Nova Scotians using online fundraiser platform for disaster relief: Data

Nova Scotia residents are leveraging online fundraising platforms to help with costs related to natural disasters.

Between 2019 and 2023 data from GoFundMe shows there were 500 campaigns aimed at natural disaster aid for Nova Scotians. The campaigns raised over $1.3 million.

During the historic N.S. wildfire season in 2023, Maureen McGee of Tantallon was one of many residents who lost her home. 

“It was an extremely traumatic day,” McGee told CityNews 95.7 in an interview. “There was a 100-foot wall of fire that had jumped the lake — which we didn’t even think would be possible— and was basically roaring through our subdivision.”

At the time there were five people living in McGee’s house. She said they lost everything.

In the months that followed the family was moving from short-term rentals to friends’ homes, all while balancing work and trying to put in insurance claims.

“The insurance process is almost like a full-time job of its own,” McGee said. 

While dealing with the grief and trauma of seeing her family’s home destroyed in the Tantallon fire, McGee’s daughter started a GoFundMe. 

“We just felt that this was an easy way for the people that wanted to help us financially, to be able to do that,” she said. “We had all kinds of expenses that weren’t covered by insurance at that time.”

McGee said the generosity from people was “incredibly overwhelming.”

“You never realize what you mean to people and how they think about you and how they want to be able to support you in your time of need until there is a tragedy like this,” she said. “Just to experience the generosity of people, it buoyed our spirits every day.”

In 2023, about 184 campaigns were created to help people in N.S., this resulted in almost $800,000 raised.

As the climate crisis increases natural disasters across Canada and the world, more people have turned to online fundraising, the platform’s press release reads.

In Canada, there is a 34 per cent year-over-year average increase in the number of campaigns created to support Canadians with natural disaster relief in the last four years. 

Since 2019, the campaigns have raised more than $24 million.