Morden and Winkler Residents Donate Millions in 2015

According to the most recent and complete data from the Canada Revenue Agency, in 2015, $2.7 million was donated to Morden-based charities, and $4.8 million was donated to those in Winkler. The final tally is $7.6 million dollars.

"Wow, isn't that crazy," said Lynda MacLean, when she found out how much money had been donated. The executive director of Morden Area Foundation, MacLean is well-informed about charities in Morden, but she didn't expect the total to be as high as it was.

"The people of Morden do love their community," said MacLean, "and they do want better for the community." A love-thy-neighbour attitude was what MacLean believed contributed the donations amounts.

Executive director of the Winkler Community Foundation, Myra Peters, emphasized the power of volunteerism which keeps all the charities alive.

"The dollar amount...doesn't surprise me because I know our community is very giving, but not just financially. When I look at all these charities in our community, I see people giving of themselves," Peters said.

This data shows the receipted and non-receipted donations of all non-church charities in Morden and Winkler for 2015. It should be known that some organizations' fiscal years end in September and not on Dec. 31. This means that not all charities' fiscal years will line up and some may have received substantial donations after their reports were submitted. However, all the data collected was from 2015 tax reports made public by the CRA.

There are 123 registered charities registered in Winkler and Morden, 77 and 46 respectively. Carman has 37 itself, and Altona is nearly the same with 36. Winnipeg, with a population of 705,244, has 2,160 registered charities. Per capita, it is far behind communities in the Pembina Valley in this regard.

Census data released a few weeks ago by Stats Canada show Morden with a population of 8,668 and Winkler at 12,591. Populations of this size make the amount of charities based in the area and donated totals highly impressive.