The Standards
Imagine Canada’s Standards Program offers a Canada-wide set of shared standards for charities and nonprofits to strengthen sector capacity in 5 fundamental areas:
- Governance
- Financial Accountability
- Fundraising
- Staff Management
- Volunteer Involvement
These are foundational standards that are relevant for all charities and nonprofits. They do not include program or service standards that some organizations have already developed in areas specific to their work or sub-sector.
Any organization may use the standards to improve and monitor its practices. Organizations wishing to demonstrate publicly they have successfully met the standards will have the opportunity to participate in a voluntary peer-review based accreditation process. The accreditation process will be piloted in 2011 and opened to all charities and public-benefit nonprofits in 2012.
To make the Standards Program as accessible as possible, the Standards have been categorized into the following 3 levels based on the size of the organization:
Levels |
Size of Organization |
|
Level 1 |
Organizations with less than 1 FTE employee |
|
Level 2 |
Organizations with between 1 and 50 FTE employees and up to $5 million in annual operating expenses |
|
Level 3 |
Organizations with more than 50 FTE employees or over $5 million in annual operating expenses |
Employee : All paid staff of the organization whether full-time, part-time, fixed-term contract, salaried or hourly.
Annual Operating Expenses : Use your average operating expenses over the last 3 years. Charities should use the amount on line 5100 of their Registered Charity Information Return (T3010)
FTE : Full time equivalent
Did you know that there are 161,000 nonprofilts and charities in Canada?
Did you know that Canada’s nonprofit and voluntary sector is the 2nd largest in the world?
The sector represents $79.1 billion or 7.8% of the gross domestic product
The sector is larger than automotive and manufacturing. It generates $112 billion in revenues and employs 2 million people
Canadians donated $10 billion in 2007
Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have the highest donor rates.
Canadians volunteered 2.1 billion hours in 2007
Young Canadians aged 15 to 24 are more likely to volunteer than Canadians in any other age group
One percent of nonprofits command 60% of all revenues flowing to the sector
Canadians with the lowest household incomes give a greater percentage of their income than others
Saskatchewan has the highest volunteer rate in the country, followed by the Northwest Territories and the Yukon
Those exposed to giving and volunteering activities early in life are more likely to continue those behaviours as adults
