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Welcome to CharityVillage Connects – a series that highlights topics vital to the nonprofit sector in Canada. CharityVillage is a resource to over 170,000 charitable and nonprofit organizations in Canada. This series, hosted by President Mary Barroll, will provide in-depth conversations with experts in the nonprofit sector. We’ll examine diversity, equity and inclusion, innovations in fundraising, the gap in female representation in leadership and many other subjects crucial to the growth and development of charities throughout Canada.
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Thank
Welcome to Charity Village Connects. I'm your host, Mary Barrell.
That's the sound of a hummingbird pollinating our world and making it a better place. The hummingbird is Charity Village's logo because we strive, like the industrious hummingbird, to make connections across the nonprofit sector and help make positive change. Over this series of podcasts, we'll explore topics that are vital to the nonprofit sector in Canada. Topics like diversity, equity and inclusion, mental health in the workplace,
the gap in female representation and leadership, and many other subjects crucial to the sector. We'll offer insight that will help you make sense of your life as a non-profit professional, make connections to help navigate challenges, and support your organization to deliver on its mission. You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like. We basically protect Canada. I love the Canadian people. They're great.
But we're spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We're spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We don't need their cars. We don't need their lumber. Why are we supporting a country, 200 billion plus a year, our military is at their disposal, they should be a state. That's what I told Trudeau when he came down. I said, what would happen if we didn't do it? He said Canada would dissolve.
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Canada wouldn't be able to function. intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust competitive process. This country deserves a real choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.
It's been quite a start to 2025. There's a new president in the United States and Donald Trump is already making statements that are, well, let's just say raising eyebrows if not causing outright alarm in Canada. First, it was threats of ruinous 25 % tariffs on all Canadian goods sold into the U.S. Then President Trump went even further, questioning whether the border should even exist.
pondering Canada as the 51st Response to that was swift and unequivocal. Just listen to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. You know something to the president, I'll make him a counter offer. How about if we buy Alaska and we'll throw in Minnesota and Minneapolis at the same time? It's not realistic. I know he likes joking around. I take that seriously. Under my watch, that will never ever happen. If that's not dizzying enough,
At the start of 2025, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would resign after a new Liberal leader was chosen, and then prorogued Parliament, essentially shutting down the business of government until March 24th, allowing the Liberal party to choose a new leader and delaying opposition efforts to bring a confidence vote. Conservative party and opposition leader Pierre Poliev was quick to strike.
attempting to paint all potential successors with the same liberal brush. Canadians desperate to turn the page on this dark chapter in our history might be relieved today that Justin Trudeau is finally leaving. But what has really changed? Every potential Liberal leadership contender helped Justin Trudeau break the country. All Liberal politicians worked to pass the carbon tax, a tax that Carney endorsed.
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all voted for or actively supported Trudeau's out of control spending, debt and immigration. Meanwhile, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh wants a quick election and says the Liberals are putting their party ahead of the interests of Canadians. Justin Trudeau's Liberals have let down Canadians. They have let you down when it comes to the cost of homes. He's let you down when it comes to the cost of living. Every Liberal MP. So it doesn't matter who
the next Liberal leader is. They've let you down. They're more interested in themselves than the struggles of Canadians. They're worried about themselves. There's a lot to digest. We've got a new or rather returning president in the US and are about to get a new Prime Minister in Canada. The bureaucracy in Ottawa is essentially frozen with a prorogation announcement. Even the new Liberal Prime Minister
Whoever that might be is likely to have an abbreviated tenure with opposition parties threatening a non-confidence vote as soon as Parliament returns, triggering a federal election. On top of that, we've had three provincial elections in 2024 and are scheduled to have two more provincial and two territorial elections in 2025. That is unprecedented political disruption. Can we slow this down? No, we can't.
but we can shift our own thinking and develop new strategies to navigate all the upheaval. All Canadians, but especially non-profits, will have to adjust and adapt to the ever-shifting political landscape. That's what we're going to examine in this Charity Village Connects episode. How the non-profit sector can prepare for and navigate through tremendous change.
and work effectively with governments on all sides of the political spectrum. We're going to help you cycle through the new cycle and direct a course through changes in governments, policy shifts, and funding challenges. Here are some initial thoughts from our guests. The expectation, at least at the federal level, is that there will be some significant changes in priorities.
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And candidly, there probably is going to be a reduction in funding that has been available for things like grants and contributions that charities and nonprofits rely on. We know that 70 % of the funding that charities receive come from government sources. So when there is a change in elected government, it means there's going to be a shift in policy and there will be a shift in funding priorities. And even small changes can have
a significant impact on operations. This is where it really becomes imperative for nonprofit leaders to think beyond short-term funding cycles and consider the long-term sustainability of their organization. There can be challenges and opportunities for nonprofits and charities in an election period. You know, I think we tend to focus more on the challenges and the disruption, and obviously there are some, but typically...
Most governments in Canada, in our parliamentary system, they go into a caretaker mode during the actual election period, which means that they will suspend making any major funding or policy decisions until the election is over. How can we think about fundraising? How can we think about combining efforts? How can we think about efficiencies? How can we support a particular organization to increase their revenue, particularly when there's potential sort of volatility and resourcing that may change?
Change is part of the political landscape. Complete upheaval is less common. The Trump presidency alone is sure to shake politics and economics all over the world. Here at home, we have our own tectonic political shifts, both at the federal and provincial level. And all this brings uncertainty, especially in the nonprofit sector. Uncertainty over relationships with government, new policies,
programs and funding priorities, and especially sources and levels of revenue. A charity law report finds that in 2023, 67 % of all revenue received by Canadian charities came from government. That's two-thirds of revenue. Other experts put that number even higher, and you'll be hearing from them on this podcast. Anticipated changes in government shifts in leadership.
