Let's Imagine

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 enable and hinder organizations as they seek to apply EDI principles, and the role of leadership in advancing EDI.

This study is part of the Equity Benchmarking Project, an initiative generously supported by Scotiabank and other partners, and led by the Equitable Recovery Collective, a group of nonprofit organizations working to advance equity in nonprofit sector policy, foster a more equitable funding environment, and build sector-wide capacity to advance equity in nonprofit organizations.

Among other key findings the study shows that while most nonprofit leaders support equity, diversity and inclusion, far fewer pursue it with deep intentionality. We chatted with Amanuel Melles, Executive Director of the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities and a member of the Equitable Recovery Collective, to contextualize the findings and discuss what organizations can do to meaningfully advance EDI.

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Read the transcript here.

This episode is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

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 ces cas de plus près, on constate que leur modèle de gouvernance soulevait des questions sur leurs pratiques, par exemple en ce atrait à des structures excessivement complexes, à ce que le conseil d'administration savait ou encore à l'influence des bailleurs de fonds.

Ces situations sont différentes, mais elles ont en commun de contribuer à effriter la confiance à l'égard de notre secteur. Dans cet épisode, nous discutions gouvernance avec Yves Savoie, expert-conseil en gouvernance et stratégie dans le secteur à but non lucratif. Nous invitons les dirigeant.e.s d'OBNL ainsi que les membres de conseil d'administration à écouter cette conversation, et à lire le rapport sur la Révision de la gouvernance de Hockey Canada rédigé par l'honorable Thomas Cromwell pour prendre connaissance des recommandations.

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 governance practices. These range from overly complex structures to issues about what the board knew and when to the influence of founders.

The situations are different, but they have one thing in common, they contribute to eroding trust in our sector. In this episode, we discuss governance with nonprofit Strategy & Governance Advisor, Yves Savoie. We invite nonprofit leaders to listen to this insightful conversation. We also encourage leaders and board members to read the Hockey Canada Governance Review report authored by the Honourable Thomas Cromwell to examine the recommendations.

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 their organizations. This week on the podcast we're joined by Tyler Boyce, Executive Director of The Enchanté Network, to discuss this crucial issue, from a 2SLGBTQI+ community perspective.

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 to discuss a variety of issues - some that are unique to our respective countries and others that we share. With our guest Sarah Vibert, CEO of NCVO, we explore the differences and similarities facing charities and nonprofits in England and Canada, and how having an international perspective on issues helps to broaden our own thinking.

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 the measures announced that will help support nonprofit organizations and the communities they serve? Are investments sufficient to help address the increased demand for social services and programs resulting from the long-lasting impact of the pandemic, and the rising cost of living caused by inflation?

Tune in for a thorough analysis with our guests, and click here to read our statement on budget 2023.

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 are more than twice as likely to be immigrants. In addition, half of all jobs held by immigrant women are in our sector. Charities and nonprofit organizations, which employ 2.4 million people, are, by far, the country's biggest employers of immigrant women.

There's no doubt that the contributions of immigrants to the sector are something to celebrate. However, many immigrant women work in the nonprofit sector not because it is their first choice, but because their options are limited. While our sector is an important employer for this population, it is perhaps not for the right reasons.

With Debbie, we discuss what these findings mean and how nonprofits, governments and employers in other sectors of the economy can take action to improve working conditions and reduce employment barriers faced by immigrant workers.

You can listen to full episodes of the podcast at https://www.imaginecanada.ca/en/360

You can read the full report 'Diversity Is Our Strength: Improving Working Conditions in Canadian Nonprofits' at https://www.imaginecanada.ca/en/resource-download/diversity-is-our-strength

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, mostly companies, but also nonprofits, have started to explore new ways of working and providing more flexibility to employees.

If the pandemic was the catalyst for the rise of decent work and the 4 day work week, competition for talent is certainly another factor.

At Imagine Canada, we are currently testing the 4-day work week. We launched a 6-month pilot project at the beginning of 2023. Other organizations started testing a shorter week some time ago now, including Impact Organizations of Nova Scotia.

We're grateful to chat with their Executive Director to learn more about their experience and share learnings.

You can listen to full episodes of the podcast at https://www.imaginecanada.ca/en/360

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 racism, has taken corporate citizenship and philanthropy to an inflection point — an opportune time for reflection and assessment. To authentically advance change, how are the voices of Black, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQI and other equity-seeking individuals being heard within the corporate social impact community?

This research explores the beliefs, culture, and practices that inhibit or enable equity within corporate nonprofit partnerships. The results are from a survey of Canada's largest companies, interviews with various CSR professionals and discussions with young leaders.

To discuss the state of corporate philanthropy, and explore ways of how companies can better advance philanthropy to advance JAIDE, Mide Akerewusi, Founder and CEO of AgentsC, is joining us.

We invite you to review the study findings & recommendations by downloading the research reports here: https://imaginecanada.ca/en/diversity-and-csr

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 key files - political activities, the disbursement quota and direction & control. What is that status of these files?

What could possibly come next? To help us make sense of these and look ahead to the future, we chat with charity and nonprofit lawyer Terry Carter, Managing Partner at Carters Professional Corporation.