According to a recent survey, 73 percent of ‘higher net worth’ Canadians believe there is an increased need for private philanthropy or public sources of funding. And, one in five higher net worth Canadian households (18 percent) have considered endowing a private foundation as a means to establish a permanent philanthropic legacy.

Canadians were then asked if they were ever in a position to establish a private foundation, which social priority they would support. Their responses covered a wide variety of causes, with 26 percent mentioning healthcare, 22 percent education and 18 arts or theater, 11 percent under-privileged children and10 percent would support post-secondary education including university scholarships.

All other social causes were mentioned by fewer than 10 percent of respondents. Most interestingly, the survey categorized these results by geographic region and gender allowing for a more in depth interpretation of the results.

Released in August, the Ipsos-Reid survey randomly selected a sample of 300 higher net worth Canadians, being defined as Canadian adults with household financial assets in excess of half a million dollars. With a sample this size, findings are accurate to within ± 5.7 percent, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population been polled.