Saskatoon Salvation Army kettle campaign sees donations drop by half

You don’t need to tell Salvation Army Lieutenant Derek Kerr about declining donations. He sees it every day.

The Salvation Army’s Kettle Campaign in Saskatoon this year has seen a 50 per cent drop in donations, leaving Kerr to wonder what impact that will have on the community.

“As a former client of the Salvation Army, it makes me feel sad, because I know we've relied personally on those donations to make ends meet and with the ever-increasing cost of goods and services, more and more people are depending on us each and every day,” Kerr said.

Salvation Army Saskatoon set a goal of raising $325,000 this year. Currently, with one week left in the campaign, There have been $150,000 in donations. During what is supposed to be most generous time of year, Kerr fears the campaign won’t come anywhere near its final goal.

“We understand there's a lot of people out there that are struggling, finding it difficult to make ends meet. So it's just it's a reality that we're facing right now,” Kerr said.

Last year, the Salvation Army set its fundraising goal at $200,000 and ended up raising $298,000, prompting the organization to set it sights higher this year.

A new report from the Fraser Institute says Canadians donating to charity as a percentage of all tax filers is at the lowest point in two decades.

Canadian tax filers who donate has declined from 23 per cent in 2011 to just under 18 per cent in 2021.

Geographically, the share of people who donate is the highest in Manitoba –and lowest in New Brunswick.

In those 10 years, all provinces and territories saw a drop in donations. Saskatchewan topped all other provinces with a 30.7 per cent decrease in that time.

While Kerr is seeing those declining donation rates firsthand, Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre executive director Laurie O’Connor is not.

She says holiday donations have remained steady in comparison to last year.

“The community here in Saskatoon has always been so generous,” she said. “I can certainly understand why folks might be having to make some difficult decisions not to support charities that are their favourites to the level that they normally have been able to, but we've seen wonderful support in that time period.”

As the donations continue to trickle in, Kerr and O’Connor said the influx of donations in December help fund initiatives for the entire year.

“We're not concerned about the way that things are going but we have two more weeks or more to continue that fundraising,” O’Connor said.

Last month, the food bank broke a record with 24,000 people needing food hampers.

Kerr said the Salvation Army is the second largest social services provider in Canada after the federal government. He’s spoken with colleagues in other parts of the country who are also seeing donations fall short of previous years.

It’s too early to say how a lack of donations will affect the organization, but food banks, shelters, and the breakfast program all rely heavily on donations.

“We're just hoping, we're praying for a Christmas miracle,” Kerr said. “That will have either one donor or several donors step up that are able to support these programs and services.”

In the Fraser Institute report, Saskatchewan ranks sixth among the provinces for the percentage of people who donate to charity.

The report’s authors note that when looking at how much income Americans donate compared to Canadians – data shows Americans donated twice as much.