The Importance and Role of Volunteer-run Organizations (Nov 23-26, 2009)

January 20, 2010 in Community Conversations, Meetings | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | by communityconversations | 1 comment

Michelle  and I had the opportunity to travel to Marystown on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador at the end of November. Thanks to Sharon Snook a member of Imagine Canada’s Advisory Council and Foundation Director of the Burin Peninsula Health Care Foundation for making the arrangements for us to visit the area. We also appreciated the warm welcome from Marystown’s Mayor Sam Synard who agreed to host the Community Conversation at the Town Hall. 

Brenda Cameron Couch, Director of Community Outreach

This was an important visit for us and a reminder that many organizations in the Sector do not have paid staff. Many people around the table had multiple volunteer roles. The power of community and collective action was evident at first glance as the group brainstormed ideas for who might replace the usual Santa in this year’s parade.

A focus of the conversation in Marystown was around volunteering and changes in volunteers. This is an area that has seen significant out migration of young people and this has had an impact on volunteers. Some people also felt that there was a decline in the willingness to be involved in community activities.

One person posed the question: Do we need to look at another model of volunteering or another model completely for community involvement? There are no answers to this at the moment but it is one of many important questions that we heard raised across the country that would benefit from our collective thinking as a Sector. 

~Brenda

Wrapping up 2009

December 21, 2009 in Community Conversations, Meetings | Tags: | by communityconversations | Leave a comment

As December comes to an end I have been reflecting back on the insightful comments and consistency of messages that Marcel, Michelle and I heard in Community Conversations this fall.

There was strong support across the country of the need for the sector to come together to work on issues that affect all of us. Thank you to all those who took the time to meet with us and share your ideas. It was very helpful in assisting us in thinking through how to move to the next phase.

Unfortunately, despite my best intentions I was not able to keep up with the postings immediately after each conversation. There are more coming so please check back in the new year. We are now moving towards provincial events in 2010.

We are working to finalize our partners for these events. This is a collective approach and it will only be successful if organizations across the country contribute in a variety of ways. Stay tuned for details of these events in 2010.

I wish you all the best in 2010 and hope that you will continue to be part of this work to strengthen the charitable and nonprofit sector in Canada

~Brenda

The Philanthropist stimulating thoughts and discussions on issues facing the sector

December 7, 2009 in The Philanthropist | Tags: , , , , , , , | by communityconversations | Leave a comment

The Philanthropist is an online journal addressing issues facing the sector. The current issue includes: 

An editorial by Don Bourgeois talking about the engagement strategy and the role The Philanthropist will play in the initiative. Don also states “the purpose of these articles is not to define the future but rather to stimulate thought and discussion of the matters at stake.”

Martin Garber-Conrad sets the stage for this relationship with his article, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” which talks about the importance of the sector coming together on issues and the engagement strategy. 

Lynn Eakin’s article “The Invisible Public Benefit Economy – Implications for the Non Profit Sector” describes the nonprofit sector as part of a public benefit economy that operates in Canadian communities on principles that are fundamentally different from those of the commerce economy.

Bob Wyatt reminds us of the changing environment for charities in his article “Overview from Canada: Modernizing Charity Law”

Future issues will focus on many of the themes that we heard on the ground during our Community Conversations. Stay tuned!

~Brenda

Book reviews on issues affecting the charitable and nonprofit sector (Meg’s Picks)

December 7, 2009 in Meg's Book Picks, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | by communityconversations | Leave a comment

Brenda Cameron Couch, Director of Community Outreach

You will have noticed a recent post form my colleague, Meg Kwasnicki, introducing you to Meg’s Picks. Meg is the Manager of our Nonprofit Library Commons and will be posting book reviews on issues affecting the charitable and nonprofit sector (look out Heather!). 

This is another great way of connecting with the community and will add to our thinking on some key issues. Thanks Meg for your timely contribution to the Blog! 

Any suggestions for Meg’s next pick?

