About one-third of Canadians are willing to make a one-time donation to support bird habitat conservation, according to a recent study. The researchers also highlighted factors that made people more willing to donate, offering insights for organizations looking to boost fundraising.
"This is part of an effort to really create a baseline level of information about what Canadians think and feel about wetlands, how they use wetlands, how they value them, what they think the threats are to these habitats and the extent to which they're prepared to support them financially," says Katherine Sainsbury, a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation and first author of the study.
Researchers surveyed 2,324 Canadians to gauge whether they'd be willing to donate to the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), and if so, what amount they'd give.
"You're asking people about a hypothetical scenario, so that allows policy makers to test out what people think or how they might value a situation that's yet to have transpired," says Sainsbury.
They found that about a third of survey participants were willing to make a one-time donation, with the average amount being $33.
"Using that data, we're then able to estimate overall willingness to donate and average donation levels," says Sainsbury.
