In Depth
Wealth
Bequeathing billions
Charitable giving among the rich and the not so rich
Last Updated September 25, 2006
CBC News
The world's second richest man, investment wizard Warren Buffett, announces in June 2006 plans to give away nearly all of his $50-billion (Cdn) fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help fight HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and the world's richest man, says he's handing off responsibility for running his company so he can devote himself to his foundation as of 2008.
British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson promises to spend up to $3 billion US over the next 10 years tackling global warming. Former media mogul Ted Turner pledges up to $1 billion US to the United Nations Foundation.
Ken Thomson, the recently deceased media baron who was the ninth richest man in the world, was feted as one of Canada's greatest arts philanthropists in 2002, for giving $70 million to the Art Gallery of Ontario, along with his collection of more than 2,000 works.
And Mike Laziridis, co-founder of the Research in Motion technology company, donates $33.3 million to create a centre for quantum-related research at the University of Waterloo.
Such acts of largesse make headlines because of the huge amounts of cash involved. After all, Buffett's pledge more than doubles the size of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to roughly $75 billion (Cdn), more than the gross domestic product of Kuwait.
Charity begins with the poor
A Statistics Canada survey released in June 2006 shows, low-income earners are no slouches when it to comes to charitable donations. In fact, those who earn the least tend to give away the most when measured as a percentage of income.
In 2004, those earning less than $20,000 a year gave away on average 1.7 per cent of their income. Those with household incomes of more than $100,000 gave away an average of 0.5 per cent.
"Isn't it fabulous?" says Lisa Hartford, spokeswoman for Imagine Canada, a non-profit group that sponsors research into philanthropy.
"My personal speculation is someone making less than $20,000 might be more aware of community need."
The survey shows that regardless of your snack bracket, motivation for charitable giving is always the same.
It's all about compassion toward people in need, or wanting to help a particular cause in which one believes.
The Statistics Canada survey, in partnership with Imagine Canada, showed that 85 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and older gave money to a charitable or non-profit organization in 2004.
Altogether, we donated nearly $9 billion, with a typical donation hovering around $120.
Volunteers: few people do the most work
45 per cent of us over the age of 15 volunteered our time, giving a total of two billion hours, an amount equivalent to one million full-time jobs.
But as Hartford points out, the bulk of charitable giving comes from a narrow segment of the population: 21 per cent of Canadians provide 82 per cent of the value of all donations.
When it comes to volunteering, the story is the same. The top one-quarter of volunteers who contributed 180 hours or more accounted for 77 per cent of total volunteer hours.
"There's work to be done," Hartford says. "There are a few of us who are donating the most. More of us have to step up to the plate."
When we do give, the bulk of our donations are to religious organizations, which receive 45 per cent of our charitable dollars. Health organizations place a distant second at 14 per cent, followed by social service organizations at 10 per cent.
Those who give the most tend to be older, to have higher levels of education and income, to be married or widowed and to be religiously active.
The highest rates of volunteerism tend to be among youth, those with higher levels of household income and education, those with school-aged children and those who are religiously active.
And it would appear that most of us give money and time simply because we are asked.
According to the survey, we gave in response to requests through the mail, door-to-door canvassers or someone canvassing for a charitable organization at the mall or on the street.
