Policy priority: Core Funding
The federal government frequently relies on the sector to deliver crucial programs and services but very rarely allows nonprofits to use its funding to cover essential core costs.
Nonprofits, like businesses and government, have basic core operating costs such as insurance, rent, and computers that they must cover in order to function. When nonprofits are reliant on project-based funding and cannot access core funding to cover these essential costs, it negatively impacts the quality of services they can offer their community, the employment conditions of nonprofit workers, and the long-term sustainability of their organizations.
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Jumping from one project-based contract to another shifts the focus away from developing and improving the quality of programs and services or building organizational sustainability. Ultimately, this negatively impacts the communities that nonprofits serve.
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77% of nonprofit workers are women, 47% are immigrants and 34% are racialized and Indigenous people. The prevalence of short-term project funding and underfunding leads to low wages, few benefits and precarious work for our diverse workforce.
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Core funding is a crucial tool to help the nonprofit sector prepare for and weather crises, such as public health emergencies and economic downturns, when communities need the sector more than ever.
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Reclassify 30% of all current project-based funding that is destined for charities and nonprofits to be eligible as core funding.
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Improve project-based funding as recommended in the 2019 Catalyst for Change Senate Report.
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Take an equity approach to the provision of core funding to address historical inequities.
Imagine Canada, 2023
Imagine Canada, 2023
Imagine Canada, 2022
Imagine Canada, 2022
Imagine Canada, 2022
The Conversation, 2022
Imagine Canada, 2020
Imagine Canada, 2020
Canadian Women’s Foundation, ONN, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and Kathleen Lahey with contributions from Imagine Canada, 2020
Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector, 2019 - recommendations 10, 11 and 12
The Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2009
Independent Blue Ribbon Panel, 2006
Canadian Council on Social Development, 2005
The Philanthropist, 2004