The Humboldt District Hospital Foundation has seen donations going up. (Facebook/Humboldt District Hospital Foundation)

By Doug Lett

charitable giving on upswing

Charities see donations see-saw

Mar 23, 2023 | 8:00 AM

A recent study by Statistics Canada found charitable giving is dropping around the country, including Saskatchewan.

In 2021, the study found 17.3 per cent of people in Saskatchewan donated to charity. That’s a little lower than the national average of 17.7 per cent, and a slight drop from the year before.

But a variety of charities contacted by northeastNOW said they are seeing donations going up— although several say the upswing is recent.

“Food boxes at Christmas were just amazing,” said Joy Hanson, Executive Director of the Nipawin Oasis, which provides “wrap-around” services for those in need. “We’re seeing an increase…I find people have really rallied around us as a community,” she said.

The Humboldt District Hospital Foundation (HDHF) said even during the pandemic, its donations and fundraising continued to go up. The HDHF helps pay for hospital equipment and other services.

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“We communicate with our public, with our district, so much,” said Executive Director Lorrie Bunko. “We are constantly telling them what is needed, what it does and why we need it.”

Bunko added the foundation is in a unique position because people want good health care.

“People want to support their health care facility so they can stay close to home,” she said. “They don’t want to drive to urban centres if they don’t have to.”

Even charities that struggled during the pandemic are hoping for better days.

“Fundraising in 2022 was horrendous,” said Bill Wood, who does communications for the North East SPCA. “This year…we expect that the fundraising is going to be far better,” he said.

Bunko said one of the challenges is that many fundraising events were community events.

“A lot of people had events that brought people together. And we couldn’t do that during that time…so many charities are having to play catch up right now,” she said.

She added the HDHF’s stability has not happened overnight.

“We have a very, very faithful donor base. And that’s expanded, that’s grown. But this has taken a lot of years to get us to where we are today.”

While Nipawin Oasis does get some funding from the federal and provincial governments to cover basic expenses like rent, all of their donations go directly to clients. And Hanson believes that’s one of the reasons donations are rising.

“I think for us people are seeing the work we do. They see the need in the community,” she said, adding many of their donations end up helping feed people.

“Food has become such a huge need,” she said.

The StatCan study found Saskatchewan people are in the middle of the pack when it comes to charitable giving. This province ranks sixth per capita. Manitoba occupies the number one spot at 19.7 per cent of tax filers giving to charity.

And while Saskatchewan’s population has been going up, the number of people donating to charity has been going down— from 166,980 in 2017 to 143,210 in 2021.

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doug.lett@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @DougLettSK