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Victoria leads in charity giving on CanadaHelps website

Victorians are a generous bunch. From January to the end of September 2016, Victorians’ online charitable donations averaged $14.34 per citizen — more than any other Canadian city, according to CanadaHelps, a non-profit, fundraising website.

Victorians are a generous bunch.

From January to the end of September 2016, Victorians’ online charitable donations averaged $14.34 per citizen — more than any other Canadian city, according to CanadaHelps, a non-profit, fundraising website.

“It’s a very specific set of data, but it is kind of nice to come up first in the country in terms of generosity on their platform,” Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said.

“I am [proud]. I think there’s lots of wealth in this community and there’s lots of struggle in this community. To have the wealth and the struggle kind of find a match is a good thing.”

Victorians’ online giving dwarfs donations made by residents of other cities.

For example: Vancouver gave $3.63 per citizen; Toronto gave $3.24 per citizen; Surrey gave $1.21 per citizen; Ottawa gave $3.36 per citizen; Whitehorse gave $10.26 per citizen (second to Victoria); Saskatoon gave $3.13 per citizen; Yellowknife gave $6.70 per citizen and Burnaby gave $1.41 per citizen.

The numbers only reflect donations to the CanadaHelps.org website and do not correlate to total charitable donations. But more than 16,000 charities use CanadaHelps’ online technology.

CanadaHelps notes that from January to September 2016, it recorded a 21.5 per cent increase in the number of donations made by Victoria residents compared with 2015.

There was also a 27 per cent year-over-year increase in the average donation per citizen in the city.

A breakdown shows the majority of Canadians’ donations (41.8 per cent) are devoted to religion. That is followed by social services (21.2 per cent); health (14.1 per cent); arts and culture (5.7 per cent); education (5.6 per cent); animals (5.1 per cent); public benefit (3.3 per cent); international (2.2 per cent) and environment (1.1 per cent).

Studies have found that more than 80 per cent of Canadians consistently say they donate to charity, while only 21.3 per cent actually claimed their charitable donations on their taxes in 2015, according to CanadaHelps.