How much should a millionaire donate? How about you?

By John Hallward, The Hallmont Foundation

If you don’t know the answer to this, you’re not alone: Over three-quarters of adults in a recent Ipsos Reid survey of Canadians said they had no idea how much they should be giving or what others in their social peer group give. This is an important insight. Without guidance or defined social norms for giving, we tend to give less. Those who were taught to give by their parents or some other mentor are more charitable. When people are provided a benchmark they tend to give more. That is why our GIV3 mission is to raise awareness of these issues and get Canadians to consider their responsibility. There is so much need among those less well off.

So, how much (more) should we be giving? To help answer this question The Hallmont Foundation asked Canadians in a survey conducted by Ipsos. The survey randomly outlined different household income levels and asked Canadians what they felt was a “fair and reasonable” level of giving at each level. As one might expect, we got a range of answers. So we simply determined the donation percentage which covered the majority of adults at each assessed income. From this, one can observe a relationship to help build a donation equation. The fair and reasonable level increases as the income levels increase. At the average Canadian household level (roughly $66,000 in Canada), the answer is 3% of income. Here are a few income levels and suggested donation levels which were felt to be “fair and reasonable” from the survey of Canadian adults.

GIV3 is an organization with one objective: To encourage more Canadians to be more charitable. The objectives that we have established are based on the values and opinions of a majority of Canadians and are very ambitious. However, we can make a large, positive difference with a small change in giving behaviour. If the wealthiest of us (top 15% of income earners) who at the moment give significantly less than poor Canadians, donated at the national average of just .73%, it would result in more than $1 Billion in additional charitable giving annually. This is the incredible leverage of this initiative. We cannot do this alone. We need financial planners, notaries, and those who are in contact with the top 15% of Canadian income earners to spread the message to help make an incredible difference for those in need across Canada.

Visit www.GIV3.ca to learn more and to try the Donation Calculator.