It’s time to unlock billions for Canadian charities. Here’s how

Ryan Beedie is the president of Beedie Holdings Ltd. and a dedicated philanthropist. He is a member of the Order of British Columbia and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.

Canada’s charitable sector is under serious pressure.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals and businesses tightened their belts as uncertain times arrived; many slowed donations to charitable causes, or stopped them altogether. At the same time, charities from food banks to mental health organizations to homeless shelters struggled to keep pace as they faced spiralling costs and skyrocketing demand for their services.

More recently, growing economic uncertainty from tariffs and other global threats has pushed some charities to the brink, while basic costs such as supplies, food and fuel have risen sharply.

But just as the federal government is introducing new measures to address economic headwinds, there is a timely step it could take that would spur charitable giving in Canada, alleviate pressure on Canadian charities, support Canadians in need, and reduce the onus on publicly funded services: Incentivize the donation of private investments and real estate.

From the archives: Canada has become a nation of charity grinches

Almost 30 years ago, in 1997, Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government introduced a new measure: If Canadians donated publicly listed securities to a charity, the inclusion rate on the capital gain would be cut in half, from 75 per cent to 37.5 per cent.

In 2006, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government reduced the inclusion rate to zero – meaning no tax would apply to the capital gain on donated public shares – and in 2007 expanded the exemption to private foundations.

The move proved enormously popular. According to Finance Canada, between 2001 and 2015, securities donations totalled $6.06-billion and grew at an average annual rate of 14.7 per cent – more than six times the 2.4-per-cent rate of claimed donations overall.

More recent Finance Canada data shows that between 2013 and 2023, the number of individual donors of publicly listed shares doubled from 4,700 to 9,400. A 2026 report from CanadaHelps – an online fundraising and donation platform – found that between 2020 and 2025, the value of securities donations through its platform surged 361 per cent to more than $83-million, while individual one-time giving barely budged.

The numbers show the measure has helped spur billions in donations for myriad worthwhile causes. Meanwhile, owners of private businesses from small family-run restaurants to large construction companies faced a distinct disadvantage when they wanted to contribute.

First Person: Should big corporations really be asking me to round up my bill for their charity?

Now is the ideal time to remove that barrier and encourage even more giving. Canadian entrepreneurs would have an innovative way to give back to their communities. Owners of long-held family cottages could transform the proceeds into major charitable gifts. People with revenue properties could convert them into funds for food banks, women’s charities and community organizations.

At the same time, the move could stimulate the Canadian economy by unlocking assets that owners might otherwise hold. It could tap new sources of capital outside Canada’s major financial centres. Philanthropic dollars could be paired with government funding for initiatives in health care, education, social services, the arts and the environment. The measure could also expand activity and jobs in the charitable sector itself.

For over a decade, charitable organizations urged governments to adopt this expansion – and in 2015, it almost happened. The federal government drafted legislation that laid out how it would work: The asset would have to be sold to an arm’s-length buyer, and the proceeds would be donated to a registered charity within 30 days. If only some of the proceeds were donated, only that portion of the capital gain would be exempt. The initiative was set to take effect in 2017, but with the change in government, it never went ahead.

Some argue the measure would unfairly advantage wealthy Canadians, but that misses the fundamental purpose of charitable tax incentives: To encourage Canadians to give more. In the process, the donor gives away far more than they receive in tax savings, and the charity gets the full value of the gift.

The move is especially important as the number of publicly traded companies has fallen sharply, to 2,114 in 2024 from 3,520 in 2008, while private equity in Canada surged to $93.2-billion from $12.8-billion. Still, charitable tax incentives continue to favour wealth held in public securities, which puts an unnecessary cap on giving.

If Ottawa believes it’s good policy to encourage Canadians to donate proceeds from publicly traded companies, why not apply the same incentive to private Canadian businesses and real estate? The charities – and the Canadians they serve – benefit either way.

The capital gains exemption for donations of public shares has been a Canadian success story, but that story was never finished. Now, as the country faces mounting economic uncertainty, it’s the ideal time to write the next chapter.