The Benefits of Creating a CanadaHelps Charity Profile and Impact Page

What is a CanadaHelps charity profile page?

A CanadaHelps charity profile page is an important way for your charity to communicate the real-world impact you have with current and prospective donors on canadahelps.org. When you fill out the three components of your charity profile – the About page, the Impact page, and a section about your charity’s campaigns – you can showcase your charity story in your own words. You can add client testimonials, upload detailed information about your programs, add information about your campaigns, feature data points, and outline metrics with fundraising results.

Think of your impact page as a marketing and branding opportunity to showcase your organization’s story and share how your charity is fueling change by integrating examples, visuals, numbers, and statistics. 

Investing a few hours to fill out your charity's CanadaHelps impact page will yield a good return on investment, especially if your charity has a less-known or recognizable brand. 

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Why build a charity profile page?

1. Increase revenue, get bigger donations 💸

Building a CanadaHelps charity profile page increases your charity’s likelihood of receiving donations, as well as receiving gifts at higher levels. 

In research previously conducted by CanadaHelps, more than 5,500 donors reported that a charity providing impact information on their giving profile was the number one way to increase a donor's likelihood to give.

In that same survey, 73% of respondents said they would be likely to donate a higher amount if they had access to the charity’s impact results from previous years.

In essence, filling out your charity’s profile information increases transparency, providing current and future donors with social proof of your real-world results and ability to drive change. Making your charity’s impact story accessible to donors increases support and grows the giving capacity of your donor base. 

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2. Resonate with your donors and increase visibility 📈

When charities communicate how they create change on their CanadaHelps profile, it resonates with donors and fuels their generosity. In fact, in 2019 a source analyzed over 21,000 CanadaHelps charity profiles that received donations and found that charities with completed profiles receive a whopping 5x more in donation revenue!

 On the CanadaHelps website, an index-like database of every Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) registered charity is available. When current and prospective donors search through this database, they look for organizations whose work, campaigns, and impact they want to support by donating to that charity. Filling out your charity profile increases your visibility and helps your organization stand out. Donors click on a charity’s name, and assess their profile page to review how their money will benefit a worthy cause.

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3. Showcase your work 🏅

To resonate with the next generation of donors, focus on constructing a profile that helps charitable givers understand your specific cause, and how it is making a positive difference in the world. Focus on how your charity supports the well-being of individuals, communities, or the planet, and leverage examples that contain social proof. 

Social proof gives donors confidence to donate to a charity that others recommend and/or donate to. Showcasing examples of people affirming your work, through testimonials, endorsements, or in the form of a supporter wall, builds trust with new audiences and lends credibility to your organization. 

Here’s an example of how to use testimonials as social proof of the worthwhile work your charity carries out.

Source: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Langley’s CanadaHelps charity profile

A great example of a charity profile supporter wall that showcases many generous donations.

Source: Eenou-Eeyou Community Foundation

An example of a charity profile showcasing the positive results they achieve.

Source: Fred Victor

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👉 Insights from The Giving Report on Attracting younger donors

CanadaHelps’ 2024 Giving Report taught us that the number of Canadians making charitable donations has steadily declined since 1990. Since the downward donation trend continued this year, it’s even more crucial for charities to orient their public persona around social proof to help spur the increase in charitable giving that non-profit organizations need.

This year’s Giving Report showed the only age demographic of Canadians whose giving levels are increasing is donors under 25. Interestingly, this next generation of charitable donors also report caring the most that the organizations they give to are cause-forward, impact-oriented, and transparent with their supporters about their financial and operational data.

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👉 Before you get started

Remember, your charity profile functions as a showpiece for the core values, mission, and vision of your organization. It is an important marketing and fundraising tool, one that donors use to make strategic choices about where their money goes.

Your comprehensive CanadaHelps charity profile should contain three components:

1. An about page
2. An impact page
3. A campaigns section

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👉 How to set up a charity impact page

Simply follow CanadaHelps’ step-by-step process. Follow the prompts and fill out text-entry boxes with your organization’s key data points.

1. Login to your Charity Account. Click on the ‘Profile’ tab and then on ‘Impact Page’.
2. Fill out the six tabs in detail. 
3. Save your work

We also suggest including brand assets like photographs and logos, and examples of social proof that affirms your work (see examples above).

Note, that your charity’s ‘Our Impact’ tab will already contain some pre-filled information. 

Every Our Impact tab on CanadaHelps’ charity Profile Pages contains a Revenue/Expenses bar graph, and basic staffing information. The data appearing on this page comes from your charity’s most recent T3010 filing with CRA. The data is sent to CanadaHelps by CRA regularly. It cannot be edited or removed. 

Please note that if you are a CRA-registered charity, you are already listed on CanadaHelps for donors to find you.

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Signing up for a free CanadaHelps account increases your chances of appealing to donors and increasing your donation revenue. 

There is no charge to manage and update your profile. Plus, you will receive the added benefit of CanadaHelps’ fundraising features – including customizable donation forms, automated CRA-compliant tax receipts, and thank you emails for donors. You can also set up direct deposit and access and download reports.