Self-made multimillionaire says Canadians ‘give no money away’ compared with Americans—research shows U.S. giving is more than twice as high

The disparity between American and Canadian charitable giving has drawn sharp criticism from Bill Holland, the self-made multimillionaire and former CEO of Canadian financial services firm CI Financial. In recent remarks to the Financial Post, Holland asserted that wealthy Americans demonstrate significantly greater philanthropic engagement than their Canadian peers, despite the typical Canadian household possessing greater wealth than its American counterpart. "If you are rich in the U.S., you give money away, but I could name you 100 very rich Canadians who give no money away," Holland stated, characterizing Canada's philanthropic culture as generally "terrible."

Empirical data substantiates Holland's criticism. According to the Fraser Institute, Americans donated 1.22% of their aggregate income to charity in 2021, compared with just 0.55% for Canadians—a gap exceeding 100%. This translates into material dollar differences: U.S. charitable donations reached $484.85 billion in 2021 and surged to a record $617.2 billion in 2025, while Canadian giving totaled approximately $11.8 billion in 2021. Had Canadian donors matched American giving rates that year, Canadian charities would have received an additional $14.4 billion.

The commentary emerges amid accelerating global wealth concentration. According to UBS's 2026 Global Wealth Report, the world's 56,000 ultra-wealthy individuals—representing just 0.001% of the global population—now control more aggregate wealth than the poorest 4 billion people combined. Holland frames philanthropic giving as a societal imperative in this environment, and positions his own track record—over $100 million in personal donations plus $50 million personally raised—as an exception rather than a norm among Canadian high-net-worth individuals. His position highlights potential tax policy, cultural, and incentive structure differences between the two nations that merit consideration for wealth management and family office practitioners assessing charitable giving strategies.