Free money waits for one million Canadian children, but families don’t know it’s there

By May Wong

The Canada Learning Bond is a little-known Federal program that contributes up to $2,000 into education savings accounts (RESPs) for lower-income kids born since 2004. No family contribution is required.

Although parents want their kids to continue their education, many don’t have the money to help them. But having something saved for their education encourages kids to finish high school and to pursue post-secondary. A better-skilled and more productive workforce benefits all of us.

SmartSAVER, a program of the Omega Foundation, wants every eligible child to receive their Bond, but we need your help.

Jennifer and daughter Makayla. Credit: Michael Mitchell

Most families eligible for the Canada Learning Bond have never heard of it. Some are unfamiliar with Canada’s financial system or have no experience with savings vehicles. Most have little access to financial advice. The Canada Learning Bond not only creates education opportunities for our youngest, lowest-income children, it also improves their parents’ financial knowledge.

Eighty per cent of eligible children – over 1 million kids across Canada – don’t have the Canada Learning Bond to which they’re entitled. SmartSAVER is learning from its Toronto pilot that community organizations play a critical part in families’ successful enrolment. Make sure the children in your community get a great head-start to higher education.

Visit www.smartsaver.org or contact us: info@smartsaver.org.

May Wong is Executive Director of the Omega Foundation

 

Philanthropy fellowship allows for reflection, study

By Sharon Charters

I had the pleasure of participating as a Senior Fellow with the City University of New York (CUNY), Center of Philanthropy and Civil Society fellowship program, from Oct. 18 to Nov. 12.

The centre offers fellowships to both international “emerging leaders” and “senior fellows.” Our group of four brought the total to 151 people from 54 countries who have participated in the fellowship program and who are working in the fields of philanthropy and civil society.

The process of being awarded a fellowship requires the submission of a proposal for an area of study which will benefit the field of philanthropy, specifically as it relates to community foundations.

For me personally, this was a chance to take some time to reflect on Hamilton Community Foundation’s work in poverty reduction at a neighbourhood level, and to learn about the experiences of both my fellow “fellows,” as well as from guests from the private and community foundation world. And I must confess that the idea of doing this in the “city that never sleeps” was certainly an added enticement.

My colleagues were Inna from Russia, Patrick from South Africa and Nurah, who is originally from Trinidad-Tobago and currently working in the Bronx.  We were able to meet with representatives from the Mott Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation, the Council on Foundations, the Brazil Foundation, the Long Island Foundation, Ashoka, the Brooklyn Foundation, the Wallace Foundation, and others.

We have each produced a position paper based on our original proposal and made a presentation to the fellows, along with the wonderfully supportive CUNY staff of Professor Kathleen McCarthy, Barbara Leopold, and Amal Muhammad.

It was truly eye-opening to hear about how community foundations can be a tool for change in such different environments. For Inna, this is an environment where the culture of organized philanthropy is being resurrected. For Patrick, his context is how a community foundation can work in a small, rural South African community building on current customs of giving. For Nurah, the question is whether a community foundation is the right vehicle for sustaining the work within a geographic area that is part of a larger philanthropic environment.  We each take home a better understanding not only of our own foundations, but of the incredible diversity and flexibility within the community foundation movement.

Sharon Charters is Manager of Grants with Hamilton Community Foundation

 

 

 

Want to help your community? Abandon your comfort bubble!

By Melissa Ricci

Belonging to the Hamilton Community Foundation‘s YAC (Youth Advisory Council) has really given me a unique insight into the meaning of the word “community.”

It’s not a secret that Hamilton has its fair share of problems involving poverty. When I was younger, I would try to avoid going downtown because I thought it was scary – it was not the sheltered suburb I was used to playing dolls in. People used food banks, asked for spare change, and stayed overnight at shelters. I was terrified because it was all unknown to me and I thought I would get hurt.

When I was 15, a teacher invited me to go to the first YAC meeting of the year. I got my mom to drive me down to Jackson Square, in the heart of downtown Hamilton, so I could attend. Representatives explained the grant-making process and gave us a brief outline of what we would be doing over the course of the year. I met some new friends and left. I admit, I was confused as to how meeting in a boardroom would make any difference in the community.

