Canada’s charitable giving landscape continues to evolve, with fewer donors accounting for a growing share of donations and new giving methods becoming increasingly important. For nonprofit fundraisers, these shifts raise important questions. 

In a recent episode of CharityVillage Connects, The Future of Fundraising: Digital Giving, AI, Securities & Legacy Gifts, we spoke with Julie Fiorini, General Manager, Donor Services and Brand Marketing at CanadaHelps. Drawing on findings from the latest CanadaHelps Giving Report, Julie shared what the data reveals about donor participation, the growth of monthly and securities giving, the causes attracting support, and the steps charities can take to prepare for the year ahead. 

We asked Julie about what fundraising trends are key, according to this year’s Giving Report findings. 

Julie Fiorini: Yes, so as I mentioned, while we have seen online donor participation on CanadaHelps rise by about 1% in 2025, that growth is still very concentrated among a very narrow group of donors, which are mainly older and higher net worth individuals. And I would say that that’s definitely a trouble spot.  

We’ve referred to it in the past as the Giving Gap, where we need to do a much better job engaging younger households in the whole philanthropic journey, trying to improve generosity. And so then the other trouble spots are inevitably smaller dollar giving continues to decline, which points to a weakening pipeline of future donors. 

Where we’re seeing the most growth, as I mentioned, is with gifts of securities, where those who have the means and who have the desire, if you want to put it that way, to reduce their taxable burden or their capital gains, they want to give directly to charity and realize those gains and the tax benefits. 

Overall, though, at CanadaHelps we’d really love to see broader participation in charitable giving. Everyone has the capacity to be generous in big ways and small, and we recognize that not everyone’s able to make financial donations at the level that wealthier individuals can. But in whatever ways that is most meaningful to each individual, we really want to encourage that generosity as much as possible. 

Julie explained how online giving isn’t just growing; it’s shifting. 

Julie Fiorini: Yes, so what we are seeing at CanadaHelps is that online giving is not just growing. We would classify it as shifting. The emerging signals would indicate that there are deeper relationships forging with individuals and charities, which is absolutely the path for charities to take. Like giving is so personal that it is very much relationship-based. Understanding that those who do give are very loyal to the charities that they’re supporting is not a surprise.  

And these new pathways to things like monthly or recurring gifts, as well as securities giving, would indicate that there are folks out there who want to make an impact and clearly they are feeling like they can do so by giving to charities that can almost prove the impact that they make with that monthly gift, that sustainable revenue that can really enable them to drive forward their missions and their programs and services.  

Just to summarize that, I would say the pattern is that there’s a shifting of behaviour happening. 

What causes are donors supporting? Julie gave us some high-level insights from the report. 

Julie Fiorini: When we looked at data from calendar year 2025, we found that local and regional charities, health organizations, and educational charities combined, so those three categories of charitable giving, accounted for roughly 60% of all donations processed on CanadaHelps in 2025.  

And of those three categories, local and regional organizations remains the largest cause area, which shows that donors really continue to prioritize impact in their communities close to home. In fact, donations reached over 121 million in 2025 for local and regional organizations, growing roughly 11% over the previous year. 

And just to drill into some of those stats further, what we found too, because we get this question a lot, how are environmental charities, for example, doing? There was actually a notable increase in 2025 as well, a 13% increase in funding for both environment and animal-related causes, which again, signals that climate change remains a top-of-mind issue, especially for younger donors.  

And the other interesting cause area that we saw growth in was arts and culture. This sector saw a very healthy 12% growth, which to us really indicates a return to supporting community vibrancy and more shared in-person experiences.  

And then the last point I’ll make here is that Indigenous-focused charities really remains the smallest category on Canada Helps, receiving roughly $4 million total in donations in 2025, although that does represent a modest growth of about 7% over the previous year. 

What message does the report have for fundraisers? 

Julie Fiorini: I would say one of the main messages is really think about how to diversify how you’re engaging donors. The days of relying on the annual one-time gifts are over. Quite frankly, you need to think about investing in more longer-term methods of giving, such as converting one-time donors into monthly donors and/or, if they have the financial means, converting them into securities donors as well.  

And with securities in particular, as I mentioned, CanadaHelps can enable that in a very simple way, even something as simple as integrating a digital form on your charity’s website, which would enable them to receive gifts of securities right away. At the same time, help educate donors on how giving directly to charity through gifts of securities will really help them eliminate capital gains tax and maximize their impact.  

And I would say the last point, which I’ve touched on a few times, is building relationships. Today’s donors are looking for meaningful opportunities to make an impact, to see their dollars go to good use, and they’re looking for connection, trust and relevance. And I think that charities, in the unique place they hold within our society, have such a great opportunity to offer that up to those that do want to be charitable and support the endless number of causes and charities that are out there doing some incredible work. 

Julie wrapped up the interview with a quick synopsis of what fundraisers should be preparing for over the next year. 

Julie Fiorini: The biggest shift is definitely in concentration. In other words, fewer donors giving more, often through different giving channels such as gifts of securities. And at the same time, new donors seem to be emerging in different places through different entry points.  

But central to the entire donor journey, including things like planned giving, as well as major gifts…digital is now central to that donor journey. It’s not just entry-level. Digital has to be foundational to the work that charities do. And they need to really focus on accessibility, flexibility and relevance. In other words, meeting donors where they are and making it super easy to engage at any level. 

Want to hear more from Julie Fiorini? Listen to her full interview in the video below. 

Listen to Julie Fiorini and other fundraising experts discuss how the fundraising landscape continues to evolve in our new podcast episode. Click here to listen. 

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