How the Sector Should Be Funded
As in previous surveys, there is no consensus about whether the government should allocate more money to non-profit and charitable organizations. Three in ten support allocating more money (either by allocating less to other areas (25%) or increasing taxes (6%), while half as many believe the government should allocate less (14%), and four in ten support the status quo.
Cause-based donations through taxes are also of interest to some: about one in three (32%) agree (7% strongly/26% somewhat) they would prefer to fund social issues through their taxes than by giving money to charities in future, rising to 44% among Millennials.
The survey suggests that significant amounts of external funding could work against charities as far as public donations are concerned. Two in three Canadians (64%) agree (17% strongly/47% somewhat) that in the future, they will be less inclined to give to charities that receive corporate sponsorships and more inclined to give to smaller ones that don’t receive large sponsorships.
Similarly, more than half (55%) agree (14% strongly/40% somewhat) they will be much more hesitant to donate to charities that receive relatively large funding from government, rising to 76% among those who think government should allocate less money to charities.
A majority continue to see a role for municipal funding of charities, though many disagree: nearly half (49%) say (11% strongly/38% somewhat) they can see a time when municipalities no longer spend public funds on things that charities manage, like homeless shelters or food banks.
Meanwhile, four in ten (42%) – rising to 71% among Canadians who say government should allocate less money to charities – think (11% strongly/32% somewhat) it’s appropriate for municipalities to reduce their spending in areas like homeless shelters that are already partly funded and managed by charitable organizations.
About the Study
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between October 10 and October 17, 2017, on behalf of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. For this survey, a sample of 1,500 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.
