Canadians donate through hard times

A new survey suggests more Canadians are willing to loosen their purse strings for charity.

The BMO Harris Private Banking poll found 79 per cent of those surveyed had given to charity over the past 12 months.

That was up sharply from 68 per cent recorded in last year's poll.

The survey suggests Canadians are also willing to dig deeper into their wallets than last year, with the average donation rising to $557 from $487 in 2011.

BMO's Marvi Ricker says the spike can be chalked up in part to baby boomers who are anxious to support the health care causes that will benefit them in the coming years.

The online poll of about a thousand people can't be assigned a margin of error because it does not randomly sample the population.