About the Survey

The Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (CSGVP), formerly the National Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating (NSGVP), provides the most comprehensive look at the contributions of Canadians to one another and to their communities ever undertaken in Canada. The CSGVP is the result of a partnership of federal government departments and agencies and voluntary sector organizations that includes Imagine Canada, Volunteer Canada, Statistics Canada, Canadian Heritage, Health Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The CSGVP asks Canadians a series of questions about how they give money and other resources to charitable and nonprofit organizations, volunteer time for charitable and voluntary organizations, help other individuals directly by contributing time without involving an organization, and participate in organizations, groups and associations by becoming members.

The NSGVP was first conducted in 1997 by Statistics Canada as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey and surveyed 18,301 Canadians aged 15 and over concerning their giving, volunteering, and participating over the previous one year period. The survey was repeated in 2000 as part of the federal government's Voluntary Sector Initiative (VSI) and was again conducted by Statistics Canada as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), surveying 14,724 Canadians aged 15 and over.

The CSGVP was redesigned to be a stand-alone survey and was first conducted in 2004, surveying 22,164 Canadians aged 15 and over. National survey results were released in June 2006. The survey was conducted again in 2007 (surveying 21,827 Canadians aged 15 and over) and national results were released in June 2009. The CSGVP is conducted by Statistics Canada on a three-year cycle.

For more information on the methodology of the CSGVP, readers are referred to the Highlights Reports for each survey year, available under the heading Reports to the left.