~Brenda

Meg’s Picks: The New Federal Policy Agenda and the Voluntary Sector: On the Cutting Edge

December 3, 2009 in Meg's Book Picks | Tags: , , , , , , | by megkwas | 1 comment

Meg Kwasnicki

Meg Kwasnicki

Welcome to Meg’s Picks, the first in a series of charitable and nonprofit sector book reviews by Meg Kwasnicki, manager of Imagine Canada’s Nonprofit Library Commons.

The New Federal Policy Agenda and the Voluntary Sector: On the Cutting Edge
Edited by: Rachel Laforest Publisher: McGill-Queen’s University Press. McGill-Queen’s University Press

This is a must-read for those of us looking to understand current Canadian federal political agenda and its impact on the voluntary sector. The New Federal Policy Agenda and the Voluntary Sector: On the Cutting Edge is an edited text of eight papers, is very accessible and complete  in outlining the shift of federal funding policies and priorities from the former liberal government to the current conservative Harper government.  For readers, the stage is set with a great context of voluntary sector policy over the last 15 years with a perspective paper The Harper Government and the Voluntary Sector: Whither a Policy Agenda? (pp. 7-34, Susan D. Phillips). The additional papers build on the broader points by honing in on topics such as: Financial sustainability (Andrew Graham), social economy (Luc Thériault), the Urban Agenda (Neil Bradford), Childcare Advocacy (Grant Holly) and Citizenship and Immigration (Jehad Aliweiwi & Rachel Laforest).

Federal government interest in the Voluntary sector: From bad to worse
One of the eight papers featured in the book, this text demonstrates that the relationship between the voluntary sector and the former liberal government was far from perfect and still needed development. Now it’s much worse. What was little long-term policy follow through on policy positions building off of capacity-building programs such as the Canada Volunteerism Initiative (CVI), has turned to overarching neglect for the voluntary sector.  Some examples: transfer whatever dollars possible to provinces to manage funded projects (e.g. Literacy, promotion of volunteerism), eliminate support for sector-based or interested research, eliminate advocacy groups. In short, I can’t say it better than one of the authors:

“The federal government has created a dilemma for itself. It appears to have made it clear that it does not need any relationship of significance with the voluntary sector- not advocacy, nor research, nor the promotion of volunteerism, nor social enterprise, nor active citizenship.” (pp. 30, Phillips)

The subsequent papers outline specifics around the nature of the how current federal government policy is ultimately creating issues with how effectively the voluntary sector can do its work. Hopefully, informing ourselves with this text’s well illustrated examples will lead to a more knowledgeable and empowered sector. Kudos to all the authors and editor Rachel Laforest for her oversight in bringing it all together and creating a great flow of articles that build off of the points made by each author.

Contributors include: Jehad Aliweiwi (Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office), Neil Bradford (Western), Andrew Graham (Queen’s), Grant Holly (Université de Montréal), Rachel Laforest (Queen’s), Susan Phillips (Carleton), Senator Hugh Segal (Queen’s), and Luc Thériault (UNB).

Find this book and other sector literature at the library site’s New Acquisition’s list.

Key questions from BC up for debate

October 30, 2009 in Uncategorized | Tags: | by communityconversations | Leave a comment

There were a number of questions that arose in BC that need debate across the sector:

Should we continue to fill in the gaps when delivering services on behalf of government? 
 
How can we deliver effectively the message of the contribution of the sector?  

What kind of future do we want for the sector? How will we govern, finance and structure ourselves to do that?

Your thoughts?
  
~Brenda

Voicing thoughts from small organizations in BC (October 26 – 30, 2009)

October 30, 2009 in Community Conversations, Meetings | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | by communityconversations | Leave a comment

Michelle Gauthier, VP of Public Policy & Outreach & Brenda Cameron Couch, Director of Outreach

Michelle Gauthier and I were also able to meet with a group from smaller organizations while in Vancouver. Many thanks to Kathleen Speakman from the BC Centre for Sustainability for extending the invitations and Colleen Kelly from Vantage Point (formerly Volunteer Vancouver) for hosting.

We want to ensure that smaller organizations have an opportunity to provide input into the strategy and know that it is often difficult for some organizations to participate. We appreciate those who meet with us. 

In this session, the issue of the sector underselling itself and our “charity” roots came up. One participant said that they were positioning themselves as a social profit organization and asking for investors, not donors. Very innovative! Is this a language shift that we need? 

