{"id":9012,"date":"2024-10-24T17:34:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T21:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/?p=9012"},"modified":"2024-10-30T15:35:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T19:35:52","slug":"plus-ca-change-advocacy-by-canadian-charities-five-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/2024\/plus-ca-change-advocacy-by-canadian-charities-five-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Plus \u00e7a Change… Advocacy by Canadian Charities Five Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Susan D. Phillips <\/strong>and Kim Nguyen.<\/strong> Nguyen is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP)<\/a> or Projet Canada Perspectives des Organismes de Bienfaisance (PCPOB)<\/a>. Phillips is a Professor in the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership program<\/a> at the School of Public Policy and Administration, and is Policy Lead with CICP-PCPOB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Restrictions on advocacy?<\/h2>\n

\"\"The restrictions on \u2018advocacy\u2019 by Canadian charities were greatly relaxed in 2018 when the federal government amended the Income Tax Act<\/em> to do away with a quantitative test of how much of a charity\u2019s resources could be devoted to \u2018political activities.\u2019\u00a0 Under the guidance that followed from the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), charities can engage in unlimited nonpartisan Public Policy Dialogue and Development Activities (PPDDAs)<\/a> provided these activities further their charitable purposes.<\/p>\n

Are Canadian charities taking a more active role in policy development and advocacy following this sweeping regulatory change? To explore this, the Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP) conducted a series of surveys in 2023-2024 assessing the state of advocacy across the sector and how it is adapting to the new PPDDA regime.<\/p>\n

Five years later, there is little change<\/h2>\n

Most Canadian charities do not engage in advocacy and there has been little change in the five years since the regulations were relaxed; 43% of charities report no change in their advocacy activities, and 37% note that advocacy is not relevant to their missions in the first place. Only 1% have greatly increased advocacy, while 5% have had some increase and 1% a slight decrease under the new guidance.<\/p>\n

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Survey CICP 1.2.9<\/a>, February 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Less than half (42%) of the charities in the CICP February 2023 survey (CICP 1.2.9<\/a>; N = 695) indicated they engage in advocacy \u2018to change laws, rules or programs,\u2019 while 50% said they do not, and 8% were not sure. When we asked the same question 18 months later in July 2024 (CICP 2.7.27<\/a>), there had been a slight uptick in overall advocacy engagement, with 50% of charities (N = 795) involved in advocacy efforts, up by 8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Charities\u2019 advocacy engagement in 2023 and 2024<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\n\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Survey CICP 1.2.9<\/a>, February 2023<\/strong><\/td>\nSurvey CICP 2.7.27<\/a>, July 2024<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The overwhelming reason that charities are not active in policy dialogue and advocacy is that they do not see advocacy as relevant to their mission (45%).[1]<\/a> The other main reasons for avoiding policy engagement fall into three categories (CICP 1.2.9<\/a>, February 2023):[2]<\/a><\/p>\n