[News] Charity Insights Project Canada

The Canadian charitable sector employs more than 10% of the country’s full-time workforce and accounts for 8.3% of the country’s GDP. However, up-to-date data on the sector is critically scarce. The CICP-PCPOB is an ambitious project that will ensure that policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and the general public have accurate, timely, and comprehensive information about the charitable sector in Canada. Through weekly surveys and reports, an online interactive information and training hub, and monthly policy briefs, the Charity Insights Canada Project [CICP]/Projet Canada perspectives des organismes de bienfaisance [PCPOB] will offer an exhaustive overview of the trends, challenges, and opportunities facing the Canadian charitable sector. It will assist policymakers in making evidence-based policy decisions, develop data capacity for practitioners, and expand the knowledge about the charitable sector for all stakeholders, including the general public.

The CICP-PCPOB has three fundamental goals:

(1) To inform the sectors’ stakeholders and researchers by surveying a representative sample of registered charities regularly to collect longitudinal data on critical aspects of the charitable sector.

(2) To build a lasting and flexible infrastructure to promote access and understanding of the data collected about the sector.

(3) To strengthen the relationship between the sector and policymakers in designing evidence-based policies on issues impacting the charitable sector.

We are committed to a systems-oriented and purposeful approach to closing the information gap about registered charities in Canada through regular surveys, research and policy briefs, and capacity-building to promote free and accessible data.

This project is made possible through a $3.4 million investment from the Alberta-based Muttart Foundation, the Lawson Foundation and Metcalf Foundations in Ontario, the Vancouver Foundation in British Columbia and an anonymous donor.  Dr. Paloma Raggo, faculty member in the School of Public Policy and Administration and the Sprott School of Business, is the project lead.