‘Era of uncertainty’: How leaders in Canada’s non-profit sector are preparing for 2023
Polarization, giving trends, equity, HR issues, reconciliation, the data gap, the climate crisis: we asked leaders in Canada’s non-profit and charitable sector about the challenges and societal shifts they’ll be watching in 2023. Here’s what they had to say.
Early in 2022, 40 Indigenous women from across the country came together for a gathering in Haida Gwaii, BC, called “Aunties in Philanthropy.”
Like so many events in recent years, it was marred by uncertainty – and cut short by COVID – but the gathering created a place for Indigenous women to talk about the outsized weight on their shoulders as conversations in Canadian philanthropy increasingly focus on reconciliation and equity.
Still, a home in government has been dubbed a “double-edged sword.” As Carleton University political scientist Susan Phillips told The Philanthropist Journal in November, it “could be more dangerous than helpful if you don’t have a strong voice on the other side.”
Raggo agrees that there are potential drawbacks, but she notes that it’s “bizarre, really,” that a sector that represents 10% of the full-time work force is not represented in government.
“Bureaucratic inertia is a real thing,” she says, noting she worries that the slow nature of government might hinder the flexibility the sector sometimes currently benefits from. At the same time, she says, “without a home in government you don’t get central, focused support.”