Our Policy Priorities 2020-2021

Policy Priorities

ONN works within three broad policy areas: our sector’s people (the paid and volunteer work force), our finances, and our regulatory environment.

Our goal is to create a more enabling environment for a strong and resilient sector so that nonprofits can focus on supporting Ontario’s vibrant communities.

We have four cross-cutting priorities for 2020-2021 that we will work to integrate across our advocacy and network engagement activities:

• Promoting the value and influence of the sector and the nonprofit business model.
• Continuing to explore the role of the nonprofit sector in responding to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action
• Expanding our use of an intersectional gender lens (GBA+) from the Decent Work file to our policy files
• Exploring and sharing the nonprofit sector’s responses to the climate emergency, at the organizational level (e.g., our own investments and purchasing), the subsector or regional level (e.g., local disaster response and recovery, settling climate refugees) and as a sector (e.g., policy advocacy, developing a sustainable and climate-focused lens)

Our People

Our goal is to strengthen and support the nonprofit sector labour force and its diverse and active volunteer base. This will result in the mobilization of a decent work movement in the sector.
Policy priorities:

• Decent work and pensions
• Police record checks
• The future of work in the nonprofit sector

Our Financing

Our goal is to catalyze improvements in the Ontario nonprofit sector’s funding environment by advocating for the reform of the sector’s investment relationship with the government and for the removal of barriers for nonprofits to earn income.

Policy priorities:

• Community wealth building
• Social value procurement
• Burden reduction in funding agreements
• Public lands and civic spaces

Our Regulatory Environment

Our goal is to ensure that the Ontario nonprofit sector’s legal frameworks – policy, legislation, and regulation – support and empower the sector’s work.

Policy priorities:

• Public benefit lens
• Web portal for nonprofits
• Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act
• Shared platforms