Concern among affluent Canadians that healthcare, education and the arts are not receiving adequate funding could lead to a dramatic increase in private giving, according to the results of a new Scotia Private Client Group / Ipsos-Reid poll released today.

A majority of affluent Canadians (73%) see an increasingly vital need for private philanthropy, primarily because social priorities are not receiving adequate funding. The increase in private giving is also being driven by more favourable tax treatment for donations and a large intergenerational transfer of wealth.

The survey also found that 18% of affluent Canadian households (or 62,000 households) have considered establishing private foundations.

“If only one in 10 of these 62,000 motivated households do end up establishing a private foundation, we will still create more than 6,000 new private foundations and provide billions of dollars to worthwhile causes. Over the next generation, there could be more than 10,000 private foundations compared to the 4,500 currently in Canada,” said John Doig, managing director and head of Scotia Private Client Group, in a news release. “Even by conservative assumptions, we are on the verge of unprecedented growth in Canadian philanthropy.”

By comparison, as at January 2004, the United States had 56,600 private and community foundations.

“The United States has traditionally led Canada proportionately in philanthropic giving. Yet, between 1996 and 2002 charitable giving in Canada increased by 62.5%,” said Malcolm Burrows, charities and gift planning consultant, Scotia Private Client Group. “Clearly, Canadians’ attitudes towards giving are shifting.”

Affluent Canadians feel that private philanthropy has the strongest role to play in arts and culture. However, when asked which social priority they would support, healthcare (26%) and education (22%) lead arts and culture (18%).

The national telephone poll conducted between May 17 and June 1. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample 300 higher net worth Canadians, defined as Canadian adults with household financial assets in excess of half a million dollars. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within (+/-) 5.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population been polled.