The suggestion was made that consideration to providing funding for smaller organizations to participate in the regional and pan-Canadian events should be taken into account when budgeting for events.

On the issue of social media, reference was made to an article Online Tactics and Success: An Examination of the Obama for America New Media Campaign. Are there some lessons for the sector from the Obama campaign approach? 
  
~Brenda

Harness competitive aspects of the sector to speak with one voice on the cross cutting issues (October 26 – 30, 2009)

October 30, 2009 in Community Conversations, Meetings | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | by communityconversations | Leave a comment

The Vancouver Foundation hosted 2 more community conversations for us while in BC. Thanks to Faye Wightman and Dan Morin for bringing people together and the warm welcome we and participants received.
 
Here we talked about the opportunity to reinvent ourselves and find better ways of demonstrating the impact of our work. There are increasing demands for accountability and currently we often lack the metrics to be able to show impact.

The discussion also included the need to consistently show the true costs of fundraising. This is part of the increasing demand for transparency and it also ties in with the issue of understating the costs required to run our organizations. The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle recently appeared in the Stanford Journal of Social Innovation, talks about this issue.

We also need to look at different approaches to governance – there are many small organizations which may not be able to meet the demands of accountability and transparency and find members to sit on Boards. The current CRA guidelines and nonprofit legislation have impeded our thinking about how to govern ourselves. We need to think outside the box as to how govern the work of the sector. 
 
We need to learn to speak with one voice on the cross cutting issues. This does not mean that the subsectors (i.e. sports, arts, environment, social service, international cooperation, etc.) will not have issues specific to them; but we are losing out not coming together on the bigger common issues.    
 
Let’s harness the competitive aspects of the sector to work on the bigger issues together.
  
~Brenda

Victoria talks about claiming our space at the table (October 26 – 30, 2009)

October 30, 2009 in Community Conversations, Meetings | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | by communityconversations | Leave a comment

Michelle Gauthier, VP of Public Policy & Outreach & Brenda Cameron Couch, Director of Outreach

I continue to be impressed with the variety of organizations that we are able to talk to. These conversations are very helpful to our overall thinking and happen only as a result of our local partners bringing groups together. Many thanks to you on the ground!

Michelle Gauthier, Vice-President of Public Policy and Outreach joined me for a recent visit to BC. In Victoria, we had a large group convened by Chris Poirier-Skelton of the United Way of Greater Victoria and Margaret Rose from the Victoria Foundation.  

We heard about the need for safe spaces to debate issues and learn. In some instances there is still a concern about speaking freely to funders.
 
We need to identify champions in the other sectors. Our boards and direct service volunteers are made up of individuals from the private and government sector. It was pointed out that we need to expand the thinking of our volunteers beyond the organization that they are directly involved, to the broader sector.
 
It was also identified that we need to define ourselves as a sector in order to have a credible presence at the table.

This all resonates with what we have heard in previous community conversations too! Stay tuned for more from BC.
 
~Brenda

Quebec Pension Plan for Community-based Organizations (October 15, 2009)

October 16, 2009 in Meetings | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | by communityconversations | Leave a comment

Régime de retraite des groupes communautaires et de femmes_logo_rrfsWhile in Montreal, I got to spend some time with Lise Gervais of Relais-femmes, and Pierre Riley of the Fédération des centres d’action bénévole du Québec (FACBQ), two leaders in Québec that were instrumental in developing and launching a new defined benefit pension plan for community based organizations (Régime de retraite des groupes communautaires et de femmes). It was very exciting to hear that in less than a year, more than 250 community-based organizations are participating representing over 1,500 charitable and nonprofit sector employees being covered by the pension plan. There are plans to significantly increase these numbers over the next 3 to 5 years.

The pension plan model is a first in Canada and I think will be watched closely by the broader sector where many of its employees don’t have access to retirement pension plans. The Quebec model could definitely inspire other similar ventures in other provinces.

Also, the www.regimeretraite.ca website and some of the material is currently being translated into English so that we can more easily share and discuss the developments on this pension plan model.

~Marcel

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