Charities hope for the best in turbulent times
By Diana McLaren • Bankrate.com

Imagine Canada's national Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating showed that 85 percent of Canadians provide some form of financial support to nonprofits -- a far cry from the 24 percent reported on tax returns and reflected in the Statistics Canada study.

Predictions difficult
Offord says his firm ran a survey in October of almost 2,000 Canadians asking about their charitable intentions for this year. "It showed us that 13 percent of Canadians were planning to give more, 53 percent were going to give the same and 26 percent were planning to give less."

He adds, "charities have traditionally weathered recessions better than most sectors of the economy. There has been almost no correlation between giving and recessions in the last 30 years, but predicting the future is difficult."

The Offord Group's research suggests that "donors are choosing to support fewer organizations rather than respond to every request that comes through the door," says Nicholas Offord. "They want an ongoing relationship with an organization." At the same time, they "understand that they have to make an impact with larger gifts." In other words, donors are looking to give more and expect more in return.

Donor accountability
According to a recently released report, Talking About Charities 2008 conducted by Ipsos Reid for the Edmonton-based Muttart Foundation, "charities continue to enjoy high levels of trust but need to be better at telling Canadians how they operate." It found that 30 percent of Canadians "weren't sure where the money is really going" and only 29 percent believe charities are doing an excellent or good job of reporting information on how they use donations.

According to the Donor Bill of Rights available from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, donors should expect detailed information about the organization itself and how the money will be used.

In a competitive market for donations, coupled with tough economic times ahead, charities need to provide more than a tax receipt to turn good works into hard cash.

Diana McLaren is a writer living in Toronto.