Canadians have been using estate planning to help make the world a better place — you won't believe how much they've bequeathed to charities

Where is most of the money going?

First, animal charities received the largest amount of monetary bequests, totalling almost $88 million, followed by religious and community organizations (including hospital foundations) at $77 and $63.3 million, respectively.

Perhaps unsurprising to some, political parties and organizations received the least monetary bequests at $300,000.

For the specific gifts in each charity, the average monetary gift was greatest for hospital foundation, then education and international aid.

Meanwhile, animal, community and religious charities benefit from a larger number of smaller donations.

The average size of residual estate gifted across all charity sectors is 15%.

Animal charities featured in 2,367 unique wills and accounted for just over one-fifth (23%) and 21% of all residual gifts.

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Regional findings

LegalWills also found specific highlights in different regions across Canada:

• Toronto has twice as many individual bequests as any other city in Canada — it also has the highest total bequest amount at over $50 million
• Calgary has the second highest individual bequests at 768
• Vancouver has the second highest total charitable bequests at almost $32 million
• Fort Langley, B.C. has the largest single bequest amount of $2,000,000
• Salt Spring Island, B.C. has the largest bequest amount on average at $102,860