Key findings

Several themes emerge from the results of the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations (NSNVO). Clearly, the story of nonprofit and voluntary organizations is really a story about how Canadians come together to build community, address collective needs and work for the benefit of the public. Nonprofit and voluntary organizations tend to occupy specific niches: most have a local focus, and many concentrate on addressing the needs of specific segments of the population. Collectively, however, these organizations have a very broad scope of activities, and they touch almost every aspect of Canadian life.

There are also clear differences between:

• organizations that have relatively large revenues and those with very modest revenues
• organizations that depend on governments for their funding and those that do not
• organizations that rely mainly on volunteers to achieve their missions and those that rely on paid staff.

The characteristics of these organizations also vary somewhat according to the province or territory in which they are located.

The story of nonprofit and voluntary organizations is also a story about challenges. A majority of the organizations who participated in this study report having problems fulfilling their missions and achieving their organizational objectives. These findings suggest that many organizations may be struggling to provide the public with all of the benefits they have the potential to offer.

Nonprofit and voluntary organizations are vehicles for citizen engagement

The interests, talents and energies of individual Canadians drive nonprofit and voluntary organizations. Virtually all organizations are governed by boards of volunteer directors, which define the missions and objectives of these organizations. More than half of all organizations are run completely through the contributions of volunteers—in the form of donations of both time and money. Collectively, these organizations draw on 2 billion volunteer hours,¹ the equivalent of 1 million full-time jobs, and more than $8 billion in individual donations to provide their programs, services and products. Canadians have also taken out a total of 139 million memberships in nonprofit and voluntary organizations, an average of 4 memberships per person. These findings suggest that one of the hallmarks of nonprofit and voluntary organizations is their connection to community through the participation of individual citizens.

Nonprofit and voluntary organizations focus on community and provide public benefits

Nonprofit and voluntary organizations tend to be focussed on providing services within their own neighbourhood, city, town or rural municipality. Most provide services or products to people. Many of these organizations serve the general public, but many also target their services to specific populations such as children, youth, seniors or persons with disabilities. While the vast majority have people as members, just 27% provide these members with special benefits other than voting rights or receiving a newsletter; only a minority report that their members benefit most from the services they provide. Finally, more than half of all organizations are registered as charities, a privilege conferred only on organizations whose activities are clearly directed to public rather than private benefit.

Their scope of activities is broad

Governed as they are by the interests of individual Canadians, nonprofit and voluntary organizations touch on virtually every aspect of Canadian life. Their primary areas of activity are Sports and recreation (21% of all organizations), Religion (19%), Social services (12%), Grant-making, fundraising, and voluntarism promotion (10%), Arts and culture (9%), and Development and housing (8%). They also include Hospitals, Universities and colleges, Law, advocacy and politics, Environment, Education and research, Health, and International organizations. Because of their broad scope, they are very diverse with regard to the size and sources of their revenues and the degree to which they depend on paid staff versus volunteers.

Nonprofit and voluntary organizations have a substantial economic presence

With revenues totalling $112 billion, nonprofit and voluntary organizations play a substantial role in the Canadian economy.² Although one-third of this is attributable to a relatively small number of Hospitals and Universities and colleges, the remaining organizations still report revenues of $75 billion. Nonprofit and voluntary organizations are also significant employers, with paid staff totalling just over 2 million people.³

Larger organizations receive the bulk of resources

A small percentage of organizations command most of the resources that flow to nonprofit and voluntary organizations. The 1% of organizations that have annual revenues of $10 million or more receive 59% of all revenues. Almost three-quarters of all volunteers are engaged by the 6% of organizations that have volunteer complements over 200. The 12% of organizations with revenues over $500,000 receive 41% of all volunteer hours.

Larger organizations are more dependent on government funding

Forty-nine percent of all revenues reported by nonprofit and voluntary organizations comes from governments, with 39% coming from provincial sources. Earned income from non-governmental sources accounts for 35% of revenues; gifts and donations account for 13%. Organizations with larger revenues are generally more likely than others to depend on government funding; those with relatively smaller annual revenues depend more on earned income from non-governmental sources and gifts and donations. Setting aside Hospitals and Universities and colleges , 36% of the remaining organizations' revenues come from government, 43% from earned income from non-governmental sources, 17% from gifts and donations, and 4% from other sources.

