25 of the Best Canadian Charities To Donate To

The Canadian Red Cross has provided humanitarian aid to people around the world for over 120 years. Originally founded to help the wartime sick and wounded at the turn of the 20th Century, the Canadian Red Cross now responds to various crises at home and internationally. Between April 2022 and March 2023, the charity helped over 260,000 Canadians affected by natural disasters like wildfires and floods, as well as deploying aid to countries around the world.

The Canadian Cancer Society is a national charity dedicated to supporting people with cancer, and to the prevention and treatment of cancer in all its forms. The charity uses donations to spread awareness about ways to reduce the risk of cancer, research into the prevention and detection of cancer, and to support those who have been diagnosed with the disease.

CanadaHelps “supports all Canadian charities” by making it easier for nonprofit organizations to find and connect with donors and ultimately boost donations. Itself a registered charity, CanadaHelps gives people flexible ways to donate to any of Canada’s 86,000 charities and also offers a platform for nonprofits to spread awareness about their work and the causes they support.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada states that around 3.5 million people in the country are living with the effects of heart disease and stroke. The charity’s mission is to help people recover, spread awareness about the effects, treatment, and prevention of heart disease, and to fund vital research into new methods of treatment. You can support the charity’s work by donating or participating in one of its fundraising events, such as Ride for Heart.

World Vision Canada is a Christian relief charity dedicated to helping children in nearly 100 countries. In 2022, the organization reached over 13 million people and invested $372 million to support and protect vulnerable children around the world, including programs to provide food to starving children, access to education, and to help those affected by natural disasters.

November means Movember and one of the biggest fundraising events of the year. The Movember Foundation was created in 2003 after two friends from Australia came up with a simple but effective fundraising idea: grow a mo’ to support men’s physical and mental health. The idea has since gone global and over $1.3 billion has been raised to support the work of the Movember Foundation; Canadians raised over $24 million in 2021 alone.

The Arthritis Society of Canada is a national charity dedicated to supporting the 1 in 5 Canadians currently living with arthritis. By funding research into new treatment and care and advocating for people with arthritis, the charity hopes to drive positive change in the lives of those affected. In the year ending March 2022, Arthritis Society Canada spent $5.3 million on funding research and raised $18.5 million from individual, corporate and foundation donors.

The foundation was created to support the Women’s College Hospital, founded in 1883, as the first place in Canada where women could study and practice medicine, and is one of the only hospital-based research institute in the world dedicated to women’s health. Donations allow for new women’s health research; help support clinical care that puts the unique needs of women and their families first; and fund innovations to improve and create stronger, more equitable, health systems.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that affects 90,000 people in Canada, according to the nonprofit organization MS Canada. The charity aims to raise awareness of the disease, help those living with MS to find support, and fund research into a disease for which there is currently no cure.

Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières – MSF) is a humanitarian nonprofit organization that provides emergency medical care in the event of natural disasters, disease, and conflict. MSF has responded to some of the worst humanitarian disasters of recent times, including the Turkey-Syria earthquakes in February 2023 and the war in Ukraine, providing relief and urgent medical care to people who have been affected.

First Book Canada has distributed millions of books to children across the country in an effort to improve literacy levels and provide access to educational resources. The charity also operates an online marketplace where people can access books at a low cost, book banks that redistribute used books, local pop-up distributions, and ‘reading celebrations’ like author presentations.

Using the 12 Steps as defined by Alcoholics Anonymous, Calgary-based charity Simon House Recovery Centre helps people overcome addiction. The charity’s 12-week residential program provides a supportive environment for people to understand and overcome their addiction, and the charity also provides aftercare, family care, and life coaching services to help people after they’ve completed the program.

Canadian Feed the Children works with Indigenous communities in Canada, as well as partners in Bolivia, Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda, to provide food security to children living in poverty. The charity was founded in British Columbia in 1986 and since then has provided over three million meals to children in need.

Plan International works to protect vulnerable and oppressed children in over 80 countries, operating in five priority areas: education, health, protection from violence, youth leadership, and humanitarian response. The charity focuses particularly on girls, aiming to stop child marriage, advocating for a girl’s right to education, and preventing gender-based violence. In 2022, 82 cents of every dollar donated to Plan International was used for programs to support the charity’s mission.

Since its founding in 1982, the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation has raised more than $1 billion for cancer research. Based at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, one of the world’s top five cancer research centres, the Foundation provides vital funding in the mission to beat a disease that is the number one cause of death of Canadians.

United Way’s mission is to end poverty. The charity works with local communities to solve problems related to poverty in 13 different areas, including early learning and parenting, food security, housing and homelessness, and youth development. Donations are used to provide grants to help people out of poverty, fund research, and drive change through public policy.

SickKids is the fundraising arm of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the largest children’s health centre in Canada. Donations to the SickKids Foundation help fund vital research into the diagnosis and treatment of children’s illnesses, and provide a way for the hospital to support children and their families after a diagnosis. In 2022-23, over 90% of the Foundation’s revenue was used to fund research and patient care.

The UHN Foundation was set up to help fund the four medical institutions that form the University Health Network (UHN): Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto Rehab, and the Michener Institute of Education. Donations to the Foundation help to fund patient care, research, and the education and training of healthcare professionals.

Food Banks Canada reported over 1.4 million visits – 33% of which were children – to food banks in 2022. Food insecurity is a very real issue and Food Banks Canada aims to put an end to it by providing food to those in need while working towards long-term solutions with thousands of nonprofit partners across the country.

Safe drinking water is something that most people would take for granted, yet in some developing countries it’s accessible to only a small minority of the population. This is where Lifewater Canada wants to make a difference. The charity’s mission is to provide clean, safe drinking water to people in Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya, and Haiti, where there isn’t the infrastructure to provide it. In Fiscal Year 2023, the charity’s projects benefitted more than 1.3 million people.

The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA) is “the largest animal welfare organization of its kind in North America,” currently operating in 42 locations across British Columbia. The charity provides many services relating to animal welfare, including veterinary care, animal rehoming, and wildlife rehabilitation, and it helped more than 118,000 animals in 2022.

CODE is a nonprofit organization that promotes child literacy and gives children the opportunity to access learning. The charity operates in Canada and internationally, and its programs include teacher training, literary awards for Indigenous authors, and book production and distribution. In 2022, the organization distributed 300,000 books in Canada and it reached over 1600 schools.

The Veterans Emergency Transition Services (VETS) was founded in 2010 to help veterans transition back into civilian life. Since then, the charity has helped more than 4,500 veterans, including the housing of nearly 1,000 homeless individuals. The VETS Ground Support program provides direct assistance to those who need it most, including food and clothing support, temporary and permanent housing assistance, and utility bill payments.

Indspire is dedicated to supporting the education of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. It operates nationally, with the ultimate goal of seeing every Indigenous student graduate within a generation. Its fundraising events include its annual Feast in the Forest, the Indspire Awards to celebrate Indigenous achievements, and Guiding the Journey, an awards ceremony recognizing Indigenous educators.

Habitat for Humanity operates in Canada and the United States and advocates for affordable housing for all. In 2022, the charity helped nearly 2400 Canadian families through affordable housing, with 194 families moving into a new home across Canada.