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and policy directions are provoking significant uncertainty among many nonprofits about their future revenue streams, among other concerns. Change can be scary, so let's begin to navigate it. I want to start with the change of government in the U.S., how the Trump 2.0 presidency will affect the Canadian economy, and ultimately nonprofits and charities in our country. The word, Tara.
is the most beautiful word in the dictionary. More beautiful than love. More beautiful than respect. No less beautiful than religion. I do think that Trump's determination to impose tariffs really on a global basis is pretty high. And whether it turns out to be 25 % on Canada and Mexico or not, should make people feel better if it only turns out to be 20%. And on half of what you
export into the United States, not all of it. I think there's a very serious danger that we are going to fall inadvertently into a trade war. The first voice is one you no doubt recognize, President Trump, followed by John Bolton, former national security advisor in the first Trump administration, speaking on the eve of the second inauguration of President Donald Trump.
If Canada is facing a potential trade war with the United States, what will be the impact on the Canadian economy and ultimately nonprofits and charities? Although silent on the fate of Canada, President Trump, in his inaugural address, reiterated his intention to impose tariffs on goods flowing into the US from international sources. I will immediately begin the overhaul.
of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing the external revenue service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues. It will be massive.
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amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources. In a later news conference from the Oval Office, President Trump repeated his intention to impose tariffs on Canada as early as February. We're thinking in terms of 25 % on Mexico and Canada because they're allowing vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in. I think we'll do it February 1st. To unpack what tariffs and the uncertainty that a new Trump administration could bring,
We'll start with Chris Holtz, who's a principal and senior consultant at Campbell Strategies. Chris Holtz is also a government relations advisor for Capital W. He provides sage advice to all three levels of government and has done a lot of work with nonprofits. He's well versed on political change.
We knew that there would be threats of some sort of tariffs imposed on Canadian imports to the US because we've seen this movie before in President Trump's first term, but now we're looking at potentially ruinous 25 % tariffs according to his latest threats. What kind of impact would they have on Canadians, the economy and ultimately nonprofits? Economists have been pretty clear that
There will be significant impacts to the Canadian economy, jobs. The economy for 2025 is going to be quite rocky. Depending on how long these tariffs last, is this process going to be a year, multiple years, or is this something that will conclude in a few weeks time? We really don't know the answer to that, but there are impacts for sure on business, on job creation. For charities and nonprofits, that also means in some cases there will be more that
organizations need to do because of their mandates to support Canadians or Ontarians or British Columbians, wherever we may operate. In some cases, it may also mean a loss of revenue because governments are taking funding and dedicating it to new needs and requirements. For example, folks that have lost jobs in industry or something. I can't predict the absolute future, but what I can say is dynamic impacts right across the board. And it's not just
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From a Canada perspective, our friends of the US will also be impacted by this. Tariffs are not a one-way street. Tariffs will also be imposed by Canadians on US exports and they will have a significant impact as well. There will be impacts for the United States, there's no question. But proportionally, it's going to be harder for us. That will have a significant impact on GDP. Some of the economists in this country have already come out to say,
somewhere between 2 and 4 % impact on GDP, that's bad news. That's not gonna be great. It means that there may be ripple effects around inflation. We've just gone through it, but inflation rates may be increasing, job numbers may be decreasing, i.e. unemployment. If the prospect of ruinous tariffs and a potential trade war isn't bad enough, President Trump's other policies could also have significant impact on Canada.
First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my remain-in-Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release.
And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. Trump has been vocal for months about his plans to kick undocumented migrants out of America. In 2016, when Trump first came to office, you may remember Roxham Road popped up in rural Quebec. It saw more than 100,000 migrants cross. It has since been closed, but there are now fears of migrants trying to escape Trump's deportation orders.
who could try more dangerous crossings into Canada. Chris Holtz says President Trump's immigration policies will not just affect migrants and refugees. It could also have a significant impact on Canadians. The Trump presidency and their campaign has been very clear that immigration reform and illegal migrants, that there will be significant changes post January the 20th, 2025. What does that mean for us in Canada? It means that border
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communities may see an influx of folks crossing the border, like what happened six, seven, eight years ago, where folks are crossing the border, maybe illegally to come to Canada in part because of concerns that they may be arrested in the United States and sent back to countries of origin. What that means for Canadian communities is there may be a very large influx of illegal migrants to use that term to Canada. And what that means from a charity and nonprofit perspective,
is that organizations that provide service to folks that are migrants, that are recent immigrants or refugees may have a lot more work to do. They may be more funding as well. So that actually might be an opportunity, but the time for that basically is now until sometime in the future. Chris Holtz even president Trump's foreign policy, which includes his views about NORAD and NATO are likely to influence Canadian government spending. And so.
The fate of nonprofits. Defense spending. How could that possibly be an issue that would impact charities? Here's how. We rely on the Americans to do lots of things for us sometimes. And that includes our own defense, part of NORAD, certainly part of NATO. Canada isn't the only country that doesn't fully live up to its commitments in that regard. And there's a plan to eventually get to 2 % of GDP spending for defense and military purposes.
What does that mean? It means we're going to probably spend more money on the military. Maybe we should, but it also means that there's less money that would go around to charities and nonprofits that typically might be available. That's certainly, I think where the conservatives would go. That may be ultimately where the liberals choose to go. Now let's turn to the Canadian political landscape, an ever shifting scene here as well. In the wake of Justin Trudeau's announcement of his intention to resign, what can we expect?
