By Vivian Moreau
Last year in the days leading up to Christmas, the Salvation
Army’s nine donation kettles in the Squamish and Whistler area were only
one-quarter of the way toward the $10,000 goal.
But in the final days before Dec. 25 the kettles placed near
entrances to shopping malls and food stores filled up with donations.
This year there hasn’t been the same delay. Salvation Army spokesperson
John Murray says there are a number of reasons for the increased early giving.
“The tenor of the donor fatigue that perhaps we were seeing
last year due to some significant world disasters has started to dissipate,”
Murray said, “and people are remembering and have an opportunity to remember
their own communities.”
The Whistler Arts Council has noticed that same trend.
“It’s been a really great year in terms of participation from
the local business community,” said Doti Niedermayer, executive director of the
arts council. This year the Whistler Arts Council received almost $200,000 from
federal and local grants
to its
endowment fund
.
A conditional
donation has also been pledged by a commercial property owner for a further
$100,000.
The arts council, which organizes arts events for Whistler like
the children’s festival, art walk, summer art workshops and street
entertainment, has shifted strategies. Rather than constantly approaching local
businesses for donations the council is looking to cultivate funding
“partners,” corporations who have similar audiences, like Crayola or Lego, or,
like Telus, already have a vested interest in the community.
It’s a move the Lower Mainland’s United Way has also been
working towards. Traditionally the United Way has targeted individuals through
at-work campaigns but the organization that gathers donations for distribution
to dozens of charitable organizations has altered its focus, appealing to a
smaller group of donors who can contribute larger amounts of money.
It’s a trend borne out by recently published Statistics Canada
data that show numbers of donors increased by less than one per cent in 2004
but total donations increased — an indication that those who give are
giving more.
Canadians last year donated more than $7.5 billion to charity,
up 14 per cent from the previous year. According to Statistics Canada, the
median Canadian donation for tax filers reporting donations was $240, up from
$230 in 2004. On a per capita basis, Nunavut continued a six-year lead giving
the most of provinces and territories with a median donation of $400.
More than one-quarter of all British Columbians claimed
donations, with the average median donation being $300, up 13.1 per cent over
the previous year. Whistler tax-filers had a median of $200 in charitable
donations. Abbotsford reported the highest median donation of any community in
Canada, at $560. But there was only a 1.5 per cent increase in number of donors
in British Columbia last year.
United Way’s Lower Mainland CEO hopes to change that
percentage. Michael McKnight says the organization is looking to cultivate
life-long philanthropists by targeting donors at a younger age “who, when they
can, give small amounts but can give larger amounts later in life.”
That’s what the Community Foundation of Whistler’s recently
re-launched Whistler Youth Foundation is doing. With Rebecca Ford as the adult
supervisor of the WYF, a board of local teens is deciding which youth programs
are worthy of grant money.
The WYF is accepting applications until Jan. 8 for grants of up
to $500. The WYF board will review all applications from organizations with
charitable status, or that are supported by another organization with
charitable status.
Michelle McKenzie of the capital city’s Victoria Foundation
says 70 Victoria high school students are also learning from that foundation
how to be philanthropists.
The foundation provides $3,000 in seed money to six high school
advisory councils in Greater Victoria to take on charitable causes of their
choice. In addition to starting endowment funds with one-quarter of the funds
and learning about grant making, one group of students from Oak Bay High School
took on their own project this Christmas, providing personal care packages to
the city’s 2,000-plus homeless.
The Oak Bay team initially approached downtown Victoria’s Best
Western hotel for donations of shampoo, soaps, etc. and then assembled them
into 500 kits. But then the students issued a challenge to other Victoria
hotels. Hotels like the Fairmont Empress took up the challenge, donating six
boxes of supplies and a stack of blankets that students are now busy assembling
in preparation for delivery to a street outreach society and a street shelter
this week.
McKenzie says the teens are an example of a more socially aware
generation.
“They’re thinking about things at 15 and 16 that most of us
probably didn’t think about until we were well into our 20s and 30s,” McKenzie
said.
“With the Internet… it’s so
easy for them to find out and hear what’s going wrong or what kind of things
could help build a better community. They realize that one person can actually
make a difference and they take all that energy that they have at that age and
just go gangbusters.”
The publisher of a new magazine dedicated to doing good says
“good is really getting sexy.” Ben Goldhirsh, 26, in an interview with
Wired
magazine, says
Good
magazine markets philanthropy as cool and the
message is one young people want to hear.
“I don’t care about what fashion to wear or how to get six-pack
abs,” Goldhirsh said. “We think there’s a giant audience out there with this
sensibility that really wants content that matters but wants it framed in a way
that caters to their life.”
With high profile foundations formed by Bill Gates and Bill
Clinton and consistent work being done by stars like Angelina Jolie doing good
has dropped its nerdy image and is now perceived as something with which to
aspire, Goldhirsh says.
Salvation Army’s John Murray said for the second year the
organization has teamed up with Vancouver’s The Beat 94.5, the number one radio
station targeted to the 18-34 demographic, for a Christmas toy drive. As a
result this year was the most successful toy drive they’d ever had in B.C.,
raising more than $15,000 and 5,300 toys for the Lower Mainland Salvation Army.
But Victoria Foundation’s McKenzie says kids are attracted to
philanthropy for more than the cool factor.
“They learn how they can make a difference — not just
with a cheque book but with their time and talents.”
The Salvation Army says last year’s hesitation to donate to
their kettles isn’t occurring this year.
“I’m always cautiously optimistic that British Columbians will step up and will really support the work of the Salvation Army,” Murray said, “because at the end of the day we’re about people and helping people in the communities in which we serve.”
