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The Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (CSGVP) provides a portrait of activities that are integral to the Canadian social fabric. The contributions of time and money to support the work of charities and nonprofit organizations and the help that we offer directly to others all combine to define and shape the communities and environments in which we live. The CSGVP shows that these activities are common features of Canadian life – ones that virtually all of us engage in over the course of a year.

The CSGVP also provides a picture of the causes that Canadians value, the interests they pursue and their willingness to reach out and help others.¹ Canadians donate money and volunteer time to support the arts, local sports clubs, medical research, food banks, shelters, international relief efforts, and their places of worship, among many other causes. They help their neighbours and friends in a variety of ways, by doing work around their homes, going shopping or driving people to appointments, and providing health–related or personal care. They are active in rural areas, in towns and cities, and they reach beyond their communities to support regional, national and global causes.

This report provides highlights of findings from the 2007 CSGVP and identifies key changes in findings from the 2004 CSGVP. Because of changes that were made to the methodology of the survey in 2004, it is not appropriate to compare findings from either the 2004 CSGVP or the 2007 CSGVP with the National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP), which was conducted in 1997 and 2000.

The 2007 CSGVP shows that the behaviours it measures are dynamic and changing. While the rates of donating, volunteering and helping are largely unchanged since 2004, there has been growth in the total value of donations, the average size of donations, and total volunteer hours. There are also changes at the provincial and territorial level.

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Note

1. The term Canadians is used throughout this publication to refer to the population targeted by the survey. Residents of Canada who were not Canadian citizens may have been respondents to this survey and only persons aged 15 and older were included. For a complete definition of the target population, please refer to Appendix 1, Glossary of terms.