Here's Chris Holt's thoughts on that. So for quite some time, the public opinion research has demonstrated that the conservatives have been multiple leagues ahead of where the liberals are over the last year and a half. That's continued to grow. That's not a political statement. That's just a fact based on public opinion research. The big development over the last several weeks is that the prime minister has announced that he is stepping down. There will be a leadership race.
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That leadership race will conclude in early March, which gives very little time for that new leader to set a course for the government, which will likely fall in fact, by the end of March when the next confidence vote is scheduled to take place. What that means is that there will be a federal election. That election will conclude in 36, maybe to 50 days.
So we're going into super overtime with a dynamic period of significant change, but also uncertainty around leadership, uncertainty around policy priorities. We know what many priorities are, candidly, but it's quite an uncertain time. No question.
The uncertainty is not just at the federal level. Many provinces have just gone through elections in 2024, some with consequential changes in government. And more elections are expected in 2025. With both federal and provincial elections shifting the Canadian political landscape, Chris Holtz also thinks, regardless of who comes to power in the federal election, there will be more austerity on the economic front. It doesn't matter what our political views might be.
But change in government can create some opportunity for charities and nonprofits and business folks and others. But it can also be a challenge in the sense that, you a new government may have different priorities where we may not fully fit with the frame that that government selected. So I think it's really three things that we need to think about with any change in government, whether it's a provincial or federal government or municipal government even. And those three things are, you know, a change in policy or programs or priorities for that government.
The second one though is around funding. And so when I say funding, I'm talking about the kinds of grants and contributions that many charities and nonprofits will rely on, where a new government may have a different priority list or different kinds of program ideas or restructuring. And then the third one would be a lot of the fee for service programs that governments deliver, meaning many charities and nonprofits deliver services to clients.
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on a fee-for-service model because the government relies on those nonprofits and charities to deliver that service. So that could be another area where that changes because there's a change in government and maybe there's a change in the priorities or how programs are delivered. So those are the three areas. A change in government at any level has significant impacts on charities and nonprofits due to what's known as the Canadian fee-for-service model.
and the dependence organizations have on government funding. Let's look at what the data has to say. Catherine Babcock is CEO of Capital W, a consulting agency that uses a data-centered approach to help Canadian charities unlock revenue and create social impact. Capital W is the only consulting agency in Canada with revenue data on all of Canada's 80,000 active charities.
As Catherine Babcock points out, the data provides a clear picture of just how much charities rely on government funding in Canada from all levels. So $322 billion flows through the charitable sector every year to charities. And $239 billion of that is from government at different levels. So that is 77 % of money that is flowing to charities.
from government, either federal, provincial or municipal. The cost of living is crushing Canadians, leaving many struggling to feed their families. Visits to food banks have reached a new record high, painting a grim picture of a growing hunger crisis. It appears Canadians are giving less and less. According to a new report from Canada Helps, both donations and the number of donors are down year over year.
Meanwhile, the number of Canadians who need services provided by charities is growing. Changes to government funding levels and fee-for-service programs are a huge concern for the non-profit sector, especially in recent years of diminishing revenues. Individual donations to non-profits have decreased at the same time as these organizations are seeing a significant increase in the need for the services they provide.
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In December of 2024, a Canada Helps report found that 2 in 10 Canadians are relying on charities for essentials, like food and shelter. And this corresponds with a 2 % decline in overall giving on CanadaHelps.org, the largest online giving platform in the country. A December 2023 public opinion poll commissioned by Imagine Canada
found that 17 % of responding Canadians had personally engaged the services of a charity or non-profit because of the impacts associated with inflation and the higher cost of living. This has nearly doubled from 9 % a year earlier. The Canadian Survey of Business Conditions shows that 69 % of non-profits that typically receive individual donations are experiencing challenges finding new donors, with 58 % saying that
Donors are not giving as much as they used to, and 49 % reporting challenges in retaining existing donors. Nearly a third of organizations facing these challenges have reduced or are planning to reduce the programs and services they offer. 17 % of organizations facing fundraising challenges have already cut staff or plan to do so, and 6 % report they're at the risk of closing. In addition to these existing financial challenges,
Many organizations are bracing for another impact as the 2023 federal budget proposed changes to the alternative minimum tax takes effect. That will reduce financial incentives for high-income individuals donating to charity. Some experts worry this could result in further pressure on under-resourced charities as the overall value of charitable donations in Canada may decrease.
In other words, the non-profit sector is already feeling depleted and vulnerable with even more potential problems on the horizon, painting a bleak picture for organizations facing the expected devastating impacts caused by U.S. policies on the Canadian economy. Chris Holtz believes that no matter which federal party comes to power in Canada, the non-profit sector should expect the next government to tighten its purse strings. I think that the reality is
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fiscal restraint is coming regardless of what parties empower. I think the magnitude may be different based on the flavor. You know, if it's a blue punch that we're all drinking, then it's going to be much tighter. If it's the red punch that we have a drinking, it's not going to be the same. It's going to be watered down. So what I mean by that is they've already signaled that the level of funding that's even under a liberal government, one that has been very loose on the taps, that is probably changing.
So I think from a funding perspective, there's going to be change, but the magnitude is going to be different based on the brands that are elected. No party has fully put out their platform and that process is literally underway right now. But the expectation, at least at the federal level, is that there will be some significant changes in priorities. And candidly, there probably is going to be a reduction in funding that has been available for things like grants and contributions that charities and nonprofits rely on. Or.
