The Giving Gap: What stops Canadians from donating more to charitable organizations?

ihiveLIVE ‘s sharing platform and business model provides cash to individuals so that they can donate to their favourite charity or cause.  And by all accounts, one of the biggest barriers to more people giving to charity , or giving more, is not having the money to do so in the first place.  There is plenty of evidence to support ihiveLIVE’s strategy.  Below are excerpts from an article published online by the Angus Reid Institute on December 28, 2017.

  The Giving Gap – Do Canadians feel they give enough?

Nearly one-in-three Canadians (30%) – the equivalent of more than eight million adults – say they feel they should be donating more to charity. That said, the majority are comfortable with their current level of charitable giving, and very few say they are spending too much, as seen in the following graph:

Drivers of donation deficits

Financial concerns top the list of reasons Canadians offer for giving less than they would like to charity. Half of those who say they would like to be doing more cite their finances as “the whole reason” that they are not doing so. This concern is particularly pronounced among lower income households, which, of course, have less money to give.

That said, previous research has indicated that while they are unable to give as much in a raw dollar amount, lower-income individuals are often more generous with their money – in terms of the percentage they donate – than wealthier people.

Expressed as a portion of the total population, the number of Canadians who feel they should be donating more, but can’t afford to do so, is roughly one-in-six (15%). This equates for more than four million people who would like to be more charitable, but feel they can’t for financial reasons.