Let's Imagine

In a study from the Environics Institute , Future Skills Centre , and Diversity Institute , findings showed that nonprofit sector workers are less satisfied with their jobs than workers in either the public or private sectors. This dissatisfaction is exacerbated by lower salaries, precarious employment, and part-time contracts - just a few of the challenges facing today's sector workers. Joining u...

Two major interconnected challenges the nonprofit and charitable sector is facing today are changes to the way volunteerism is working - a shift from formal to informal and the lack of data to inform program design and decision-making to improve the work of organizations in serving our communities. With our guest Megan Conway, President & CEO of Volunteer Canada , we discussed two major initiative...

On this episode of Let's Imagine, we welcome Paul Taylor, co-founder of Evenings and Weekends Consulting to discuss the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion in board governance, and why many organizations struggle to actualize these principles. We also delve into the concept of decent work, the intersection of board governance with the promotion of decent work practices, and the role of...

On this episode of the Let's Imagine podcast our host, Bruce MacDonald and our guest Terry Carter of Carters Professionals looked back at some of the regulatory files the charitable sector followed closely in 2023 - such as the new guidance on qualifying disbursements and the alternative minimum tax. They also explored the key policy files that the sector should watch in 2024, and discussed the in...

Social finance  is an alternative to traditional finance models. While it may not be a panacea to solve all social problems, it has tremendous potential to propel organizations by offering a funding model that can help them ensure their long-term financial sustainability. While we've been hearing more about social finance in recent years, it is not a new concept. The origins of this type of financ...

In  Imagine Canada's recent research , statistics showed that our sector bats over the average when it comes to the employment of newcomers. While about a quarter of employees in the rest of the economy immigrated to Canada at some point in their lives, nearly half of nonprofit workers did so. With guests Senator Ratna Omidvar and Dr. Kimahli Powell, Executive Director of Rainbow Railroad , we dis...

Description: Saviez-vous que depuis le début de la pandémie, la proportion des Québécois et Québécoises qui font des dons a bondi de 50 - 60 % à 80 %? Pour cette épisode du balado, nous avons le grand plaisir de recevoir Caroline Richard, directrice générale de l'Institut Mallet, pour discuter de divers sujets, dont l'état de la situation philanthropique au Québec, les tendances en terme de dons e...

Bien que notre secteur dispose de plusieurs points de contact au sein du gouvernement fédéral, aucun ministère ou département n'est chargé d'améliorer le contexte stratégique ou le paysage économique du secteur à but non lucratif au Canada. Par contre, au niveau provincial, il existe des modèles. Au Québec, par exemple, les responsables ont créé depuis quelques années une place au sein de l'appare...

While our sector has several touchpoints with the federal government, no ministry or department is responsible for improving the nonprofit sector's policy environment or economic landscape. At the provincial level, however, such models exist. For example, in 2020, leaders in British Columbia created a place inside the machinery of government to support charities and nonprofits with the appointment...

In this episode, we are looking at the current state of the charitable sector, including demand, staffing, revenue, donation trends and how these will affect charities in the future. Charities have been strained for several years now, due to the pandemic and the rising cost of living which created unprecedented needs in our communities. Demand for services continues to rise and many organizations...

Over the last decade or so we have witnessed the rise of new ways for engaging in the betterment of communities by providing access to investment capital, creating public-private partnerships and expanding the range of possibilities for identifying solutions to complex social problems. In this episode, we are digging into a growing part of the mixed ecology that makes up social good in this countr...

What are charities and nonprofits doing to advance equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within their organizations? In this episode, we dig into the findings from a  new study  which provides key insights into our sector's commitment to EDI. The survey explores areas such as how organizations are integrating EDI into their work, the role of equity working groups in advancing EDI, the factors that...

Au cours des dernières années, on a vu des reportages dans les médias - justifiés ou non - qui remettaient en question la gouvernance ou la bonne gestion de notre secteur. Certains organismes ont été scrutés à la loupe en raison de leurs pratiques de gouvernance douteuses - l'organisme UNIS en est un exemple, Hockey Canada en est un autre et, plus récemment, la Fondation Trudeau. Quand on examine...

The last few years have seen some media reports that have called our sector's governance into question - whether justified or not. A few organizations have been under scrutiny for their governance practices - WE Charity is an example, Hockey Canada another, and more recently, The Trudeau Foundation. A pattern that has emerged when looking at these situations has been questions about their governan...

The lack of core funding has a dramatic impact on nonprofit organizations and the communities they serve. Not being able to count on reliable funding impacts organizational health, capacity and resilience, which in turn negatively impacts the quality of services organizations can offer their community, but also the employment conditions of nonprofit workers, and the long-term sustainability of the...

In this episode, we hear perspectives from a counterpart organization, the National Council for Voluntary Organizations (NCVO), which supports the nonprofit sector in England. Over the past few years, an informal network of leaders from national umbrella organizations like Imagine Canada, NCVO, the National Council of Nonprofits in the US, and the Community Council of Australia, have been meeting...

This week's episode is a special discussion about the federal budget that was tabled on March 28. With guests David Coletto, Chair & CEO of Abacus Data , and Jordan Gray, Public Policy Specialist, we analyze budget 2023 from a nonprofit sector perspective, and more broadly from a social & economic perspective. Both David and Jordan are members of Imagine Canada 's Public Policy Committee. What are...

This week on the podcast we're grateful to chat with Debbie Douglas, Executive Director of OCASI - the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, about the nonprofit workforce through the lens of the immigrant experience.    National data from Statistics Canada, analyzed by Imagine Canada to identify employment trends in the nonprofit sector, uncovered that nationally, employees in our sector...

This week on the podcast, with our guest Annika Voltan of Impact Organizations of Nova Scotia , we're discussing work-life balance and the rise of the 4-day work week.   There's no denying that the pandemic has been difficult on all of us. Staff worked extra hard, and the lines between personal and professional lives got blurred with everyone working from home. A growing number of organizations, m...

This week on the podcast we're discussing a new study that looks at the influence of Justice, Access, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity - commonly referred to as JAIDE -  within the Corporate Community Investment Profession.    The Covid-19 pandemic, the ensuing racial reckoning and rallying cry for justice resulting from the murder of George Floyd and Black people killed through acts of anti-Black rac...

What recommendations for improving the legislative and regulatory environment for the nonprofit sector could be 'game changers' in 2023? To kick off the first season of our podcast, we discuss policy files from a legal perspective that will likely affect the sector in 2023 and beyond. Public policy often moves at a very slow pace, but over the past few years we have seen progress on a number of ke...

Thanks for tuning in to 'Let's Imagine' a brand new podcast by Imagine Canada.   You might be wondering 'why a podcast?' Well, there are a few reasons for that.    One: our guiding ethos: together, we want to imagine a strong nonprofit sector. We believe that by leveraging our national vantage point, building cross-sector relationships, and sharing and developing our knowledge base we can advance...