The big are getting bigger

Generally, the larger the organization is in terms of revenues, the more likely it is to report increased revenues, a growing number of volunteers, and a higher number of paid staff in 2003 than in 2000. Smaller organizations, however, are more likely to report unchanged or declining revenues over the same period, fewer volunteers, and stable levels of paid staff.

Funding varies by area of activity

Hospitals, Universities and colleges, and Social service organizations tend to depend more on government funding. Business and professional associations and unions, Sports and recreation, Arts and culture, and Development and housing organizations rely more on earned income from non-governmental sources. However, Religion, International, and Grant-making, fundraising and voluntarism promotion organizations depend more on gifts and donations.

Financial and human resources vary by area of activity

Organizations have substantially different profiles of resource usage. For example, Hospitals and Universities and colleges command 33% of all revenues, employ 34% of all paid staff, and engage 2% of volunteers. Sports and recreation and Religion organizations, however, account for 11% of revenues, 11% of paid staff, and 39% of all volunteers.

Resources do not appear to be declining, but may still be inadequate

More than three-quarters of organizations report that their revenues and the number of volunteers they engage either remained stable or increased from 2000 to 2003. Among organizations with paid staff, more than 80% report that their number of employees has either remained stable or has increased. However, this does not mean that these resources are adequate. Many organizations report problems fulfilling their mission, and significant numbers also report difficulties because of increasing demand for services or products.

Capacity problems may keep organizations from fulfilling their missions

O rganizations report substantial problems relating to their capacity to engage volunteers and obtain funding, which may limit their ability to contribute to their communities. A majority report difficulty planning for the future, difficulty recruiting the types of volunteers the organization needs, and difficulty obtaining board members. Close to half report difficulty retaining volunteers, difficulty obtaining funding from other organizations such as government, foundations or corporations, and difficulty obtaining funding from individual donors. Many of these problems tend to be most frequently reported by the 45% of organizations with revenues of $30,000 to $499,999. However, difficulty obtaining funding from governments, foundations or corporations increases as an organization's revenues increase. These problems are generally least likely to be reported by those organizations having the lowest revenues.

The 48% of organizations that reported receiving funding from governments, foundations or corporations between 2000 and 2003 report substantial difficulties with respect to this funding.⁴ More than 60% report problems due to reductions in government funding, unwillingness of funders to fund core operations (e.g., long-term programs, administrative expenses) and overreliance on project funding. More than 25% indicate that these problems are serious. Most of these problems appear to be associated with government funding, which comprises the bulk of the funding they receive from these sources.

The geographic distribution of nonprofit and voluntary organizations

The distribution of organizations varies across the country. More organizations are located in Quebec (29%) and Ontario (28%) than in any other province or territory. However, relative to their populations, smaller provinces and territories tend to have larger numbers of organizations than do the larger ones. For example, Quebec has more organizations than Ontario relative to its population. Ontario appears, nevertheless, to command a substantial share of revenues (43% of all revenues), volunteers (40%) and employees (47%). In addition, the sources of the revenues of organizations vary. Government is the major source of funding for organizations everywhere but Alberta, New Brunswick and the territories, all of which rely more on earned income from non-governmental sources. Organizations in the territories, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Manitoba are more likely than others to report capacity problems.

The following pages outline the key characteristics of nonprofit and voluntary organizations, their revenues and their human resources, and the capacity challenges they report. They demonstrate the unique features of this set of organizations and the challenges they are experiencing as they attempt to fulfill their missions and serve the Canadian public.

Notes

1. This estimate is based on the total number of volunteer hours that organizations reported receiving. It should be noted that The National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating estimates that Canadians volunteered a total of 1.1 billion hours in 2000. (See M.H. Hall, L. McKeown and K. Roberts, 2001, Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, Catalogue no. 71-542-XPE, Ottawa, Statistics Canada.)

2. The calculation of revenues includes transfers between nonprofit and voluntary organizations.

3. This number may include paid staff working for more than one organization, in which case they would be counted more than once in the total.

4. Organizations that had been in existence for at least three years were asked about difficulties pertaining to funding from governments, foundations or corporations.