But the longer I stayed with the YAC, the more grant proposals I read, and the more community visits I participated in, the more I learned about Hamilton. It had always been rather unknown to me: I stayed in my happy bubble and ignored everything new. Now I was learning about its thriving arts community, about church groups and youth groups organizaing breakfast programs, street hockey leagues, services for newly immigrated students.

I got involved, I met people, and I saw the true face of the “scary” city I had avoided for so long. I loved every minute of it.

I’ve lived in Hamilton my entire life. But it wasn’t until I started working with the Community Foundation that I really began to call Hamilton my home.

One of the most important things I’ve learned, and that I believe everyone should learn, is the importance of getting outside your comfort bubble. To truly make an impact on the problems in a community, to truly improve the lives of children, to eradicate poverty, to help others become involved, and to help those who may need it, you need to know your city. You need to get involved. You need to make your city your home and care for it as you would care for your own family.

Getting out of the house and simply learning is the first step to helping. Go!

Melissa Ricci served on the YAC for three years, and as co-chair in 2009-10. She now studies Arts and Science at McMaster University. She likes reading, cake decorating, volunteering, and the Hamilton Community Foundation, and hopes to one day found her own charitable organization.

Imagineaction, Vital Signs guide students and teachers to social action

By Mary-Lou Donnelly

The findings in the recently released Canada’s Vital Signs 2010 report are no surprise to teachers who deal daily with the fall-out of many of the issues addressed in the report.

The results show the importance of the partnership between Community Foundations of Canada and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation in our Imagineaction program. Students and teachers will be able to use the data to put in place action plans addressing community needs.

There are many examples in the report where students and teachers may choose to act. In the area of Belonging and Leadership, even as we celebrate gains in terms of peoples’ sense of belonging, there remain one-third of individuals in society who do not have a strong sense of community belonging. As focal points of community, schools are uniquely placed to begin to address this situation. Students and teachers may choose this statistic as the impetus for a project related to the “connect” or “engage” Imagineaction themes.

Similarly, in the area of Environment, the fact that greenhouse gas emissions from personal vehicles have risen by one-third is a call to action. Last year, for example, a group of students from École La Morelle in Quebec ran an information program for parents dropping off and picking up their children, aimed at getting them to turn off their vehicles while they waited.

The results showing a widening of the Gap Between Rich and Poor and stating that at least one in 10 Canadians are now considered poor is more than a call to action – it is a national embarrassment.

Each day, teachers are faced with the realities of poverty as students come to class hungry. Teachers and students across the country are already helping to run lunch programs and are assisting to help alleviate the suffering caused by poverty. The Vital Signs results demonstrate once again the importance of renewing our efforts in this area.

Imagineaction calls for teachers to lead their students to social action through critical thinking. Vitals Signs provides a valuable resource for students who are looking for information to assist them in making a decision as to where to act and what to do.

Together they could be the difference that enables action.

Mary-Lou Donnelly is President of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation.

Measuring learning in Canada’s many communities

By Dr. Paul Cappon and Erin Mills

Interest in the role of community as a site of learning has increased in recent years as policy makers and learning practitioners seek ways to address the complex social, economic, political and environmental challenges of the new economy.

The term community is often difficult to define and its usage varies widely in public discourse. For some, community refers to a group of people with a common purpose, shared values and interests, such as participation in chat rooms or special online interest groups.

For others, community is organized around a specific geographic area (such as a village, town or urban centre), cultural or demographic identities.

As research has shown, communities harness resources of knowledge, social networks, environmental assets and financial capital that enable local people and organizations to develop skills and knowledge, and strengthen values.

Indeed learning matters to individuals, providing benefits such as better health, more job opportunities and a higher quality of life. Learning matters to communities, where success is directly linked to the skills and engagement of the people who live there. And learning matters to our country’s ability to maintain a high standard of living and to participate fully in the knowledge economy.

However, measuring learning in the community is a complex task.

Measurement is the basis for tracking improvement, yet learning has traditionally been a difficult concept to quantify and report on—especially learning that takes place outside the classroom. The Canadian Council on Learning’s Composite Learning Index (CLI) is the first of its kind in the world. The index is designed to help assess the state of learning in 4,700 cities and communities across Canada, over time and throughout all stages of life.

