Canadian Charities Giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees - 2018

3 min read · May 31, 2021
Sharon Redsky, Wanda Brascoupe, Mark Blumberg and Jessie Lang

Statistics · Foundations · Indigenous Peoples

Using existing Canadian Charities data, the authors are trying to understand whether Indigenous groups are getting about 4.9 percent of funds being granted from Canadian charities based on population.

Even though Indigenous Peoples are about 4.9 percent of the population, Indigenous groups received just over half a percent of gifted funds. As Indigenous people account for 4.9 percent of the Canadian population then Indigenous groups are receiving about 1/10th of the funding that they would receive as a result of population size, even if one ignores issues of need.

Summary

Statistics Canada notes that in the 2016 census, 1,673,785 people identified themselves as 'Aboriginal,’ 'Indigenous,' or 'First Nations, Métis, or Inuit’ people, reflecting approximately 4.9 percent of the population of Canada. In this context, the authors reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2018 to see how many gifts and the value of those gifts were made from Canadian registered charities to “Indigenous Charities” and certain Qualified Donees such as First Nation Governments or ‘Bands’ (listed as “municipal or public body performing a function of government in Canada”). 

(To identify Indigenous Groups, the study reviewed the list with all grants over $30,000; the cut-off for the review is $30,000 as these larger grants are over 28,000 and also encompass about 90 percent of the value of grants made by Canadian charities to qualified donees. If an individual or corporation donates to an Indigenous Group, this would not be reflected in this article as we only have visibility regarding registered charities making gifts to other qualified donees.)

Key findings

• Only 284 out of 28,164 grants over $30,000 were made to Indigenous groups, or just over 1 percent of all major grants made in 2018. 

• There were 7 gifts of $1M and over made to Indigenous groups, and 117 gifts over $100,000 in total. The total amount of these gifts given by Canadian charities (including charitable organizations, public foundations and private foundations) to Indigenous groups was $46,887,535. 

• In 2018, Canadian charities gave slightly over $9.4B in total to other charities and qualified donees. Major grants (grants over $30,000) given by registered charities represent $8.35B, or about 89 percent of the dollars involved. 

• Hence, the $46.8M given to Indigenous groups in 2018 is equivalent to only about half a percent of the total major grants made in 2018. Indigenous groups, therefore, received about $1 for every $178 given to non-Indigenous groups. 

• One foreign university received about 1.5 times more than all Indigenous groups in Canada. Brigham Young University, a registered foreign university and therefore a qualified donee, received about $73M in 2018 from Canadian charities. Eleven non-Indigenous charities received more than all the Indigenous Groups in Canada combined in 2018. One Christian religious private foundation in Cambridge, Ontario, in 2018 received more than twice what all the Indigenous groups in Canada received.

Read more here.

References

Redsky, S., Brascoupe, W., Blumberg, M., & Lang, J. (2021, May 31). Canadian charities giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees - 2018.