Internet impacts charitable giving

A number of Calgary charities report Christmas-related giving so far this year is down compared to last.

With just over two weeks before December 25th, officials hope to see a surge in food, toy, clothing and cash donations.

The CEO of CandaHelps.org says while physical donations might be down, on-line charitable donations in Calgary this year are up almost 16 per cent over 2010.

Owen Charters tells 660News much like online shopping, more and more Canadians are turning to the Internet to give back to the community.

Charters says with a simple click of a button, people can select the charity of their choice, along with a dollar amount and get an automatic tax receipt.

He says there could be a couple of reasons why people may not be giving as much as they have in the past.

He points-out the economy has cooled and there is also something called donor fatigue, which is the exhaustion of being constantly bombarded by requests to give.

Since 2000, CanadaHelps.org, which has been called the Google of charities in the country, has processed over $130-million in donations.