In March, CanadaHelps marked 20 years of service to Canadian charities. The country’s largest platform for donating and fundraising online has been used by more than 23,000 non-profits and millions of Canadians. While the sector it serves continues to struggle through the COVID-19 crisis, the platform has seen a record-breaking amount of activity as everything…
Publisher’s note: In November 2020, the Agora Foundation board of directors established an Editorial Advisory Committee whose members could provide input and insights into our evolving coverage of Canada’s philanthropic sector. We have drawn on their considerable experience in our reporting. This spring, we asked contributor Emily Mathieu to canvass some members of the EAC…
Chantal had been working at a Canadian foundation for about a month when she was asked to sit in on a volunteer committee’s grantmaking decision process, where the volunteers reviewed applications that had been shortlisted by staff members. The volunteers “over-scrutinized the applications from Black-led organizations,” Chantal said. “It felt like they were searching for…
Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love, edited by Nneka Allen, Camila Vital Nunes Pereira, and Nicole Salmon. Gail K. Picco Books, Civil Sector Press; 2020; 203 pages; ISBN 978-1-927375-63-1 Collecting Courage shines a spotlight on the painful experiences of Black fundraisers working in the charitable sector in Canada and the United States. The book features…
A report published in October found that digital development in Canada is not prioritized by the charitable sector, leaving projects such as rural broadband access and digital literacy “underfunded, piecemeal, ad hoc and unorganized.” The study, titled Unconnected: Funding Shortfalls, Policy Imbalances and How They Are Contributing to Canada’s Digital Underdevelopment, was produced by the…
Selon un nouveau rapport, le développement numérique au Canada ne constitue pas une priorité pour le secteur caritatif et est « sous-financé, fragmentaire, improvisé et désorganisé » — il y a peu de projets, par exemple, dans le domaine de la littératie numérique et de l’accès à large bande en milieu rural. Intitulé Sans connexion : Manque…
This is the second in a series of articles published as a collaboration between The Philanthropist and Century Initiative. *** Willa Black is vice-president of corporate affairs and corporate social responsibility at the Canadian arm of IT and networking company Cisco. She has held executive marketing and CSR roles at Cisco Canada since 1999, leading strategies to…
Nearly one million workers in Canada’s not-for-profit sector lack a workplace retirement plan. High-quality retirement plans with matching contributions are an effective way to build long-term employee financial health, and evidence shows that employees without a plan are unlikely to save enough for their retirement. To point, the median savings of households aged 55 to…
This seems to be a year of reckoning on systemic discrimination for Canadian society, including in non-profit and charitable workplaces. Over the summer, I watched as many organizations responded to mass protests in Canada against systemic anti-Black racism through solidarity statements, equity and inclusion trainings, and hiring racialized and equity and inclusion staff. I also…
Dear colleagues, First, let me thank you for the work that you, your staff, and volunteers have done to keep Canadians safe during the pandemic. Your heroic efforts have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. I also know that Canadians will rely on you to help them stride slowly, yet confidently, into the recovery stage of…