National data shows that Canadian volunteering and charitable giving both declined significantly between 2018 and 2023. The Canadian Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering has analyzed Statistics Canada’s 2023 Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating and turned it into an actionable report for the sector.
Every major measure went down. The donor rate fell from 68% to 54%. The formal volunteer rate dropped from 41% to 32%. Total volunteer hours shrank by 900 million, a loss that, priced at the average Canadian wage, represents roughly $29.7 billion in unreplaced civic labour.
But the headline numbers only tell part of the story.
Total donations barely moved, down just 4.3% in real terms, which might look like resilience. It isn’t. Canada’s population grew by 2.7 million people over that period, and the donor base shrank by roughly the same number. The math cancelled out. What held donation totals stable wasn’t broad generosity. It was a smaller group of donors giving more. Average gift rose 11%, from $696 to $770. That’s concentration risk, not health.
The volunteer picture mirrors it exactly. 61% of all volunteer hours are held by just 10% of volunteers. That ratio hasn’t changed since 2018. The pool just got smaller.
And the pipeline is thinning. The 25-34 cohort reduced their formal volunteer hours by 42%. Their donor rate dropped nearly 19 percentage points. These are the future major donors, board members, and advocates the sector depends on. The data suggests they’re disengaging before they’ve fully engaged.
Two Declines, One Story connects these threads and draws out what they mean for fundraisers and volunteer managers alike. It makes the case that these aren’t two separate organizational problems. They’re one structural shift, and the sector needs to respond to it as such.
If you work in fundraising, volunteer engagement, or nonprofit leadership, this report is worth your time. Download it and see what the data is telling us.
Two Declines, One Story is published by the Canadian Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering in partnership with Volunteer Canada. Data sourced from Statistics Canada’s SGVP 2023 and GSS-GVP 2018, released November 21, 2025.
