Stats Canada posted some data in 2009 that confirmed my guess that Canadians are charitable when they donate to charities (one of the reasons I love living in this country).
The statistics show that there is a core of about 25% of folks who give most of the money, but also the most time to these charities, but on a whole, Canadians still are very charitable folks (when they can).
Canadians donated a total of $10.0 billion in 2007, up from $8.9 billion in 2004. In 2007, the average donation was $437, compared with $400 in 2004. These increases were not adjusted for inflation.
The total amount of time volunteered through groups and organizations amounted to about 2.1 billion hours, which was equal to almost 1.1 million full-time jobs. On average, volunteers contributed 166 hours each.
Volunteering your time can be just as valuable to any organization. I give money to some charities and I give my time to organizations that want my help (and talents) as best I can. Most of the time I have so much fun, I think I am the one getting the most out of the time.
Where does our time and money go?
This graph lines up pretty much how I give. Most of my monetary donations are to my Church because my time is given to Recreation activities.
More Interesting: Start Young
According to the survey, people were more likely to volunteer and donate to charities or non-profit organizations later in life if they had participated in a range of community or youth activities during their primary or secondary schooling.
These activities included participating in student government, a religious organization, a youth group such as girl guides or scouts, or an organized team sport.
This data is very useful, and topical for me, as my wife did a talk on the youth stewardship program at our Church and made that exact same point. You need to get kids and teens to understand WHY they should give, and that giving their talents (not just money) is an incredible gift they can give their community. Simply forcing kids to give won’t teach them the importance of the gift (and more likely those kids won’t give later in life either), get them to understand why, and they will gladly give when they are adults.
Giving back is a lifelong endeavor. We can all find ways to give back to the communities in which we live. Great article. Thanks.