Some of the program areas where we currently provide a lot of funding may be changed fundamentally because there's a different vision for how that program should be delivered. And that might impact fee for service models that a number of charities and nonprofits rely on. So that's an example at the federal level. And similarly, I think at the provincial level, potential changes in government, whether we're talking about Western British Columbia, out East in New Brunswick or here in Ontario, all changes in government.
potentially have great opportunities for charities, but can certainly be a threat in the sense that a government's priorities may be different and therefore there may be fiscal or funding consequences of that. So we need to be mindful of that.
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In the face of so much uncertainty and changes in government, what can Canadian nonprofits and charities do to ride out the storm, develop new relationships, and build resilience? I want to pick up on something Chris Holtz mentioned. Change in government often brings challenges to the nonprofit sector, but it also brings opportunities. Jesse Clark knows this all too well.
She's a government funding expert with more than 20 years experience in government and nonprofit leadership, including senior roles leading government relations and government funding strategies for several Canadian organizations. Jessie Clark agrees that election periods bring challenges. The key is to see the opportunities as well. can be challenges and opportunities for nonprofits and charities in an election period.
You know, I think we tend to focus more on the challenges and the disruption and obviously there are some. Typically, most governments in Canada, in our parliamentary system, they go into a caretaker mode during the actual election period, which means that they will suspend making any major funding or policy decisions until the election is over. And that can also create lot of delays if you have someone waiting for a decision, waiting for a funding decision, often they'll be put on hold during that period. And then of course, it takes a bit of time for any new government, especially if it's a new party, to
get on board and learn their ways of working, build these new relationships as well. That can also take time. So those are, think, some of the challenges. But I think there's also opportunities as well with an election that sometimes is easier to overlook. One thing is that an election can be a great opportunity to increase public awareness and engagement. The majority of people don't pay a lot of attention to politics, don't pay lot of attention to policy issues. But during an election, you're much more able to capture the public's attention.
It can be a great opportunity to really leverage some significant public engagement around issues that are important to you. As our experts have noted, change in government at any level has significant impacts on charities and nonprofits due to the Canadian fee-for-service model and the dependence organizations have on government funding. Even while recent news cycles have focused on the impending federal election, for nonprofits looking to launch a government relations strategy,
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it actually may be most efficient to reach out to those politicians and civil servants that are closer to home, provincial and municipal contacts. As Catherine Babcock explains, although $239 billion flow from government to charities in Canada each year, the vast majority comes from the provincial governments at almost 90 % of all government funding. Actually, federal is only around 7%. The majority is
provincial with a small fraction coming from municipality. And the reason the majority is provincial is because of the jurisdictional issues and there's a lot of federal transfer payments to the provinces. So the money might've originated with the feds, but from the charities perspective, when they're recording where the money's coming from, the lion's share is coming from the province in which they reside. While most of the funding to charities in Canada flow through provincial governments, of course, the feds do play a role as well.
A change at the federal level could make a significant impact. The federal government has its own funding priorities and may change the policy mandates and the dollar amounts of the transfer payments made from federal to provincial governments, which are then passed on to charities and nonprofits. So how can nonprofits prepare for potential change at both government levels?
The first step is to conduct a thorough and honest assessment of your funding sources and your strengths and weaknesses of your organization. Chris Holtz recommends assessing where your organization is at now, both with funding and your current government relations work. The first thing I would say is really like assess what's happening. What's the big picture? Let's look to where your money is already coming from. What are the key funders?
for you as an organization. And if that's government, well, then that's where we should pay the most attention and other funders as well. But if government is the number one funding entity, the federal government, the provincial government, doesn't matter which, that should be our key priority. Let's look at the context, the different parties that are looking to potentially form government, what their priorities are, what things they've said. That's helpful. And how do we fit? Are we?
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a charity or nonprofit that has significant outcomes, we have a huge media profile, we have a number of clients that we touch on, or, you know, are we very small? We're not well known. We might have a relationship with our local representatives, maybe our counselor, maybe our MPP or MLA or MP or what have you. Let's figure out what we have, what our relationships actually are or aren't, and then figure out what is the best approach.
Niti Bhotoia, is a specialist in private philanthropy and an executive and team coach with more than 20 years experience at the community and national level. The VP of Development at Capital W, she agrees that it's imperative organizations understand the makeup of their current revenue sources, then prepare for possible policy and funding changes ahead, planning for external unexpected factors and long-term sustainability and growth.
We know that 70 % of the funding that charities receive come from government sources. So when there is a change in elected government, it means there's going to be a shift in policy and there will be a shift in funding priorities. And even small changes can have a significant impact on operations. This is where it
really becomes imperative for nonprofit leaders to think beyond short-term funding cycles and consider the long-term sustainability of their organization. We know historically organizations that survive during times of extraordinary cuts in funding have a couple of things in common. They are able to innovate.
but they also are able to rely on philanthropic revenue during lean times. And that allows them to come back after some time and continue to grow and survive and continue. Generally speaking, when we look at assessing revenues for organizations in our sector, we look at bundling them in three different ways. We look at government funding, philanthropy,
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and earned revenue sources. And if for an organization, a significant amount of funding is coming from one particular area, it's important that they really understand that, understand how to maintain and potentially grow. Or if it's too much revenue in one particular area, it may pose a risk. And then the question becomes, how can the organization mitigate that particular risk?
your revenue assessment will tell you a couple of things. It will tell you where you're doing well and therefore where you have opportunity to grow. And it's also going to tell you where you may not be doing well, but there could be potential opportunity, a gateway to new sources of revenue, if you will.
Jessie Clark emphasizes the importance of doing research and cultivating relationships in her advice for organizations, readying themselves for navigating political change. My core message right now to organizations is really to just keep calm and carry on, but do that in a smart way. There are lot of core fundamentals that are relevant no matter what the political context that I think it's really important for organizations to lean into. There's three that I would highlight here. I mean, one of them is do your homework.
