Ready for another boomer survey from a financial institution? Well get set. The Bank of Montreal has just released one that shows 34% of Canadians aged 45 to 60 volunteer and a further 38% of boomers who do not yet volunteer say they plan to when they retire.

Tomorrow, November 15th, has been designated National Philanthropy Day – right smack in the middle of National Retirement Planning Week. The way BMO explains it, while the boomers have been until recently focused on working and raising their families, Canadian boomers are now setting their sights to helping others. Perhaps the good example of Bill Gates is starting to rub off. 

BMO says it started looking into what boomers were planning to do in retirement in October 2005, and found 16% expected to spend “a great deal of time” in retirement doing non-profit and charitable work while 72% said they expected to spend “some time” doing it. The likelihood of spending “a great deal of time” doing charitable work increased with age.

15% of those aged 45-54 were either already spending a great deal of time on this or planned to when they retire. The percentage rose to 16% for those 55 to 64 and to 23% for those 65 to 70.

When asked in a December 2006 survey to rank activities that would most appeal to them at age 62, 49% ranked volunteering as a first or second choice. Seven out of ten volunteers dedicate time to community-based charities. 
A reminder that December 31st is the donation deadline for the 2007 tax year but beware those buy-low, donate-high tax shelters. For more on that, see the video archives accompanying this blog.