Description

There are many options available to Charities when considering how to fundraise, and Charities are not restricted in the number of ways they fundraise. This report presents an analysis of the fundraising methods used by Canada’s Charities.

We begin by presenting the various options for fundraising with a commentary on each of their strengths and weaknesses. We look at regulatory filing reports by the Charities to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) from 2016 to 2020 (the most recent complete filing period) to see which fundraising options are most popular, efficient, and effective. This analysis is presented by Category of Charity and for the overall Charitable sector. We also present many new methods of fundraising that have recently been introduced and are gaining in use.

We provide analytical insights through the following studies:

• The percentage of Charities which report using a fundraising method to fund their operations.
• The number of Charities reporting the use of each method of fundraising for each of the five years from 2016 to 2020.
• The percentage of each method of fundraising used by the Charitable sector for 2016 and 2020.
• The number of charities using multiple methods of fundraising.
• The percentage of charities using multiple methods of fundraising.
• The Top 3 most popular methods of fundraising used in the Charitable sector for 2016 and 2020.
• The Top 3 most popular methods of fundraising for each Charity Category for 2016 and 2020.
• Fundraising methods used Large Charities (those with more than $1 million in Total Revenue) compared to Small Charities.
• The growth or decline in the use of each method of fundraising from 2016 to 2020.
• The Total Donations raised by each method of fundraising in 2020.
• The Total Donations raised by each method of fundraising by the number of charities using the method of fundraising in 2020.
• The Total Donations raised relative to Total Expended on Fundraising for each method of fundraising in 2020.