I can't really emphasize that enough in terms of there is so much great information out there. It's not always easy to find, but there's a lot of really good information on government websites, on political affairs, firms' websites as well, and newsletters. So try and get a sense of who is leading on what, what positions are they taking? And as much as you can, try and get a sense of different parties and what you might be able to expect and do a bit of sort of scenario planning.
And very closely related to that, I would also recommend putting a strong emphasis on relationships. So you want to make sure that you have identified potential allies and champions, both within the sector in terms of other organizations you can collaborate with. Take a look at where there might be some alignment with a new party coming in, with candidates coming in. Maybe there's something they have in common or issues of common interest that you can look to and really build a strategy around as well.
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And finally, think it's always really, important for nonprofits and charities to speak from what you know. You bring a unique expertise to the table the governments want to hear based on your own organization's experience, evidence and impact. So if you speak from these experiences, I think it gives you lot of credibility with government. But for charities who have little or no experience of government relations work, it can sometimes feel like a risky business.
It's important to understand how they can cultivate these new relationships and make their voices heard by government without putting their charitable status at risk. When attempting to find alignment between their mandate and a new government's platform, how can charities ensure that their relationships with elected officials and political candidates follow the permissible rules required under law and remain non-partisan? What exactly are the rules?
The Government of Canada regulations on public policy dialogue and development activities state that a charity may engage in unlimited activities that further its charitable purposes, provided it never directly or indirectly supports or opposes a political party or candidate for public office. In other words, a charity is free to advocate for retaining, opposing, or changing any law, policy, or decision of government in furtherance of its stated charitable purposes.
Charities can contribute to the development of government policies, provide information to the public related to their charitable purposes, conduct policy research and express opinions on matters related to their charitable purposes. They may call on supporters or the general public to contact elected officials, public officials, political parties and candidates of all parties to express their support for or opposition to a particular law, policy or decision of any level of government in Canada.
They may speak or write to elected officials, political parties and candidates, and appear at parliamentary committees and release such materials publicly. On the other hand, here's what charities cannot do. The Income Tax Act prohibits a charity from devoting any part of its resources to the direct or indirect support of, or opposition to, any political party or candidate for public office.
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Any activity that supports or opposes a political party or candidate is not permitted to any degree. What this means is that a charity may publicly agree or disagree with a decision or a position of government, but in doing so must not support or oppose any political party or candidate for public office. As a general guideline, a charity's communications should focus on the policy issue under discussion.
and not refer to any candidate or political party. Jessie Clark elaborates on what following these rules actually looks like in practice. When you register a charity, you have to establish a charitable purpose. And when you do that, that purpose really becomes your guideline for any kind of political engagement. So essentially, so long as your engagement and advocacy is furthering your charitable purpose, right, helping you accomplish that goal, then you're in very good territory as far as
legally permitted or regulatory permitted activities for charities. I think the other thing that's really important is you want to make sure you're keeping your engagement nonpartisan. And by that, mean not to be engaging with one political party over another, but making sure that if you're sending in a survey to candidate, that everyone's getting it at the same time and has the same opportunity to reply. You know, if you're hosting a debate on an issue, make sure you're inviting people from all parties. Make sure that senior officials from your organization are not seen to be endorsing
certain political leaders or candidates. Those are probably some of really core things to keep in mind in terms of an election period. The more that you can keep it non-partisan and not tied to a political party, and the more you can just keep focused on the issues that are of your primary concern. Obviously, sometimes it's nuanced, there's going to be some overlap, but I think that's the most important guiding principle. Once an organization has familiarized itself with party platforms,
In order to develop a strong government relations strategy and execute it effectively, Chris Holt suggests that the work that follows is basic salesmanship. Okay, so if we're talking now on the other end, a new government is elected. I think that's sales 101. Know your audience, know who you're selling to, and that means understanding their headspace. It doesn't mean that we have to surrender all of our values as an organization. I'm not saying that whatsoever.
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But I'm saying that we'll be more successful if we at least understand where they're coming from. We may vehemently disagree. We may actually see an opportunity to reshape what we do because it fits that narrative. We might be much more successful in generating revenue by doing that. It's more about can we be creative enough to envision ourselves in that frame? Because if we can, we can be quite successful.
Of the many strategies nonprofits should engage in to ensure their mission remains a priority for the new government, Jesse Clark highlights how important it is to foster and maintain strong relationships with civil servants. Don't forget that there are civil servants who are going to be there throughout a transition period, no matter what political direction the electorate might choose, and they can always stay there as resources for your organization.
Chris Holtz agrees, adding that these civil servants play a key role in the transition of government.
Those civil servants are the folks that are putting that material into the briefing binders for a potential new minister and a new government. Those transition binders are very, very important. And if we're able to build the case that our organization is delivering great outcomes, that we're dealing with a really, really important issue in our region or province-wide or nationally, some of that content may get reflected in the briefing transition materials that a new minister and a new government will get for that area or that portfolio.
And so how do we do that? Yes, it's meetings, Zoom or team meetings or whatever, but it's also information sharing. There may be data that we have that is pretty interesting and unique and important for them to know. It's not always about asking for more. In some cases, it's about demonstrating expertise, but also value. When exactly should organizations start engaging in this work of building government relations?