The CLI has two main objectives: to foster an informed discussion of lifelong learning in Canada; and to identify areas of strength and weakness in learning conditions nationally, and in individual communities, enabling communities to learn from one another.

In May 2010, CCL released its fifth year of CLI results, garnering increased international attention and interest.

CLI scores show modest progress in lifelong learning. Over the past five years, Canada has witnessed no substantial progress in lifelong learning, from a CLI benchmark score of 73 in 2006 to 75 in 2010. In addition, the 2010 CLI score of 75 shows no change since 2009.

While Canada has seen only limited progress on the CLI over the past five years, the story is somewhat different when it comes to specific regions of the country.

For example, the majority (60%) of communities in Atlantic Canada have seen progress over the five-years, compared to only 26% of all communities in Western Canada. Overall, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are improving at greater rates than other provinces in Canada. The result is a narrowing of the “CLI gap” that has existed with the rest of Canada since the index began in 2006.

By monitoring progress over time; communities can better undertake strategies to maximize their strengths and effectively address their weaknesses.

Dr. Paul Cappon is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Council on Learning, Ottawa, Ontario.
Erin Mills is a Senior Research Analyst with the Canadian Council on Learning, Ottawa, Ontario.

National program to match students with pressing community needs

(Sept. 7, 2010) As kids head back to school, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) and Community Foundations of Canada are announcing a new partnership to help students across the country take action to make a positive difference in their communities.

Imagineaction is a student-driven social action program developed by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation for public school students in Grades K-12. The program creates opportunities for school-community social action projects and will use Vital Signs, a quality of life report produced by community foundations, as a guide to the key issues facing Canadian communities.

“Imagineaction is a terrific way for teachers to help their students connect, in a very productive way, with the world outside their school doors,” said Monica Patten, President and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada. “We can’t wait to bring the issues raised in Vital Signs into classrooms across the country.”

Vital Signs is an annual check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada that measures the vitality of our communities, identifies trends, and shares opportunities for action in areas critical to quality of life. The 2010 Vital Signs reports will be released on Tuesday, October 5.

“Teachers will use the valuable data contained in Vital Signs to link students to emerging community needs and to community foundations who work with a myriad of local partners on addressing those needs.
Participating students will benefit from the expertise of community organizations and will see how their own outreach can benefit the neighbourhoods in which they live,” said CTF President Mary-Lou Donnelly.

Imagineaction will connect teachers and students with local experts online, with the Canadian Teachers’ Federation serving as information broker. Experts in various community issues – from housing to environment to employment – will register online. Once approved, they can be contacted by teachers to assist with projects related to their respective fields.

Imagineaction will also offer subsidies to teachers to support resulting projects, related professional development, and an electronic showcase designed to promote and share the great work being done in schools across Canada.

The Canadian Teachers’ Federation
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) is a national alliance of provincial and territorial organizations that represent nearly 200,000 elementary and secondary school teachers across Canada. For more information about Imagineaction, go to http://www.imagine-action.caand http://www.ctf-fce.ca.

Community Foundations of Canada
Community Foundations of Canada is the national membership association for the more than 170 community foundation across the country. Community foundations are local charitable foundations that help Canadians invest in building strong and resilient places to live, work, and play. They are one of the largest supporters of Canadian charities, providing $140 million to local organizations in 2009. Find out more at http://www.cfc-fcc.ca.

Teachers use Vital Signs to connect classrooms with communities

This fall, the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF) will be launching a project called Imagineaction that supports student-driven social action movements.

As part of this project, CTF will be producing teacher resources for all grade levels that provide ideas for using Vital Signs reports from Community Foundations of Canada to determine a starting point for social action projects.

Vital Signs reports are useful starting points for social action projects. They encourage educators to think about our communities in relation to national findings. These reports present facts regarding 10 key issues: work, gap between rich and poor, getting started, health, learning, housing, belonging and leadership, safety, environment, and arts and culture.

Teachers can identify which of the 10 key issues are most relevant to their curriculum or, alternatively, teachers can use all 10 key issues to help students explore their own community.

What I like about CTF’s resource is that it acknowledges that social action projects are most successful when students are highly involved in making decisions about the project, including the initial scope and direction.

