Perspectives on Philanthropy and Local Giving Trends from Erin Peden, CFCAB Executive Director
As we close out the year, I have been thinking a great deal about what generosity looks like in 2025 and what it reveals about who we are as communities. Earlier this year, CanadaHelps released its Giving Report 2025, covering trends from 2018 to 2024. Revisiting it now, with a full year behind us, brings its findings into sharper focus. Reports like this do not simply capture numbers, they hold up a mirror to how we, as citizens and neighbours, choose to show up for one another.
Some of the national trends were hard to ignore. CanadaHelps noted that the percentage of tax filers claiming donations has dropped steadily from 25.1 percent in 2006 to 17.4 percent in 2021, and that the long-term decline in the overall donor base continues. Younger generations are giving less often, even as older Canadians and high-income earners account for a growing share of total donations.
Yet, reading the report again at year’s end, I am reminded that data rarely tells a single story because alongside the challenges, something remarkable has been happening.
One of the most significant shifts highlighted in the report is the rise of local and regional giving. Donations to community-based charities processed through CanadaHelps more than tripled between 2018 and 2024, climbing from 34 million dollars to 107 million dollars. Last year, for the first time, local causes surpassed health as the top online giving category in the country.
This change toward proximity and place-based generosity resonates deeply with what we see every day here in Central Alberta.
Since 2020, the Community Foundation of Central Alberta has received $10.5 million in charitable donations. Of that, $5.2 million went directly to local charities to meet immediate, pressing needs – needs that span everything from housing to food insecurity to emergency response. The remaining amount was permanently endowed, forming a legacy of generosity that will support our region’s future in perpetuity.
This balance between “now” and “later” says something important about who we are. It says we have donors who want to see their dollars at work today supporting vulnerable families, strengthening mental health resources, and building community resilience. We also have donors who are planning for tomorrow by creating endowments that give grassroots organizations stability, independence, and protection from the unpredictability of short-term funding cycles.
One trend we’re especially proud of is the community’s deep investment in education. Between 2020 and 2025, $1.6 million of local donations were earmarked for scholarships and bursaries, opening doors for students across Central Alberta. At the same time, 3.7% of endowed gifts during that period were directed specifically toward youth mental health initiatives which demonstrates a powerful vote of confidence in the next generation and a recognition of the challenges they face.
But the report also issued a needed call to action. Equity deserving communities, particularly Indigenous, Black, and racialized led organizations, continue to be underfunded nationally. Despite a 416 percent increase in donations to Indigenous focused charities between 2018 and 2024, giving still represents less than one percent of all donations on the CanadaHelps platform. We have work to do in ensuring that philanthropy is not only generous, but just.
Year end reflection tends to invite both realism and hope. The national landscape of giving is shifting, sometimes unevenly. But here in Central Alberta, I see a community leaning into generosity with intention.
I see donors who treat giving like planting, with some seeds for today and some for tomorrow. I see students who are thriving because someone believed in them. I see charities strengthening the social infrastructure that makes our region resilient, and I see neighbours choosing to invest in the place we all call home.
Giving isn’t just charitable, its strategic and catalytic and it’s happening everyday, right here.
