Budget 2021: How the Non-Profit and Charitable Sector Fared

For Canada’s non-profit and charitable leaders, the 2021 federal budget was significant and historic for many reasons.

It made the “most promises” to the sector that Peter Dinsdale, president and CEO of YMCA Canada, has ever seen. It was the first time that Anjum Sultana, national director of public policy at YWCA, encountered a budget that acknowledges that “non-profits and charities matter.” And for Joseph Smith, a member of the working group that established the Foundation for Black Communities, the budget was “monumental” for “being more community-based and reflecting the needs of the most marginalized in our society.”

The 724-page document, unveiled earlier this week, delivered a series of measures to support the country’s charities, non-profits, and social enterprises that support diverse communities, from women to Black communities. It recognized that the social sector has been hard hit by the pandemic, reporting a 16% drop in revenue by the end of 2020. In advance of the budget, more than 200 Canadian charities had asked the federal government to establish a $10-billion stabilization fund to halt bankruptcies and layoffs across the sector.

The budget did not deliver on this. Instead, it promised the continuation of emergency funding, including the wage and rent subsidies, as well as a number of targeted measures intended to support the sector. These signal a deepening relationship, according to insiders:

• The establishment of a $400-million Community Services Recovery Fund, a temporary allocation intended to help charities and non-profits “adapt and modernize” to better support their communities through online means. The fund is aimed at small and rural charities in particular.
• Expanded eligibility for the Canada Small Business Financing Program, which provides loans to small businesses to help them operate and expand and includes non-profits and charities. The budget document notes that 75% of non-profit sector employees are women, and 41% of borrowers under this program are expected to be under the age of 40. Both these demographics have been identified as needing extra support.
• The Canada Recovery Hiring Program, which will run from June to November and provide $595 million to make it easier for businesses to hire back laid-off workers or to bring on new ones, is also open to charities.
• The government has also set out plans to deploy $220 million of the previously announced $755-million Social Finance Fund over the next two years. The money was set to begin flowing on April 1, 2020, but was delayed by a year.

Reaction to these fiscal policies has been positive.

For charities and non-profits to be recognized “as a proxy to small business” is “a huge victory,” says Senator Ratna Omidvar.

“It felt like there was an intentional effort to include this sector as a partner in recovery,” adds Bruce MacDonald, CEO of Imagine Canada.

“The budget looked at what the non-profit sector has been doing for the past 12 months and considered innovative ways to build our future in places where our system is broken so that we can all build a more equitable society,” says Karen Ball, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations. “It meets the non-profit sector where we already are and puts more gas in the tank.”

 Click here to read the full article on The Philanthropist’s website