More Canadians launching GoFundMe campaigns to help with bills

Finance and business economics expert William Huggins discusses what the rise in online fundraising campaigns to help pay for bills means.

A growing number of Canadians have created online fundraising campaigns to help with monthly bills and essential needs, says major crowdfunding platform GoFundMe.

It’s a trend that experts say underlines the affordability crisis and weaknesses in the country’s social support system, as many Canadians struggle with rising expenses and high inflation.

For the essential needs category, almost 12,000 fundraisers have been started to date from January through April in 2026, a seven per cent increase year-over-year, GoFundMe spokesperson Aisha Vernon said in an email to CTVNews.ca this week.

According to Vernon, “essential needs” include campaigns for rent, mortgage and utilities.

Campaigns between January and April related to monthly bills rose 10 per cent compared to the same period in 2025.

Monthly bills campaigns rose 15 per cent in 2025, said the spokesperson, making it one of the fastest-growing categories that year.

“This data ultimately reflects the growing challenges Canadians are facing and the ways communities are stepping up to support one another in times of need,” Vernon said.

Housing crisis a factor: expert

Carolyn Whitzman, adjunct professor and senior housing researcher at the University of Toronto, said a lack of affordable housing across the country is a key factor driving the trend.

“There’s a growing amount of desperation, unfortunately, in Canadian households,” Whitzman said in a Zoom interview with CTVNews.ca on Thursday.

“Canada is in the midst of a housing crisis,” Whitzman added. “People shouldn’t have to do individual fundraising events in order to have enough money to pay the rent and feed their children … so it’s a huge problem.”

Whitzman, author of “Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis,” said a rising number of people “are one paycheque away from homelessness.”

Some are falling behind on mortgage payments and find it tough to pay rent, she said.

About 4.5 million Canadians – or more than one in 10 people – lived below the poverty line in 2024, according to a Statistics Canada report published April 29.

The poverty line is based on the ability to afford basic goods and services, according to StatCan, and depends on household size and geography.

Mortgage delinquencies especially affected high-priced housing markets, rising 52 per cent in Ontario and 36 per cent in B.C. year-over-year, according to Equifax Canada’s first-quarter market pulse report on consumer credit trends released this week.

Whitzman said the affordability crisis is a systemic issue that all levels of government need to address.

A ’21st century Band-Aid’

Shiu-Yik Au, an associate professor of finance at the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business in Winnipeg, said he’s not surprised about the GoFundMe trend because everyday Canadians are struggling amid increased expenses.

StatCan said inflation grew to 2.8 per cent in April, the highest annual rate since May 2024. The data showed the cost of gas was up 28.6 per cent year-over-year in April, as the Iran war disrupted global oil shipments, though food and rent inflation eased.

The Canadian financial system has proven itself resilient, but Canadian households still carry high levels of debt relative to their income, according to the Bank of Canada’s financial stability report released Thursday.

“So, GoFundMe is kind of a way to connect those people who really have giant hearts with those who have giant needs,” Au said in a Zoom interview with CTVNews.ca on Thursday.

Still, he said he is concerned about the trend with more people turning to the platform for financial help.

“Basically, this is not a good situation to have people asking for money to be able to maintain everyday essentials,” he said. “I don’t want to live in a world where people have to go online and basically do a song and dance for strangers, in order to be able to get enough bread to eat and able to pay their rent.

“But unfortunately, because of these short-term effects, we’re going to see some of this continue in the future,” he added.

William Huggins, an assistant professor in finance and business economics at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., said GoFundMe is ultimately a “21st century Band-Aid,” but it still serves a key role as Canadians have shown to be among the most generous donors.

Over the last five years, more than $1 billion has been raised to support Canadian causes through the crowdfunding platform, BNN Bloomberg reported during an interview with GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan in March.

“We’re not going to use GoFundMe to solve social problems 20 years from now, but what this is, is a symptom that we have ongoing social problems that our current systems do not address, and need to be addressed,” Huggins said, noting that community-based solutions would be important to supplement government programs.

With files from CTV News’ Mike Le Couteur and Daniel Otis, and The Canadian Press