Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP)

Context

Canada’s charitable sector is operating in an increasingly complex environment. Rising demand for services, workforce shortages, changing funding models, new technologies, evolving public policy, and growing community needs are reshaping how charities operate.

Yet much of the information available about the sector comes from administrative data or large-scale surveys that reflect conditions months, or even years, in the past.

The CICP was established to close this gap. By collecting information from charities every week, we provide a snapshot of the sector, while identifying the trends, risks, and opportunities that are shaping its future.

Whether you’re leading a charity, developing public policy, funding community organizations, or conducting research, our goal is simple: provide timely evidence when decisions matter most.

Methodology

The CICP conducts weekly surveys with a national panel of approximately 1,100 Canadian charities, drawn from the Canada Revenue Agency’s register of charities (T3010). Organizations are selected using a structured sampling approach designed to capture diversity across geography, organizational size, and areas of charitable activity.

Each week, participants share their experiences on a focused topic – from funding, governance, and workforce issues to service demand, public policy, and emerging trends. This ongoing panel allows us to monitor how conditions evolve over time while rapidly identifying new challenges and opportunities as they emerge.

Unlike administrative datasets that often become available years after events occur, our research provides timely, organization-level insights that help charities, policymakers, funders, and researchers understand what’s happening across the sector today. Read our full Methodology here.