It has been my experience that students are deeply interested in their communities, as well as other communities in Canada. Last year, my Grade 12 students in rural Nova Scotia explored issues in our local community and then visited a contrasting community in northern Alberta.

They published a book called 21st Century Communities: A Youth Inquiry Project and produced a documentary called Questions to Learn: A Youth Inquiry Project. This project was initiated by my students and was a response to their desire to think about their roles in current and future communities.  I am excited to bring additional resources about communities to my classroom, knowing how information about our communities, such as Vital Signs reports, might be used in classrooms and to help young people think about social action.

Social action can take different forms in our schools. It might be as focused as an awareness activity with a small group of students in one class, to as broad as an extra-curricular club that accomplishes year-long projects. It is important to note that one social-action activity can lead to another, that it can foster projects that include a wider community involvement, or that it can produce multiple initiatives to support a community.

Regardless of the scope of the initial interest, CTF’s Imagineaction resource will offer ideas to help teachers and students use Vital Signs reports to determine a starting point for social action.

Steven Van Zoost, PhD, teaches at Avon View High School in Windsor, Nova Scotia. Find out more at http://www.stevenvanzoost.com

The Importance of Aboriginal Education

Throughout the month of October the Vital Signs Canada blog will feature guest bloggers who are experts on various aspects of community vitality. Today’s contributor is Dr. Andrew Sharpe, Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

Canada’s Aboriginal population is in crisis. In 2007, the National Council of Welfare concluded that, “To date, no governmental response has made major inroads into the issues” faced by Aboriginal people. Improving the social and economic well-being of the Aboriginal population is not only a moral imperative; it is a sound investment which will pay substantial dividends in the coming decades. Aboriginal education must be a key component in any such effort.

In recognition of the educational challenges facing Canada’s aboriginal population, the Vital Signs initiative led by Community Foundations of Canada this year selected the aboriginal high school completion rate as one of the 10 core indicators to be used in the Vital Signs reports released by 16 community foundations across the county. The objective of this article is to highlight some of this key facts and issues related to aboriginal education, building on research that the Centre for the Study of Living Standards has conducted for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (Sharpe et al, 2007 and Sharpe et al, 2009).

The importance of the Aboriginal population for Canada and the Canadian economy is best exemplified by these key observations:

• In 2006, the Aboriginal identity population made up 4.0 per cent of the Canadian population, with 1,311,200 persons.
• The Aboriginal population is much younger than the average Canadian, with a median age in 2006 of only 26.5 years, compared to 39.5 years for all Canadians.
• Aboriginal Canadians aged 15 and over have a much lower educational attainment than their non-Aboriginal counterparts with 43.7 per cent not holding any certificate, diploma or degree in 2006, compared to 23.1 per cent for other Canadians.
• As a result, the labour market outcomes for Aboriginal Canadians are significantly inferior to the Canadian average. In 2006, Aboriginal Canadians had lower incomes, a higher unemployment rate, a lower participation rate, and a lower employment rate.
• Aboriginal people with a high school diploma or higher had significantly better labour market outcomes, both in absolute terms and relative to non-Aboriginal Canadians than those who did not.
• In 2026, using the medium growth projection for Aboriginal and the General population, the Aboriginal population is projected to make up 4.6 per cent of the Canadian population.

Given these observations, Canada’s Aboriginal population could play a key role in mitigating the looming long term labour shortage caused by Canada’s ageing population and low birth rate. The potential contribution of the Aboriginal population to Canadian labour force and employment growth could be even larger than predicted by simple demographic trends because their participation and employment rates currently lag far behind the Canadian average. Indeed, if Aboriginal participation and employment rates reach 2006 non-Aboriginal levels by 2026, it is projected that the Aboriginal population will account for 19.9 per cent of labour force growth and 22.1 per cent of employment growth over the 2006-2026 period. In other words, if in 2026 Aboriginal people experienced the same labour market outcomes as non-Aboriginal people did in 2006, the Aboriginal share of the Aboriginal population to the Canadian labour force would nearly double by 2026. This equates to nearly 200,000 additional productive Canadian workers.