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And where should they begin? Chris Holtz has this to say. There's no time like the present. The earlier you can start this process, the better it is. Even in the midst of an election campaign, it's possible to get platform commitments delivered, communicated by parties that are running. So if we're talking federally, not predicting the immediate future and the very next confidence vote, but you know, there's weeks or months.
watch everything change tomorrow. I would just simply say from a civil service perspective, the opportunity to engage is basically now until the writs are issued. And the value of that is ensuring that you have a relationship with decision makers in the civil service, those that maintain the contribution agreements that you rely on because 35 % of your funding comes from that department or ministry or agency, but also because the content of that discussion of that material
may be included in the transition briefings that are developed for a potential new government or new minister. Chris Holtz also has this advice on how to prepare for meetings with either civil servants or government representatives. It's emails to some of those folks you don't know very well requesting the opportunity to meet. PowerPoint is great and has its own challenges, but the value of a PowerPoint presentation is that everybody on the team or the organization has a clear understanding
of what we're trying to communicate. At least going through that process will help because those discussions are limited in time. How limited? 30 minutes. So in 30 minutes, you've got 20 minutes really to communicate something that's very important to you. And it's one of 400 things that the recipient, know, the civil service, the ADM for this particular division or the chief of staff to minister so-and-so.
They've only got that amount of time, so 20 minutes to deliver that presentation, 10 minutes for discussion and questions and really, are we tracking? Are we getting buy-in from these decision makers? Are they committing to doing something with us? Are we agreeing to deliver something if this happens? That's important. Rehearsals for sure and having the messaging really, really concise.
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so that you can deliver what you need to deliver and you can also set the context for why it is that you're talking. So knowing the context and communicating the broader context is actually probably the first before we get into the specifics about why us, why we're talking to you, whatever the issue is and what our solution is or what our ask is. That frames really every discussion that I've ever had in government. I've been doing it a very long time.
Jesse Clark agrees that the time immediately before an election is called can be a very effective time to engage with both civil servants and political parties to ramp up those relationships. Specifically, I would say, and I certainly am getting this from people, you know, who are very eager to get funding decisions settled and locked down. And certainly this is a time when you may see government making some decisions because they often, frankly, and this has been a trend for 20 years or more in Canada.
like to have exciting new programs to announce on the eve of an election. So there can be opportunities from that end of it. But I would say if you haven't already submitted, it's getting to be very tight, the timing. What I do think is really important to focus on when there's an election on the horizon like there is right now, definitely building those relationships. So I think there's a lot of value in having an opposition strategy, which sounds perhaps very technical, but it's really just fundamentally.
Knowing who are the stakeholders that you want to be engaging with, taking a look at their positions. Maybe there's an opportunity sometimes in this period as well to engage in platform development processes. Sometimes parties are reaching out and inviting submissions and engagement. That can be a really great opportunity right now to try and learn what you can on the positions on issues that are most relevant to your work. Once the elections launched, it'll be even easier to do that away because that's when there often tends to be a lot more public information available on party platforms and plans.
So I think that's also something to keep in mind and just to feel ready for any transition. Also, because then as soon as that new government is announced and as soon as the election takes place, that's also an opportunity. It usually takes them a little bit of time to find their offices and phones and get settled in. But that's a time when you can be doing some research and be ready right at the gate to start meetings with new people coming in as well. In addition to the short-term work that should be done right now in anticipation of upcoming elections bound to happen in the near term,
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What should organizations be doing on an ongoing, more long-term basis? And what about smaller organizations? How can they best use their rather limited resources to work with government? Here's what Chris Holtz advises. I think the strategy dictates how important it is, and then time and resources dictates what's possible. So when I say that, it comes down to, at a minimum, the civil service relationship, the one where we report to.
That's something that is important. If we're getting 42 % of our funding from this particular ministry or whatever, then you've got to spend that amount of time out of 100 % of time ensuring that that's fulfilled. It's as simple as that. Follow the money. If we have the capacity, because we have a board that is engaged, getting board members to also participate helps to share that load. Engaging at a minimum our local representatives to ensure that they understand what the organization
is and does and what we deliver is a good thing because that may be helpful down the road for new funding that we weren't aware of or maybe we have a budget ask. We know the vast majority of nonprofits in Canada are just too small to have a person on staff dedicated exclusively to work on government relations. How do smaller, less resourced nonprofits and charities cultivate relationships with government when they're struggling just to survive and to deliver on their missions?
Jesse Clark suggests that rather than focus on what they're lacking, organizations should hone in on existing resources, networking organizations, and consider developing a bigger voice through collaboration with similar nonprofits. We're really lucky in Canada and that there are some really great industry associations and networks out there, at the financial level, at the federal level, that offer free advice, tools, know, insights and training that...
host events and networking opportunities. So definitely encourage people to seek out those kinds of opportunities because that's the way where you can get your own smaller organizations voice to be leveraged and to be amplified when you're coordinating, collaborating with others and also just get access to some of the resources that are out there. I think sometimes people think that, you we have to have someone who's a specialist and develop all these specialized resources for government. Well, you actually might have a lot more already existing within your organization than you realize.
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One of the exercises I've done with people in some of the courses I've done is do an asset mapping exercise where you take a look at what are all the existing things you're doing already? Are there reports that are being generated for other funders or there are newsletter or there are events taking place that you could also be leveraging for your government relationships. So you don't need to be adding on whole new specialized things, but bringing your government partners into some of the other activities that are already taking place can be a great way to really start building those relationships.
