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National Insights into Non-Profit Organizations, Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, 2023 (March 20, 2024)

The one-time 2023 National Insights into the Non-Profit Sector provided important sector data updates to what was released in 2003.  Note: Statistics Canada announced the CSBC will be discontinued after August 2026.

Related:

• The Daily, Statistics Canada (Feb 11, 2021) - Diversity of charity and non-profit boards of directors: Overview of the Canadian non-profit sector

Satellite Account of Nonprofit Institutions and Volunteering (Quarterly and annually released)

Macroeconomic data (employment, revenues, GDP contribution), includes the Human Resources Module (paid workforce)

Referenced in:

• The Daily, Statistics Canada (June 23, 2025) – Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023
• Imagine Canada - People First: A Portrait of Canada's Nonprofit Workforce
• Canadian Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering – Satellite Account of Non-profit Institutions and Volunteering

General Social Survey – Giving, Volunteering and Participating (Every 5 years)

Volunteering, including volunteer rates, hours, activity. Latest released data collected in 2023.

Referenced in:

• The Daily, Statistics Canada (April 1, 2025) – Charitable donors, 2023
• The Daily, Statistics Canada (June 23, 2025) – Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023
• Imagine Canada (June 23, 2025) – New results from Statistics Canada’s Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating
• Canadian Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering – Volunteering, Giving, and Participating Data Insights

Non-profit organizations in rural and small town Canada, 2022 (Feb 17, 2025)

Estimates of active NPO counts, revenues, and employment

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OrgBook: Active Societies (Live database)

Count of societies (registered non-profits) with active registrations

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Canadian Survey on Business Conditions (Quarterly)

Note: Statistics Canada announced this will be discontinued after August 2026. Economic events and issues, perceptions, expectations among private and nonprofit organizations. The 2023 National Insights into the Non-Profit Sector provided important sector data updates from 2003.

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Survey reports

Weekly results reports, quarterly and annual briefs

Key themes:

• Other Emerging Sector Themes
• Collaboration & Partnership Dynamics
• EDI
• Funding Environment
• Governance & Management
• Policy
• Sector-wide Challenges

Results dashboards

Themed dashboards

Infographics and visual insights

Visuals that highlight data and findings

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Research

Various research resources, complements Imagine Canada’s policy priorities

Front burner priorities (research available under “Learn more” on each page below):

• Home in Government
• Data for effective decision making
• Supporting the paid and unpaid labour powering the nonprofit sector
• Make federal funding more equitable and effective
• Building the digital capacity of the sector

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Tax filers with charitable donations by income (April 1, 2025; Annual)

Charitable donation data from individual tax returns

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Report on the Charities Program 2024–2025 (Oct 1, 2025)

Operational and regulatory reporting: registration, compliance, directorate operations

Related:

• Canada Revenue Agency (Annual) – Individual Income Tax Return Statistics (formerly T1 Final Statistics)
• Canada Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering – T3010
• Canadian Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering – Grants and Contributions (federal database)

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Weekly reports and briefs (Ongoing)

• Funding Environment

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The Giving Report 2025

Trends in charitable giving from 2018-2024; eighth edition

• Total charitable contributions reached $12.8 billion in 2023, the highest on record, yet the donor base has shrunk 18% since 2020, with growth increasingly driven by wealthy, older Canadians rather than broad participation
• Local causes surpassed health as the top online giving category in 2024, and donations to Indigenous-focused charities rose 416% since 2018, though they still represent only 0.8% of total donations
• Monthly giving hit a record $86.9 million (18% of all online donations), securities donations grew 39%, and early 2025 giving surged 24%

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The Impact of US Tariffs on Canada's NFP Sector (May 2025)

• Tariffs impact the sector through: decreased funding, increased costs, and greater service demands
• Estimated philanthropic giving could drop up to $100M in 2026 vs. pre-tariff expectations
• 70%+ of donations come from 9% of donors giving $5K or more, so even modest pullback from major contributors could have outsized impact on local organizations, with small and rural nonprofits facing greatest vulnerability

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Generosity in Canada: Generosity Index 2025 (Dec 2025)

Uses tax data to compare giving patterns across jurisdictions. Note: interpretations of this index are contested in the sector.

