Finances and Lack Of Confidence Prevent Many Millennials From Donating To Charity

VANCOUVER, December , 2017 — The third instalment of a four-part independent study was released today by the Angus Reid Institute (ARI) and CHIMP (Charitable + Impact) to gain an unbiased understanding of the charitable-giving landscape in Canada. The focus of the third study is the giving behaviour of millennials, and how it compares to the rest of Canadians. The study finds that millennials feel under-served by the charitable landscape in Canada.

Overall, millennials are more trusting of charities than their parents’ generation. The 18-34 year-old group is more likely to agree that charities can be trusted with the money donors give to them, while they are more likely to disagree that charities waste too much money on things like salaries, administrative costs, and fundraising. However, more so than people 35-years-or-older, millennials express feeling a lack of control over where their donations are going, and that their money is not going towards causes they care most about.

Financial constraints pose a barrier to giving more to charity for many in the 18-34 age group. 94% of this group who say they should do more to support charitable causes report financial concerns as a mitigating factor. This is not the only consideration stopping them from opening their wallets, however. The study shows that 58% of millennials say they would give more to charitable causes if they could find the perfect cause for them, while 54% report they would give more if they were approached by charities and causes in a different manner, which will be imperative to growing charitable contributions in Canada, as this group represents approximately a quarter of the country’s population.

“This study shows that, while financial considerations are a factor for some millennials in not giving more to charity, there is a group of young, educated, high-earning millennials among those who say they could be giving more,” said Shachi Kurl, Executive Director of the Angus Reid Institute. “Millennials are approaching giving differently than their parents’ generation, which requires charities to adjust their tactics and engage them in new ways, such as social media and other digital channels.”

More so than older generations, the 18-34 group’s approach to giving goes beyond just monetary donations. While they are less likely than Canadians 35-years-or-older to donate money, they more often volunteer as a means of giving. When monetary and volunteer donations are taken into account, Canadians aged 18-34 are just as likely to give as the generations that preceded them.

Millennials are more likely than people 35-years-or-older to support charitable causes through social media by engaging with content, through liking or sharing. They’re also 50% more likely than other age groups in Canada to have responded to a request for donation through a social media platform.

In the first part of the four-part series of studies, CHIMP and ARI found that one of the most responded-to forms of donation request was from a friend or family member. Being that social media are individually-curated networks of trusted peers (family, friends, and acquaintances), it should come as no surprise that places like Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms appear conducive to helping charitable causes more easily reach the attention of their audience.

“Technology is evolving our relationship with everything, from how we shop, to how we drive — so, why not how we give?” said John Bromley, CEO & Founder of CHIMP. “Millennials are telling us that they trust charity and want to do more to make change in the world. Our work at CHIMP is about building the tools for Canadians to support the causes they want, in the manner they want, with the end goal of developing a generation of engaged and empowered donors. Millennials are more likely than any other generation to make this happen.”

For more information or to secure an individual or joint interview with John Bromley and Shachi Kurl, please contact Kathleen Reid at [email protected] or 604-724-1242.

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About CHIMP:

CHIMP (Charitable + Impact) is an online giving platform for Canadians that makes it easy to support any charity in Canada, raise money with others, and track impact over time. CHIMP has helped over 90,000 Canadians donate close to $250 million to 1000s of charities nationwide.

About Angus Reid Institute:

The Angus Reid Institute (ARI) was founded in October 2014 by pollster and sociologist, Dr. Angus Reid. ARI is a national, not-for-profit, non-partisan public opinion research foundation established to advance education by commissioning, conducting and disseminating to the public accessible and impartial statistical data, research and policy analysis on economics, political science, philanthropy, public administration, domestic and international affairs and other socio-economic issues of importance to Canada and its world.