Catherine Babcock agrees that for small players, it may be highly effective to group together and collaborate with other small organizations with similar missions. And even to explore mergers, something some organizations in the Canadian nonprofit sector did successfully during our last crisis, the pandemic. A plan to collaborate, not compete. Two female-focused charities that have been coexisting in Calgary for years are now merging.
a win-win for them and those they help. If there is a way that you have seen that there's efficiencies or amplification that can be done in your space, if you are in a space that people can have those kind of conversations together, you are really well positioned to be going to talk to a funder. Because as a charity, when I go in the door to talk to a funder, they're my one conversation a day, but they're having this conversation 25 times.
and they're trying to fit it together in their own mind about how all these different groups that sound similar, what are the differences and what are they doing. So if there's a mechanism to collaborate and bring integrated asks, but again, that takes somebody to do that. It doesn't just fall out of the sky, but if that is there, that is something that's great. Identify economies of scale amongst similar organizations or even mergers. We've been involved in a couple of mergers of.
people coming together and just finding their own efficiencies and not having those found for them. When we talk about the 86,000 charities, if we can know ourselves better as a group, then we can act in our interest as opposed to solitary players. If the data allows us to understand each organization's in context and learn from best practice from what other players are doing. But we're starting to really work with collective impact sustainability and really looking at the cause.
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and how to support those pieces as a way of bringing organizations together. I think our collective protection comes from collaboration. In addition to finding ways to collaborate with other organizations to ensure your collective voices reach the government's ear, all of our guests speak to the importance of diversifying revenue sources. Niti Bhotoia, explains where to start this important work.
in diversifying a nonprofit organization's sources of funding, whether from government, individual donors, funders, or the private sector. It is incumbent upon the charity to really think about incremental growth. So if an organization is really in need of unrestricted funds, for example, that's an indication that it really needs to plan,
for revenue diversification. And again, my advice is to start where you have success and grow that particular stream. The other thing to keep in mind is as you grow your revenue sources, you're also going to have to grow your programming because in order to meet your project or program deliverables to donors and funders, you're going to have to show the impact that you were able to make.
And so it becomes very important for an organization to have good policies, financial reporting structures, governance. All of these things need to be in place for an organization to see growth. Niti Bhotoia, suggests that organizations thinking about diversifying their funding need to recognize that it will take some time. Diversification of revenue does take time, particularly for smaller organizations.
My recommendation is to start by including it in a strategic plan that has a three to five year runway. And it's important for small charities to set realistic goals and to ensure that you have included the budget and infrastructure that's going to be required to achieve the goals that you want to achieve. Too often organizations may think that hiring a fundraiser
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will resolve their funding issues. But it does take a full sort of 12 months, and I would say 18 months before you begin to see the gains of having a fundraiser support the organization. Jesse Clark recommends that organizations diversify even their government funding sources.
by expanding beyond writing grant applications for open calls for proposals. I hear a lot that you can only find funding information when you see an open call for proposals or on a government website. That might be the easiest and most obvious place, like in procurement site or in a government website call for proposals. But I think it's often one of the hardest ways to get funded. Those processes are often very competitive and you'll be applying against often hundreds of other organizations depending on the scope of the work and the scope of the call.
Really my advice there is that, yes, of course you want to be looking for publicly available information, but you also want to have existing relationships with government where they will point you to upcoming opportunities, know, give you a heads up or tell you about opportunities that maybe aren't being posted publicly for various reasons that you might need to be invited to apply for, for example. And part of that is so that you can get a bit of an advance notice because sometimes when they launch a call for proposals, they'll say, you know, you have four weeks to put this complex program together and
put together a coalition. So it's always helpful if you've been aware that this is coming. In that situation, I've encouraged you to, and this seems obvious, but really read everything in great detail because there's often sort of three or four layers of pages you'll find in these RFPs that list eligibility requirements, telling you what kind of documentation you have to have in place. And so you want to make sure you're not going to be disqualified by something really basic because that's incredibly frustrating when your organization has put all this work in.
My advice for writing proposals, and this goes for any proposal, whether it's in a competitive situation, whether you've been invited to submit something to a minister, I can't emphasize enough. You want to make it painfully obvious to reader how well your proposed work aligns with government priorities. So even if you think it might be obvious in your head, trust me, it's not. And you want to really think about how can I make this absolutely crystal clear that we know what it is they're trying to accomplish, and we are really well positioned to help them accomplish that.
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Catherine Babcock explains that having other private sources of revenue not only creates resilience, but it also adds credibility to an organization when competing for government funding. So for an organization to build resilience in terms of their fundraising, there's about five different ways that money can move to a charity or nonprofit. And one of those ways is government grants. But the other ways are if you can have an earned revenue strategy or if you can have
an annual giving program or if you can have a major gifts program or if you have revenues coming in from other places, it allows you to be a little bit more resilient in the face of potential funding withdrawals, but it also creates the opportunity to approach government with conceptualizations because you have resources to bring to the table. So anywhere where you can bring resources to the table, you're in a more powerful position because right now the orientation to government
I've heard someone describe it as a parasitic supplicant. Like you're really lucky that you get their funding. And I just like the turn of it to say, not too government's lucky to be at your table and to be able to move these resources together with you. And when it comes to considering the nonprofit sector's reliance on government funding, Catherine Babcock thinks it could be beneficial for the sector to consider reframing how they think about their relationship with government. This is the largest public-private
partnership that we have in Canada as the charitable sector. So there are lot of charities doing work that government is outsourcing to them through contributions, which government would have to provide themselves as part of their mandate if those charities were not providing those pieces. So I don't know that it's ever that a charity is completely independent of government, but more that if you have more private resourcing or non-governmental resourcing, it can enhance
the comfort level of government in terms of resourcing your work. But that small percentage can leverage and build a resiliency in terms of engaging with government. Outside of the ballot box, philanthropy is the most significant vote for the kind of Canada that we want to live in. And I think governments pay attention to those votes in terms of
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when they are understanding or at least you're stronger for having those votes in terms of reflecting a priority of the society. And that includes volunteer capital, intellectual capital, voluntary capital and financial capital. It's a powerful vote. And in conceptualizing how the whole system works, the desire is that we can be more intentional about how we're putting our voluntary contributions towards
the kind of Canada that we want to live in. As citizens across Canada wait to see just when they might be heading to the ballot box next, Chris Holtz shares these key recommendations for developing your government relations strategy in the expectation of a new federal government. Understanding your organization and determining what your government relations strategy is in this changing context, that's the number one thing. Number two, there is an opportunity to engage political parties.