• Fewer Canadians tax filers are donating (dropped to 16.8% in 2023), and those who do give are also giving a smaller proportion of their income
• Every province saw a decline in donor participation between 2013 to 2023
• American tax filers donate at roughly triple the Canadian rate, as of 2022

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The Status of Canadian Fundraising 2025: A Benchmarking Report for the AI Era

Benchmarking on fundraising performance and attitudes toward AI/tech in fundraising.

• AI adoption surging sharply, however governance has not kept pace, with only 11% of respondents having formal AI policy in place for 2025, up from 5% the previous year
• Fewer than one third of respondents said they get the most out of their donor management system, a gap between technology investment and effective use
• Ethical AI use and digital capacity are urgent discussions, with respondents ranking the top opportunities as: improved data management, seamlessly integrated technology, and training

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Food Banks Canada (2025)

$7.76 : $1

An independent third-party estimate by Constellation Consulting Group found that Food Banks Canada generated $7.76 in social value for every $1 donated. The full methodology report has not been made publicly available.

Calgary Food Bank (2024)

$9.84 : $1

An independent third-party estimate by Constellation Consulting Group found that for every dollar donated to the Calgary Food Bank, the organization generates $9.84 in social value and potential societal savings. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 31 clients and a survey of 1,000 participants, with outcomes including improved food security, mental health, and financial stability.

Inn from the Cold (Family Homelessness Prevention, Alberta) (2023)

$6.79 : $1

An updated SROI analysis conducted by Constellation Consulting Group found that for every dollar invested, Inn from the Cold creates nearly $6.79 in social and economic value, experienced by families, governments, landlords, volunteers, and communities. The analysis used conservative estimates to avoid overclaiming.

BC Child and Youth Advocacy Centres (2022)

$5.54 : $1

In 2021/22, a $3.5 million investment generated an estimated $19.6 million in value across wellbeing outcomes, workforce quality, and system efficiencies in healthcare, education, justice, and policing.

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People First: A Portrait of Canada's Nonprofit Workforce (Apr 2025)

• 2.7M employees nationally; sector is Canada's largest employer – surpassing construction by 70%, manufacturing by 60%, retail by 20%
• Sector is the largest employer of women in the Canadian economy, employing 21% of all working women
• Average salary is 13% lower than the Canadian average; 31% lower among community nonprofit workers; but higher levels of formal education than average Canadian worker
• Women's average salary is 18% below the Canadian average; men's gap is just 3%
• Workforce more likely to be women, hold a university degree, and be racialized compared to broader economy
• The report identifies three priority areas for change: reforming funding models to give organizations flexibility to invest in their people; advancing decent work through fair pay, benefits, and stability; and adopting anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices to address persistent pay gaps for racialized workers

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Weekly reports and briefs (Ongoing)

• Professional Development
• Uncompensated Labour
• Volunteer Recruitment and Retention
• Mental Health in the Charitable Sector: A Growing Concern
• Financial and HR Challenges: A Look into Charitable Capacity Expansion
• Understanding the HR Crisis Facing Charities
• Turnover and Retention

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2025 Canadian Nonprofit Sector Salary & Benefits Report (2025)

• Salary growth has moderated compared to post-pandemic spike in 2023-2024; compensation rising fastest at senior levels (3.1%–7.1%); support staff (level 6) saw 14.9% increase in 2024
• When indexed to 2020 levels, compensation growth for most staff levels has only marginally kept pace with or slightly lagged behind the Consumer Price Index — meaning many nonprofit workers have seen real wage stagnation through the cost-of-living crisis
• Health and education organizations pay the most
• Male Chief Executives earn 18% more than female counterparts on average, a gap that narrowed in 2023 but has since widened again; gap exists at all levels (2%–8%)
• 58% of organizations offer retirement benefits to at least some employees; RSP plans considerably more common than pensions

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2025 Changemaker Wellbeing Index (May 22, 2025)