Given that educational attainment is one of the key driver of participation and employment rates, there are clear incentives for the Canadian government to make Aboriginal education a priority. If in fact Aboriginal education were not prioritized, the drag on Canadian productivity caused by below average Aboriginal education will grow as the Aboriginal population’s share of Canada’s labour force increases over time.

CSLS research has concluded the following.

• Education is by far the most important determinant of labour market outcomes, and also plays a preeminent role improving social outcomes.
• Given the demographic structure of the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, Aboriginal people will undoubtedly play a significant role in shaping the economic future of Canada, and in particular that of the Western provinces.
• As a result, if businesses are to thrive in the environment of limited labour supply that is currently developing in Canada, they will need to integrate an increasing number of Aboriginal people into the labour force. If these individuals do not possess the necessary skills, businesses will suffer.
• In addition, the long-term fiscal impact for governments of better education and better social outcomes for the Aboriginal population are massive. If government want to deal with looming fiscal issues, addressing the pressing needs of Aboriginal today may be part of the solution.
• Finally, increased education can have dynamic effect on the leadership capacity of the Aboriginal community and therefore may underestimate the contribution of increased education of Aboriginal Canadians to future output and productivity growth. Better educated Aboriginal Canadians will be more effective leaders and thereby provide better direction for the economic development of Aboriginal communities.

Investing in disadvantaged children is one of the rare public policy with no equity-efficiency tradeoff. Increasing the number of Aboriginal Canadians who complete high school is a low-hanging fruit with far-reaching and considerable economic and social benefits for Canadians.

The key message is clear: investing in Aboriginal education will not only benefit the Aboriginal population itself, but will also benefit Canadian governments and businesses, and, by extension, the entire Canadian population. Increased output will drive up productivity which is the key driver of our standard of living. Furthermore, decreased government cost and increased government revenue will provide Canadian government with the fiscal flexibility needed to cut taxes, increase services or reduce debt.

References

• National Council of Welfare, (2007). “First Nations, Métis and Inuit Children and Youth: Time to Act” available online at http://www.ncwcnbes.net/documents/researchpublications/ResearchProjects/FirstNationsMétisInuitChildrenAndYouth/2007Report-TimeToAct/ReportENG.pdf
• Sharpe, Andrew, Jean-Francois Arsenault and Simon Lapointe (2007) “The Potential Contribution of Aboriginal Canadians to Labour Force, Employment, Productivity and Output Growth in Canada, 2001-2017,” CSLS Research Report No. 2007-6, November. http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2007-04.PDF
• Sharpe, Andrew, Jean-Francois Arsenault, Simon Lapointe and Fraser Cowan (2009) “The Effect of Increasing Aboriginal Educational Attainment on the Labour Force, Output and the Fiscal Balance, ” CSLS Research Report No. 2009-3, May. http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2009-3.pdf

Measuring Up: A New Approach to Assessing Aboriginal Learning

Throughout the month of October the Vital Signs Canada blog will feature guest bloggers who are experts on various aspects of community vitality. Today’s contributor is Dr. Paul Cappon, President and CEO of the Canadian Council on Learning.

As the majority of those reading this will be aware, the connection between lifelong learning and community well-being is a long-established one. This is reflected in the annual Vital Signs Canada report, which evaluates quality of life in 16 Canadian communities by using a measure of 10 domains, from health and housing to safety and the environment. It should come as no surprise that learning has earned a spot on this list.

The 2009 Vital Signs report highlights a fact of Aboriginal education that has been constant for more than a decade; that attendance and completion rates for Aboriginal learners in high school and university are much lower than for non-Aboriginal learners. Although these are important statistics, indicators like high-school completion rates are only part of the larger picture of lifelong learning for Aboriginal people in Canada.

Since its founding in 2004, the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) has identified Aboriginal learning as a key area of learning in need of further research and attention.

In order to better report on the state of Aboriginal learning in Canada, CCL began by asking an important question: How do Aboriginal Peoples view success in learning?

Despite their cultural, historical and geographic diversity, Aboriginal people share a common vision of learning as something that is more than simply an individual pursuit. To the majority of Aboriginal people, learning is a means of nurturing relationships between the individual, the family, the community and the Creator. It is the primary process of transmitting values and identity, the guarantor of cultural continuity—and its value to the individual cannot be separated from its contribution to the collective well-being.

