What is Giving Compass?
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Giving Compass' Take:
• The Fraser Institute breaks down generosity in Canada and the United States in 2019 by province and state.
• How do generosity trends inform understanding of economic and social factors of different areas? How can funders encourage generosity?
• Read about nudges to encourage donors to give more.
Key Findings:
- Manitoba had the highest percentage of tax filers that donated to charity among the provinces (23.4%) during the 2017 tax year while New Brunswick and Newfoundland & Labrador had the lowest (17.9%). Manitoba also donated the highest percentage of its aggregate income to charity among the provinces (0.80%) while Quebec donated the lowest (0.24%).
- The general trend in recent years is that a declining percentage of Canadian tax filers are donating to charity and they are donating less as a percentage of income.
- Nationwide, a lower percentage of tax filers donated to charity in Canada (19.9%) than in the United States (24.9%). Similarly, Canadians (at 0.54%) gave a lower percentage of their aggregate income to charity than did Americans (at 1.52%).
- The percentage of tax filers donating to charity varies significantly among US states and Canadian provinces and territories. On this indicator, Manitoba is the only Canadian jurisdiction that ranks among the top 30 (ranked 26th out of 64).
- The percentage of aggregate income donated was generally less in the Canadian provinces and territories than in the US states. There was only one US state (West Virginia) where the percentage of aggregate income donated was less than the percentage donated in Manitoba (0.80%), Canada’s highest ranked province.
- US jurisdictions top the overall Generosity Index rankings. Utah places first (scoring 8.8 out of 10.0), followed by Maryland (7.7) and Georgia (7.5). Manitoba is the highest-scoring Canadian province (3.6) but ranks only 44th overall out of 64 North American jurisdictions.
The Generosity Index measures private monetary generosity using two key indicators. The percentage of tax filers donating to charity indicates the extent of generosity, while the percentage of aggregate personal income donated to charity indicates the depth of charitable giving.2 Though not used to calculate the Generosity Index scores, the average dollar value of charitable donations given in a year provides additional information on the level of private generosity in each jurisdiction.