• 70% of non-profit workers feel burned out at least occasionally
• 36% face poor or very poor wellbeing
• Financial precarity is severe and unevenly distributed: 30% of nonprofit workers face food insecurity overall, rising to 49% among frontline service workers — rates that are disproportionately higher than those seen in the general Canadian workforce
• 38% rarely or never save money from their salaries
• 42% may quit within the next six months
• Findings point to structural factors — particularly resource constraints, underfunding, and frontline working conditions — as key drivers of the wellbeing crisis, with the report calling on sector leaders, funders, and boards to take data-informed action to strengthen recruitment, retention, and organizational culture

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Insights to Impact 2024 (2024)

• Burnout is pervasive: 1 in 4 non-profit employees experience burnout often or extremely often; 1 in 3 non-profit leaders
• Only about half of workers feel appropriately recognized; 1 in 3 have unhealthy recognition scores; workers with unhealthy recognition scores are 4x more likely to experience regular burnout – this is a powerful but underutilized lever
• 1 in 5 respondents considering leaving their role in the next 6 months; top reasons are inadequate pay (61%), burnout (41%), and feeling underappreciated (37%)
• Organizations with higher employee burnout deliver lower-quality community outcomes

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What We're Hearing: Summer 2025 Report (October 2025)

National engagement findings feeding into the National Volunteer Action Strategy

• Both formal and informal volunteering are in decline across Canada (from Statistics Canada GSS-GVP data), driven by shared pressures including burnout, financial trade-offs, and unsustainable working conditions
• Costs of volunteering are a significant and often overlooked barrier to participation: many prospective volunteers are effectively priced out by expenses such as uniform requirements, training courses, parking, and criminal record checks — pointing to an urgent need for national approaches to stipends, subsidies, and shared infrastructure
• The report calls for a reimagined, broader narrative of volunteering — one that recognizes mutual aid, grassroots organizing, kinship networks, and political engagement as legitimate forms of civic participation, and calls on the sector to redesign volunteer infrastructure to match how people actually want to contribute across different life stages and circumstances

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Bridging the Digital Divide: A Strategic Vision for Canada's Nonprofit Sector (March 2025)

• Sector-oriented synthesis focused on digital equity framing and implications for nonprofits; the report argues that nonprofits are uniquely positioned to address digital equity disparities given their proximity to marginalized communities
• Digital Equity Iceberg strategic framework
• Calls on the sector to move communities from digital consumers to digital creators, emphasizing that true digital equity encompasses not just hardware and internet connectivity, but meaningful content, the ability to create and share knowledge, and full civic and economic participation in the digital world
• Consultation with 8,000 nonprofit professionals confirmed that technology adoption, cybersecurity, data management, and funding and skills gaps are the sector's most pressing digital challenges

Addressing the Digital Skills Gap in Canadian Nonprofits: Designing Options for Solutions (Jan 2025)

• 4 prototype options to address digital skills gaps
• Critical skill areas: data privacy and security, digital leadership, advanced data management

Related:

• CCNDR - Addressing the Digital Skills Gap: Outcomes of Prototyped Solution Pilot
• CCNDR - Addressing the Digital Skills Gap: Summary of Findings

The State of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Canadian Nonprofits (Jan 2026, with Imagine Canada)

• One of the first Canada-wide benchmark reports on nonprofit AI adoption
• AI use is widespread but still shallow in scope: 80% of nonprofits report using AI in some way, yet half use it for only three or fewer organizational activities, with use concentrated in communications and fundraising (67%) and data and information tasks (50%) — and far fewer applying it to complex internal functions like strategy, HR, or program design
• Primary barriers to adoption are skills, time, and knowledge; financial resources matter more for how extensively AI is used once adoption has begun
• Governance is significantly lagging behind adoption: while majorities are aware of AI-related reputational (62%), legal and ethical (60%), and equity-reinforcing risks (54%), only 10% of nonprofits have formal AI policies in place, 21% are developing them, and nearly two thirds of AI-using organizations have no policies and no plans to create any
• Organizations using AI extensively are more confident in its potential and less likely to view it as overhyped, while those with limited or no use are far more uncertain — pointing to a growing adoption divide within the sector that is likely to widen over time