The gap between rich and poor continues to grow rapidly. According to UBS’s Global Wealth Report 2026, only 56,000 super-rich – the richest 0.001% in the world – currently have more wealth than the poorest 4 billion people on earth combined.
For Bill Holland, the former CEO of Canadian financial services giant CI Financial, this growing concentration of wealth brings with it a responsibility to give back. The self-made multimillionaire has donated more than $100 million of his own fortune and personally raised another $50 million for charity. However, he argued that many of his wealthy colleagues in Canada had not adopted the same ethos.
“If you’re rich in the United States, you give away money, but I could name you 100 very rich Canadians who don’t give away money,” he told the Financial contributionand added that philanthropy is a societal necessity — but Canadians are generally “terrible” at it.
His criticism is sweeping, but the numbers suggest that Americans give significantly more than Canadians.
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Americans donated a record $617 billion to charity last year – and historically they have given more than twice as much as Canadians
According to the Fraser Institute, Americans donated 1.22% of their total income to charity in 2021, compared to just 0.55% for Canadians. If Canadians had donated the same share of their income as Americans, Canadian charities would have received an additional $14.4 billion this year, for a potential total of $26.2 billion.
By comparison, U.S. charitable giving totaled $484.85 billion in 2021 — reaching a record $617.2 billion last year, according to a separate study by the Giving USA Foundation.
The inequality is notable because the typical Canadian is actually richer than the typical American.
UBS estimates the median wealth per adult in Canada to be about $148,000, compared to $69,000 in the United States. However, average wealth tells a different story.
Because there is a much larger concentration of billionaires and other super-rich in America, average wealth rises to about $696,000 per adult, compared to $400,000 in Canada. However, neither country is among the most generous in the world.
As wealth concentration increases, billionaires like Melinda French Gates are pushing for more philanthropy
In the current World Giving Index, which measures generosity through monetary donations, volunteer work and helping strangers, the United States ranks fifth and Canada eighth.
Indonesia has topped the rankings for six years in a row, despite being part of a region with one of the world’s lowest average levels of prosperity.
But as wealth becomes increasingly concentrated in fewer hands around the world, many philanthropists argue that those who benefit most have an even greater responsibility to give back.
Melinda French Gates was asked by earlier this year Assets what she advises any newly minted millionaire or billionaire following recent tech IPOs – and she didn’t hesitate to make philanthropy a priority.
“Commit now to giving away at least half of it,” she said. “No matter what it becomes, no matter how big, how small it becomes. If you even have the opportunity to invest in these IPOs, believe me, you have the opportunity to give half of it away.”
French Gates, whose fortune is estimated at around $30 billion, was one of the original signatories of the Giving Pledge, the initiative that encourages billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth during their lifetime or through their estate.
Since then, more than 250 people have joined the pledge, including hedge fund billionaire John Arnold and his wife Laura. The couple has donated more than $2.3 billion to causes such as criminal justice reform and education, and this week announced another multimillion-dollar commitment to research the societal impact of sports betting.
While some billionaires, including Peter Thiel, have criticized the Giving Pledge and others, like Elon Musk, have argued that giving away money effectively is harder than it sounds, Arnold takes the opposite view.
“The variety of billion-dollar fortunes, whether in the $1, $10, or $100 range, has the potential to be used to enormous benefit,” Arnold wrote on
Holland echoed that sentiment to the Financial contributionand argues that the value of philanthropy goes far beyond writing a check.
“Philanthropy gives you a purpose,” he said. “Of course you can give away a lot of money and not have to think about it and be happy about it, but if you get involved and think about the issues – the benefits and the needs – there is no better way to spend your time.”
https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/self-made-multimillionaire-bill-holand-former-finance-ceo-canadian-philantrophy-lacks-compared-to-american-giving/