opposition parties, governments with respective platform commitments. Even at this late stage, it is possible. So that would be number two. Number three is strengthening the relationships that we have with public service decision makers, civil servants. And what I mean by that is those that we report to, those that we have a funding relationship with. Why? Because they're the ones that ultimately will
prepare the transition binders and materials for a new minister and a new government, no matter who gets elected. That's really important and getting our material, getting our views incorporated in that is really, really important. And now is the time. And the time, by the way, is limited, meaning we have time now, but the moment that the writs are issued, when an election actually takes place, that's it. So now would be the time. And the last thing is
recognizing that funding does come from government for many organizations that it may be substantial. Big recommendation would be look to diversify your sources. That doesn't mean getting away from government funding. But what it does mean is if a government gets elected as very fiscally conservative and it doesn't matter if it's a liberal or conservative government, they all have gone through this. NDP governments have too. Be mindful that if that's likely to happen.
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that we need to be mindful of what other funding sources are available. So diversify, look to diversify our sources of revenue is something that I would also recommend. So those are four things. The multitude of issues and economic impacts arising from political change, both south of the border and domestically, are inevitably going to bring significant challenges for nonprofits to weather the storm. But as we've heard in this episode,
change also brings opportunities. As we wrap up this episode of Charity Village Connects, we asked our guests for some last words of advice. Nini Batoya says fundraising is always more effective when working collaboratively. Regardless of the size of your organization, there is always room and opportunity for growth. Smaller organizations should look beyond paid staff,
to senior volunteers, current and past board members, community leaders, and others to support fundraising and board members and those who really care about a particular cause to take the work into the market and understand what is resonating. And often that will result in a refinement to programs
and a refinement in the way that the cause and the issues are talked about. And in so doing, what happens over time and with continued fundraising activity and momentum, revenues will start to come in the door, which can then be used to support a fundraising position or fundraising infrastructure that is going to be required to continue to grow.
Jesse Clark says non-profits may find more receptive listeners among members of a new government than they had with the old. I understand completely the concerns and anxiety that's out there. There are challenges, but yeah, there's definitely some opportunities. One of the things that can be kind of exciting with the change in government is that there can be a fresh start for certain issues. You may have had that same conversation with an MP or cabinet minister several times without being able to get anywhere.
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You'll have the opportunity maybe to come to somebody who has a fresh perspective on the issue or maybe approaching it from a completely different way. Especially in the early stages as well of a new government coming in, particularly if there's a change in government, it can be quite exciting because there's a lot of openness to engaging with stakeholders and figuring out what's going on, you can lay the land. Catherine Babcock says an election is a good time to rethink and reframe how you communicate your mandate.
and how it can align with political party platforms. Every crisis presents an opportunity. And so if you're currently receiving government resourcing, it's to really solidify those relationships with the bureaucrats and really get to multi-party to let people know in your community about what your organization is doing. Allies with your MP or MPP have some connection so that should you need to
involve them that you're able to do so. And also to start to think because the platforms, when they're released, there are ways to start to think about and reframing even before an election is held. But in light of the recent US election results, Chris Holtz says the urgency to develop your government relations is even greater. So first I would say is if you're working on your government relations strategy and reassessing it,
you're going to have to work faster. If you're past that, you better start engaging with the parties and their platform commitments. Just keep going. If your head's in the sand, you better get out of it pretty quick. The urgency, I would say, is more significant today than it was a week ago. So in other words, you really need to assess your organization, look at the environment that you're going into.
and determine what is an appropriate strategy. Should we go into harbor? Should we go in a particular direction? Should we partner with other organizations, similar to ours, where being a collaborative, we can build a bigger case for attention and maybe an investment of some type. There's lots of options, but now is absolutely the time. And if you haven't yet, you better start like yesterday. That would be the number one message.
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The only constant in life is change. We know that. And our shifting political landscape has proven it once again. We're facing domestic political change that, when coupled with changing government in the United States, may well prove unprecedented in its impact on our economy and ultimately government spending towards the nonprofit sector. But our guests have provided us insight on what that change may mean to charities and nonprofits.
how to develop new relationships and strategies to deal with it effectively, and how to grow revenues and build resilience over the long term. Thank you to all our guests for their keen insight and wise advice. Be sure to visit our website and our show notes for more information on the resources, reports, and programs mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to hear more of what our guests have to say, check out our full video interviews on our website.
Charity Village is proud to be the Canadian source for non-profit news, employment services, crowdfunding, e-learning, HR resources and tools and so much more. Please take a moment to check out our website at charityvillage.com.
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In our next episode of Charity Village Connects, we're going to stick to this theme of navigating political change. We've heard from the experts, now we want to hear from you. We'll talk to Canadian charities and nonprofits about what they're experiencing on the ground and in the field, what they're hearing from advisors and boards, and drill down on the strategies they're developing, the relationships they're exploring and cultivating.
and how they plan to navigate this ever-shifting landscape to survive and thrive into the future. It's going to be an interesting discussion. I'm Mary Barrell. Thanks for listening.