In 2017, the team at CanadaHelps published the first annual edition of The Giving Report, created to help Canadians better understand the charitable sector and the enormous role charities play in all of our lives. Our hope was to inspire people to engage more, give more, and generally be more interested in the future of charities in Canada. While we continue to publish the report for all Canadians, we quickly learned the benefits of the report for our charity audience.

Simply put, this year’s report is a must-read for all charitable organizations. After a year marked by rapid inflation, on the heels of a disruptive global pandemic, we knew that—in addition to looking at how Canadians give and the implications for charities—we needed to go deeper.

Almost 3,000 large and small charities, from coast to coast to coast, participated in our study, allowing us to present an authoritative look at the state of the charitable sector.

Key findings from The Giving Report 2023 include these alarming insights:

● 40% of charities have experienced a lasting increase in demand since the pandemic.
● 57% of charities cannot meet current levels of demand.
● 8 in 10 charities report that inflation has impacted their service delivery costs.
● 51% of charities are highly concerned about staff burnout.
● Staff burnout is the second-highest concern of 24 issues surveyed.
● 55% of charities have fewer volunteers than before the pandemic.

These alarming trends support the report’s urgent call to action for the government, corporations, and Canadians to take action.

But what can we do as charities?

Here are the five most impactful actions charities can take in these uncertain times.

Focus on understanding donors: Supporting a charity is an incredibly personal experience. We need to challenge ourselves to build authentic connections with our supporters who share our goals and passion for change. How can we make donating a meaningful experience, not just an action? How can we apply our core values of empathy to our donors, as we do so well for our beneficiaries? How can we help donors feel and see the impact they are creating—knowing they are not alone, but rather, a part of a group of like-minded changemakers?

Create youth engagement and donation opportunities: Half of all Canadian charities said they were unhappy with the engagement they had from youth (18-30 years) this year. The report details the 30-year decline in the percentage of Canadians that are giving and shows how total donation levels have been upheld by a smaller group of aging donors. Engaging younger Canadians is key to future sustainability. It’s time to connect with younger Canadians who will fuel our missions and social change in the future.

Rebuild your value proposition for volunteers: Volunteers are at the very heart of the Canadian charitable sector, however, they are frequently overlooked and overworked. More time will need to be invested into attracting and retaining volunteers, more resources will need to go into safeguarding against burnout. Strengthening our volunteer programs starts with understanding what motivates your volunteers, what keeps them engaged, what prevents them from investing more hours or recruiting others, and what leads them to feel burnout and step away.

Invest in capacity and thoughtfully address staff burnout: We need to start seeing our staff’s mental well-being as a critical key performance indicator. Ensuring that staff capacity accurately reflects organizational workload will likely require more funding, but could ultimately be your most important step to ensuring organizational success. Meaningful conversations with funders will be needed, ensuring that they see a clear link between investing in capacity and the program delivery results they care deeply about.

Take a holistic approach to digital transformation: The harsh reality is that donor expectations are set based on the experience they receive from the Amazon’s and Netflix’s of the world but digital transformation goes far beyond donor engagement and fundraising. It's about how we leverage digital to create mission-driven change faster; creating efficiency, measuring our effectiveness, and innovating service delivery. Digital transformation can be overwhelming, but know that focusing on it is necessary for your charity’s longevity. The Charity Growth Academy is a new initiative designed to help smaller organizations in this area.

Read the full report and get an in-depth look at the insights unfolded by data as well as a more comprehensive discussion on recommendations for charities.

Duke Chang is the President and Chief Executive Officer at CanadaHelps, a leader in providing powerful fundraising and donation technology to charities and donors since 2000.