Individual Donors to Arts and Culture Organizations in Canada in 2007
759,000 cultural donors gave a total of about $101 million to arts and culture organizations
Canadian arts and culture organizations rely on funding support from a range of sources. The roughly 14,000 arts and culture organizations in Canada have total revenues of $3.4 billion, or 3.1% of all non-profit organizations in Canada. Compared with other non-profit organizations, arts and culture organizations receive much lower funding from government (28% for arts and culture vs. 49% for all nonprofits), much higher revenues from earned sources (50% for arts and culture vs. 35% for all nonprofits), slightly higher revenues from gifts and donations (17% for arts and culture vs. 13% for all nonprofits) and roughly similar revenues from other sources (5% for arts and culture organizations vs. 3% for all nonprofits).
The report indicates that 759,000 cultural donors gave a total of about $101 million to arts and culture organizations in 2007. This represents 1.0% of financial donations to all types of non-profit organizations in Canada.
The $101 million donated to arts and culture organizations represents, on average, $132 per donor. This average annual donation ranks arts and culture organizations fourth out of 11 different types of non-profit organizations. Religious organizations rank far above all other non-profit organizations, with an average annual donation of $469 per donor.
There is certainly strong competition for donors from other non-profit sectors. With $101 million in donations – 1.0% of total donations to all types of non-profit organizations – arts and culture organizations rank ninth out of 11 types of non-profit organizations with regard to the value of donations. Religious organizations receive nearly half of all donations ($4.6 billion, or 47%), followed by health organizations ($1.5 billion, or 15%) and social service organizations ($915 million, or 9%). Arts and culture organizations receive less than law, advocacy and political organizations ($130 million) but more than development and housing organizations ($82 million).
Compared with the cultural sector’s 3.3% share of all Canadian donors, British Columbians are most likely to give to arts and culture causes, with 4.4% of all donors in the province doing so. In Ontario, arts and culture donors represent 3.5% of all donors, followed by the Prairies (3.0%), Quebec (2.9%) and the Atlantic provinces (2.7%). The full report also provides a summary of the reliable data on the number of donors and the value of donations to arts and culture organizations in each region.
Demographic analysis in the report shows that high education and age are the two most important factors in cultural donations.
