable Giving

While digital spaces often contribute to social isolation, they do also provide more accessible ways for Canadians to give. The long term trend for online giving is positive, with an increasing percentage of donations coming from online channels in 2023 (The Giving Report 2024, pg 13). The report found that both the number and value of online donations have almost doubled between 2019 and 2023 (pg 13).

The report also found an encouraging trend in monthly giving. With an affordability crisis facing many Canadians, monthly giving might be a more financially feasible option for charitable giving instead of larger sums. And even for those who are feeling the financial pinch, they still give: “almost half of those who say they are financially stretched still donate cash to charities” (The Giving Report 2024, pg 16).

Lastly, and most relevant to today, is the impact of Giving Tuesday. It continues to drive increased support for charitable organizations year after year. It now contributes about 3.5% of all annual giving on the CanadaHelps platform (The Giving Report 2024, pg 16).

Looking Forward and the Importance of Hope

It’s easy to feel discouraged by the news and events in our world today, and this too contributes to a feeling of apathy that may prevent people from donating to a cause or organization. But as simple as it sounds, hope is a powerful tool for both individuals and organizations. The Giving Report 2024 found that hope is closely tied to social connection, and social connection to giving. Of those with many close friends, “58% are at least hopeful for Canada’s future”.

If we want better for ourselves and our communities, hope is a good place to start from. But in the face of the challenges charitable organizations are up against, from affordability, social disconnection, mental health, a strained health care system and the growing impacts of climate change, there is more we can do.

Here are some ways the Giving Report 2024 identifies that Canadians can support charitable organizations important to them (pg 33):

Reconnect with and grow your social network, ideally in person. Combat social isolation and invest your time in your community.
Share and discuss your charitable interests and the causes that are important to you
Volunteer your time
Donate smaller amounts on a regular basis. Consider setting up automatic contributions
Support environmental causes. Climate change is increasingly impacting many facets of our lives, and therefore organizations of all kinds are impacted by climate change making it harder to deliver services many Canadians rely on

For charitable organizations, the path forward might feel like an uphill battle, but the positive trends we’ve highlighted from the Giving Report 2024 are encouraging and signal there is room for improvement. Showcasing the impact of donations is a key area of focus, such as focusing on success stories and the achievements of the organizations driven by donations and support. Focusing on positive messaging can help compel individuals to lean into hope when they choose to give (The Giving Report, pg 33).

Giving on Giving Tuesday & Any Day

Here at Vovia we proudly work with a number of charitable organizations that do incredibly valuable work in the health care, social support, environmental & wildlife conservation, and arts & culture spaces. Consider supporting them on Giving Tuesday or any day of year:

Rachel Cashion