MEREDITH: Canada’s muscle of charitable giving is weak and increasingly unequal. How we can change that and build Canada Strong.
Canada's charitable sector is becoming more dependent on fewer donors, more detached from communities, and more exposed to the political risks that come with concentrated wealth. It is time to take on the mission of national unity the Prime Minister has given us and build a stronger Canada.
Key takeaways:
- Canada’s charitable sector is shrinking in breadth, not dollars: total donations have grown to $13 billion, but the share of Canadians giving has collapsed from 25% of tax filers in 2005 to 16.8% in 2023, with the top 2% of earners now accounting for 43% of all donation dollars — a concentration that leaves charities structurally dependent on a narrow donor base and increasingly disconnected from the communities they serve.
- This concentration poses a political risk the sector has not fully reckoned with: as governments on both the left (Canada’s AMT changes) and the right (Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill) look to tax expenditures for fiscal relief, a system that delivers most of its subsidy value to the top 2% of earners is increasingly difficult to defend and politically exposed to reform.
- Canada should look to the United Kingdom’s Gift Aid model — particularly the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, which delivers a 25% government top-up on small donations with no tax filing required — as a template for broadening civic giving from the bottom up. A Canadian equivalent targeted at the 17.4 million filers earning under $50,000 could be implemented for an estimated $300–350 million annually and would fundamentally reorient the sector toward community connection rather than elite philanthropy.
