In ONN’s latest non-profit survey, 45% of respondents reported feeling overwhelmed – but 41% feel optimistic. ONN’s Danielle Griffin and Pamela Uppal-Sandhu ask: Can we seize this moment of great uncertainty as an opportunity to create a “careFULL” Ontario ?
It is not business as usual.
As major changes take place in the world – public health emergencies, climate disasters, looming trade wars, a rise in hate and polarization – and the time between major changes becomes shorter, the impact is felt here at home in Canada.
Across our communities we are seeing the domino effect of a weakening social safety net and our social fabric. People are struggling to meet their basic housing and food needs. More and more encampments are popping up in public spaces because there is nowhere else to go, addiction rates continue to rise, and mental health challenges are becoming more acute in our young population. Our health and education systems are deteriorating, and our investments in income support for people to weather the storm is pennies on the dollar. Many of us are having a very hard time making ends meet and Canadians are fearful, angry, and alone. A decline in community arts and culture is deconstructing social cohesion, shared community identity, and belonging. Fractures in communities are growing as millions of people from equity-deserving and equity-denied communities, from across the country, are wrongfully targeted for the failures of our broader systems.
As non-profit organizations, what can – and should – we do? The question seems impossible to answer as we are called on to do more with less in an impossible environment. Ontario Nonprofit Network’s latest non-profit survey highlighted that Ontario’s non-profit sector is experiencing stagnant and declining financial resources amidst climbing demand. This fact, undoubtedly, drives the 3 a.m. thoughts of many non-profit leaders: 45% of survey respondents reported feeling overwhelmed. How in the world will we be able to keep it together and meet our communities’ needs?
As non-profit organizations, what can – and should – we do? The question seems impossible to answer as we are called on to do more with less in an impossible environment.
But, in almost equal measure, 41% reported feeling optimistic in this current moment. Is hope and resilience baked into the fabric of the non-profit sector? We would argue that it is. Our social infrastructure developed, in part, because non-profits sprung from groups of citizens becoming active in their communities to support unmet needs.
Over the past decade and more, the sector has advocated for better and more funding from all levels of government to meet growing needs in communities, with spotty results. Rather than investing in our social infrastructure, governments have responded by reorganizing how programs and services are delivered, hoping the reorganization will increase and improve the supply of services. Such changes are largely designed without the learnings and wisdom of non-profits and community members. They have at best fallen short and at worst excluded those who need support the most.
This duality of the non-profit sector being overwhelmed and at the same time optimistic gave us pause when it was revealed in our 2024 survey results because it was also emerging in the many conversations we were having within our network. Just recently we were asked by a group of colleagues what the sector’s role is, once again, during a time of great societal change.
Can we seize this moment of great societal change?
Fixing broken systems is not going to get us something new and different. But imagining new ways of doing things is really difficult when your organization is in survival mode, trying to meet community needs and engage with massive (distracting) chaotic system changes.
The same old advocacy tactics are not going to work. But for new ones to emerge we need to be bold, risk-takers. Now is the time to lean into our optimism and grit coupled with our community-building know-how.
Now is the time to lean into our optimism and grit coupled with our community-building know-how.
We know networks and the power of networks: connected, coordinated, organized, communicating groups can make a difference. Non-profits are ready, willing, and able to expand, grow, innovate, and meet communities’ complex needs. Non-profits can work with each other and their communities to innovate. But the sector is not resourced to function as networks or engage in power-building, and there are limited resources from governments or philanthropy for creativity and innovation.
In addition, the chaos of our times feels new, overwhelming, and is distracting. But inflection points in society are not new.
This time is different
This op-ed started as a piece focused on what we wanted the next Ontario government to know about the non-profit sector. But once we started writing, it became something more. We paused. We reflected. We realized that this can’t just be about what we need the next Ontario government to know about our work and our impact. We can’t do more of the same and expect a different outcome.
Perhaps then, to move us away from fear-induced-by-endless-doom-scrolling and into measured action, the question we collectively want to pose and answer is: how do we meet this moment to create a careFULL Ontario?
How do we meet this moment to create a careFULL Ontario?
A careFULL Ontario means that people, planet, and places are thriving because all public policy is developed with care in mind. Non-profits provide a spectrum of care, support, resources, and programs focused on every aspect of our lives; non-profits, staff, and volunteers create care in our communities. A careFULL Ontario means that caregivers, care receivers, and care workers are not at the margins of our economy, but are recognized for their essential role in building the economy.
Let’s pause to think what this would actually mean for Ontario:
- Everyone has access to adequate and affordable housing.
- Everyone has access to healthy food.
- Everyone has access to high-quality education, healthcare, and recreational, social, and cultural activities.
- Everyone is able to thrive, regardless of their race, gender, class, ability, ethnicity, or immigration status.
- We respect treaty rights and meaningfully activate both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action and Canada’s commitment to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
- There is a strong social safety net to catch people when they fall.
- The environment is not under threat, but rather rejuvenating.
In the toughest of times, people turn to each other rather than away
Research shows that the moment we are in is actually ripe for measured action, because in the toughest of times, people turn to each other rather than away.
Here are some ways we think we can seize this moment to create a careFULL Ontario:
- Doubling down on equity so it doesn’t get lost in transition but rather is woven through our fabric and therefore impossible to untangle from our work. This means resisting the calls to abandon or decrease the vital work we’ve started to build equitable systems.
- Creating meaningful space with both likely and unlikely allies to talk about what it takes to imagine ways to deliver care in communities, and then doing the work to build new systems centred on resilient and supportive non-profit organizations.
- Bringing new players into the movement. What can we learn from, and how can we share our knowledge with, grassroots groups, student movements, and mutual aid? What is the role of philanthropy to support systems change and cultivate the movement? How do we collaborate across the spectrum of groups to build care?
We don’t have all the answers, but we do see this moment as an opportunity. An opportunity to take chances; our sector is creative, tenacious, and agile. Non-profits are an integral part of ensuring healthy, connected, and thriving communities – they’re integral to a careFULL society.
We don’t have all the answers, but we do see this moment as an opportunity to take chances; our sector is creative, tenacious, and agile.
Importantly, we encourage you to look out for each other, especially those – the workers, volunteers, and people supported in our communities – who are materially, significantly affected by transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, racism, ableism, and anti-immigrant sentiments.
Connect with, and build transformational relationships among, non-profits in your community, local tables and working groups, leadership networks, non-profit networks, umbrella groups – talk more, meet more, share more.
People and communities are looking for courageous leadership. Let’s build a movement to imagine, collaborate, and design new systems.
If not now, then when?
