A survey of nearly 3,000 Canadian charities finds more than half couldn’t meet demand for help, while nearly a third reported a significant drop in revenue. A worker fills the shelves at a food bank in Montreal, on Wednesday, January 27, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
TORONTO – A survey of nearly 3,000 Canadian charities finds more than half couldn’t meet demand for help, while nearly a third reported a significant drop in revenue.
The sixth edition of the Giving Report points to “severe challenges” in the charitable sector, driven by “unprecedented growth in demand “¦ compounded with inflation and revenue shortfalls.”
The online Nanos poll, commissioned by the donation platform CanadaHelps, surveyed more than 2,900 charity professionals representing 2,800 charities in November 2022.
It found 57 per cent of respondents said they could not keep up with increasing need for help, 40 per cent reported higher levels of demand than before the pandemic and 22 per cent said demand “significantly exceeds” capacity.
After inflation, staff burnout was the second highest concern with nearly 60 per cent of charities surveyed reporting the same number of paid staff despite more service demands.
The report says 15 per cent of charities polled had fewer staff since the pandemic started.
CanadaHelps CEO Duke Chang says many Canadian charities “are beginning to buckle under the strain of increased demand for services and stalled revenues.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2023.
