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:

1. Board Governance
2. Financial Accountability & Transparency
3. Ethical Fundraising
4. Staff Management
5. 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. 

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:

1. Organizations with no staff are exempt from standards relating to staff management.
2. Excluding organizations that meet the criteria for Level 1. 

Definitions

Annual Expenses: Use your average expenses, including gifts to qualified donees, over the last 3 years. Charities should use the amount on line 5100 of their Registered Charity Information Return (T3010).

Employees: All paid staff of the organization whether full-time, part-time, fixed-term contract, salaried or hourly.

FTE: Full-time equivalent. Use your average FTE employees over the last 3 years. The definition of full-time employment can vary from one organization to another but is generally defined as between 35 and 40 hours of work per week, 52 weeks per year.