A sector holding steady on fewer shoulders
Just over a year ago, Statistics Canada released Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023, drawing on the 2023 Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating. After a long stretch of relative stability – from 2004 to 2013, participation and giving barely moved – the report captures a far more turbulent period, shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, and labour shortages, that saw a marked decline in both volunteering and the number of donors.
The headline numbers all point the same way. The overall volunteer rate fell from 79 per cent in 2018 to 73 per cent in 2023, and total volunteer hours dropped 18 per cent, from 5.0 billion to 4.1 billion. Formal volunteering saw the sharpest pullback, with the rate falling from 41 to 32 per cent. The declines were not evenly shared: women, adults aged 25 to 34, and people with less than a high-school diploma saw the steepest drops. Giving followed a similar pattern – the share of Canadians who donated fell from 68 to 54 per cent, a decline that coincided with the rising cost of living.
And yet the total dollars held. Canadians gave $13.4 billion in 2023, virtually unchanged from $14.0 billion (in 2023 dollars) in 2018. The reason is worth sitting with: a small, deeply committed core carried the load. The top 10 per cent of volunteers accounted for 61 per cent of all hours, and the top 10 per cent of donors gave $9.5 billion – 71 per cent of the total. The sector’s output looks stable on paper, but it is resting on fewer and fewer shoulders.
You can read the full StatsCan report here: Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023
To revisit these findings, the Canadian Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering has prepared a short companion document highlighting the key insights.
