We have said so many things about the cultural philanthropy of Quebecers. Among other things, that we are less generous than in the rest of Canada, that we leave this responsibility to large billionaire families or that we have concerns other than those of the world of the arts.
It will now be difficult to make such claims, because things are seriously changing.
This is what we will say on Friday during a symposium organized by HEC Montreal during the unveiling of a very interesting report produced by the Carmelle and Rémi-Marcoux Chair in Arts Management on which I got my hands.
We learn that the private donation to the world of culture continues to increase in our country. Total private donations (individuals, companies, foundations) increased from 12.1 million in 2015 to 15.7 million in 2021. This represents a 4% increase, despite the pandemic.
We can say that a culture of patronage has taken hold over the last decade.
If we look at the figures that relate solely to private donations from individuals, we discover that the proportion of taxpayer donors was 54% in 2018 in Quebec (it was 62% elsewhere in Canada) and that increased to 55% in 2021 (compared to 57% elsewhere in Canada). Quebec has therefore caught up with the Canadian average.
The average donation per individual, however, continues to be lower in Quebec than elsewhere in the country: in 2021, Quebecers gave an average of $381 to charities, while elsewhere in Canada, the amount reached $689.
It seems that individual donors are showing a rather strong sense of commitment, because while private donations from sponsors or fundraising activities have dropped during the pandemic, those from individuals have been maintained. Many spectators (this was the case at the Opéra de Montréal) even transformed the value of their subscription into a donation.
In short, thanks to this loyalty of individuals and to the interventions of governments which have continued to offer subsidies while providing assistance with ticket sales (70% of revenues are guaranteed until the end of March 2023 by Quebec), cultural institutions avoided catastrophe during the pandemic crisis.
“More and more retired people have an income,” observes André Courchesne, professor at the Carmelle and Rémi-Marcoux Chair in Arts Management at HEC Montréal. I’m thinking of baby boomers. These people want to help the art world. »
The data that will be presented Friday at the HEC Montréal symposium will undoubtedly delight observers of the world of culture who will read it. And you may be telling yourself that things are going rather well for Madame la Marquise.
But there are some things you still need to know when making a private donation. You are probably familiar with the concept of the tax credit, which allows you to collect part of your donation when you file your income tax return.
But do you know the matching one? It is based on programs created by the provincial and federal governments that allow you to enhance your donation. For a long time, this pairing was based on the “one for one” principle: you gave one dollar to a cultural organization, Quebec gave one dollar and Ottawa another more.
But this money that the two governments devote to matching is not bottomless. The amount is $5 million provincially and $19 million federally. However, these figures have not changed for fifteen years.
The nerve of war is there. As more of us give, the portion your dollar will fetch is smaller. Basically, if you give a dollar today, Quebec and Ottawa will each give about 50 cents.
Add to that the fact that Quebec has changed the criteria for matching in the case of small organizations. This is discouraging for them, because they do not have the means and the personnel of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens or the Museum of Fine Arts, which can organize large fundraising events.
“A more generous multiplier allowed small organizations to create perpetual foundations that generated self-generated revenue every year,” explains André Courchesne. It has become very difficult today for them to do that. »
This data is good news, of course. But the danger would be to believe that because we become more generous with the art world, it needs less help from the government.
As we can clearly see, in addition to recurring operating grants, cultural institutions must also be able to count on the public sector to anchor a real culture of philanthropy so that it is sustainable. And that we can see in the long term. This is what allows the art to move forward.
Symposium on cultural philanthropy, Friday, December 2 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., National Bank Amphitheater, HEC Montréal