In contemporary terminology, Aboriginal learning strengthens a community’s social capital. This more ‘holistic’ view of learning is all encompassing and demands recognition as an integrated whole.

Historically, conventional indicators of success in learning have failed to reflect Aboriginal Peoples fuller vision of lifelong learning. That’s why in 2007, CCL initiated a partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and organizations across Canada to develop a more appropriate set of tools to measure progress in learning. The initiative, Redefining how Success is Measured in Aboriginal Learning, resulted in the development of three Holistic Lifelong Learning Models which reflect First Nations, Inuit and Métis perspectives on learning.

The models shift the emphasis from an external approach that focused on learning deficits relative to non-Aboriginal standards, to a more expansive, or holistic, approach that recognizes and builds on success in their own terms.

Developed in partnership with Aboriginal learners and educators, the three models helped identify indicators required to measure success, which are illustrated in the interactive versions of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis models.

Since then, CCL has used the models as the frameworks in which to report on learning in Aboriginal communities; whether it’s in the school, the home, the community, at the workplace or on the land. With this data in hand, we’ve been able to draft our first State of Aboriginal Learning in Canada (which is scheduled for a December 2009 release) that we hope will help redefine not only how Aboriginal learning is measured, but how it is understood and perceived by all.

We look forward to working with our many partners in this initiative, including the Community Foundations of Canada, to help integrate this research into their future reports, policies and programs.

Jobless youth, aboriginal education are focus of community foundations report

This article was distributed to print and broadcast media across Canada by The Canadian Press, Canada’s national news agency and written by Anne-Marie Tobin.  

TORONTO — Concerns about young people, including the unemployed and aboriginal students who are at risk of dropping out of school, are a major focus of a report released Tuesday by Community Foundations of Canada. 

The Vital Signs report compiles statistics on subjects that help reflect the health and well-being of people in communities across the country.

This year, the annual report highlights the rise in youth unemployment from 10.7 per cent in January 2008 to more than 16 per cent this past summer in the midst of the economic downturn. It also notes that 19.2 per cent of students looking for summer jobs were out of luck.

“It’s really been youth who have become even more vulnerable than they have in the past,” said Monica Patten, president and CEO of the organization, which represents 165 community charitable foundations. “The figures for youth trying to find a job tell us that it has been tougher.”

She noted that statistics varied across the country, and some communities experienced the downturn more severely than others. 

Community charitable foundations are tackling the question about how to respond, Patten said.

She pointed to a Toronto sports leadership development program that provides training and accreditation to young people, allowing those from marginalized communities to develop skills such as lifeguarding that will lead to work.

In this program, Patten noted, about 400 young people from 13 communities have received training, and a very high percentage – three-quarters – have completed programs and found work. 

The report also highlights statistics showing that 39.3 per cent of Inuit Canadians 15 and older completed high school, while the rate for aboriginals on reserves was 40.5 per cent. Overall, the high school completion rate for aboriginal Canadians was 56.3 per cent in 2006, compared to 76.9 per cent among non-aboriginals. 

“This has huge implications for their future, for their work, for their sense of self-worth, for their productivity. And that has huge implications for the whole country,” said Patten. 

The 165 foundations provided $169 million to local charities and organizations in 2008. Patten said they received $230 million in new gifts in 2008, whereas in the past, they’ve received more than $300 million a year. 

Investments were way down at one point, but are now reporting a slow but comfortable and steady return, she said. However, it will take several years to get back to where they were a few years ago. 

Besides the statistics on young people, the report highlighted several issues dealing with the population at large:

–Violent crime has fallen 12 per cent since 1991.

–Low birth weight increased from 5.7 per cent in 2002 to 6.1 per cent in 2008, in part due to more pre-term births linked to fertility treatments, an increase in maternal age and C-sections.

–Housing has become less affordable. The average home price in Canada was 3.23 times the average pre-tax income in 2000. By 2006, it had risen to 4.35 times the average pre-tax income.

-Ninety-eight per cent of Canadians with access to recycling programs were taking part in the programs.

-The median charitable donation rose from $170 in 1997 to $250 in 2007, but the proportion of Canadians declaring charitable donations dropped from 25.7 per cent to 24 per cent.

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.