Public policy affects the purposes and activities of organizations in the philanthropic and nonprofit sector. In turn, those organizations – including charities, through their public policy dialogue and development activities – can affect public policy by informing and influencing government officials and the community at large. This section explores the interplay between the sector and public policy in Canada.
Three Series about policies in Asia-Australia, the US and Europe.
In 2021, Calum Carmichael consulted scholars of nonprofit sectors in Asia-Australia, the US and Europe, and discovered that many academics have similar priorities and concerns as those in Canada. In Susan Phillips‘ informal survey of 68 sector leaders in Canada, she found that 40% of the respondents wanted Canada to modernize the regulatory framework for charities, including an overhaul of the Income Tax Act. Carmichael heard similar perspectives, with a few dramatic contrasts — silencing of concerns about Islamophobia in one country and serious concerns about government-nonprofit relations in other countries. Below are summary comments from 18 of our colleagues around the world.