The Arts Research Monitor, created by Hill Strategies Research in 2002, provides synopses of qualitative and quantitative research findings in the arts and culture. The Monitor should be useful to artists, arts managers, funders, policy makers, researchers and others with an interest in learning more about the arts and culture. The Arts Research Monitor is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
Based on data from Canadians’ tax returns, this report from Imagine Canada (a charitable organization that works to support and strengthen other charities and not-for-profit organizations) examines recent and longer-term trends in charitable giving by individuals. As noted in the report, “Canadian taxfilers claimed charitable donations totaling just under $8.3 billion in 2010”. This amount is 4.6% higher than in 2009.
This report is based on the Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, the same dataset as Statistics Canada’s articles on all volunteers and donors in Canada. The report indicates that about 1.4 million Canadians (5.1% of all Canadians 15 or older) volunteered for or donated to arts and culture organizations in 2010.
This article examines the volunteer time given to not-for-profit organizations in 2010, based on a Statistics Canada survey of 15,482 Canadians 15 and over (the Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating). The volunteer rate (i.e., the percentage of Canadians 15 or older doing volunteer work) was 47% in 2010, which is a small but statistically significant increase from 2004 (45%). Total volunteer hours were 2.1 billion in 2010, which is a very small (and not statistically significant) increase from 2004. The 2.1 billion volunteer hours are the equivalent of about 1.1 million full-time, full-year jobs.
Based on the Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, this article highlights the donations made by individuals in 2010 to not-for-profit organizations. The report notes that 94% of Canadians made a donation of some kind, including 84% who donated money, 79% who gave clothing, toys, or household items, and 62% who donated food. Financial donations totalled $10.6 billion in 2010, which represented a very small (and not statistically significant) increase from 2007.
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) aims to deliver “a measure that provides a broader depth of understanding that, when partnered with [Gross Domestic Product], gives citizens and decision-makers a more comprehensive package of information they need to assess our progress as a society and make decisions based on evidence for a fair and sustainable future”. The CIW tracks sixty-four indicators related to eight domains, including “leisure and culture”.