Charities Face Challenges Post-Pandemic



	Charities Face Challenges Post-Pandemic Brandon Sun “Small World” Column, Monday, May 29 / 23 Zack Gross The voluntary sector and registered charities play a huge role in the lives of our communities across Canada and reach out across the world as well. Whether it’s health-related organizations, disaster response groups, immigrant support societies, food banks or so many other worthy groups, communities would struggle without the efforts of generous citizens donating their money, time and energy. However, the Canada Helps Giving Report for 2022 outlines trends that show the charitable sector to be in jeopardy due to decreasing support just when struggling citizens need them most. A Canada Helps survey determined that 22% of Canadians currently rely on charities for their basic needs, such as food, clothing and housing, that is, more than one in five of us. We hear about the causes of this increased demand every day on the news and when we talk with our neighbours – inflationary prices in essential areas of consumer spending – food, housing, transportation. It seems worse in the large urban centres, but no region is immune to rising prices. The situation is that there is more for charities to deal with, a 40% increase in demand since the pandemic began, but fewer financial and human resources to tackle these major issues. In 2022, based on tax records, about 18% of Canadians made tax deductible donations, but that is a cumulative decrease of 5 percentage points over the preceding ten years. A further 20% of Canadians say that they will further reduce their giving in the coming year. One-third of charities report that they raised fewer funds in 2022 as compared to 2021. 57% of charities say that they can’t meet current demands from the public. Beyond financial concerns, human resources is a growing issue for non-profits. Half of the charities that benefit from Canada Helps report that they are concerned about staff burnout and 55% say that they now have fewer volunteers than pre-pandemic times. As well, salaries are not keeping pace with inflation (they have never been high in the non-profit world), so staffing becomes a revolving door as workers move on, looking for better pay and upward mobility. Another issue is the change in working habits and locations brought on by the pandemic. Many workers learned the personal benefits of working at home, so how to recentalize workplaces is a concern. The world of giving has changed over the past two or three generations. While donations overall have dropped, charities are particularly losing the financial support of older people as they retire to fix incomes or pass away. The donation tradition is not as much a part of the younger generations’ experience. Canadian charities that focus on international aid have also been affected. The past year or two, donations have been generated in relation to the war in Ukraine, a number of climate crisis disasters around the world, and refugee situations. Canadians have opened their hearts and wallets with the influx of Ukrainians into our country. All in all, there is so much for charities to do in a milieu of diminishing support. Smaller charities are most at risk as they often start from a point of meagre resources. What can charities do? Canada Helps has some ideas. Charities need to engage with youth to bring them on board as volunteers, donors and eventually as staff and leaders. This was often done in the past as a token effort, but needs to be rethought. Charities also need to rebuild their volunteer corps and this will mean finding out how volunteers want to be used, what the new reality is for volunteerism. Charities need to address issues with staff such as working styles, burnout, salaries and internal opportunities within each organization. Charities need to embrace new technologies that will enable them to educate citizens, promote their programs and raise funds in professional and efficient ways. I would add to this list that charities need to find new ways to engage with government, business and unions to be able to make their case for support while recruiting these sectors to become willing and active partners in the fight again poverty, climate change and the other challenges that plague our society. A number of years ago, Manitobans concerned about the state of the non-profit and charitable sector posed the question: What would life be like for people in our province without charitable, non-profit organizations? Think of the ways these groups touch our lives every day in the form of service clubs, food banks, human rights and environmental groups, seniors associations, cultural and arts groups, and so many more. They need to find new ways of maintaining their work and we need to continue to support their efforts. Zack Gross is Board Chair of The Marquis Project, a Brandon-based international development organization, and co-author of the new book The Fair Trade Handbook: Building a Better World, Together. * * * * * Return to Articles page