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Oct 2018Employment Standards Matter
By Cathy Taylor With the recent introduction of Bill 47, there has been much talk about employment standards. This current debate on employment standards pits employers against employees. But we know in our years of work on labour force issues and decent work that we are all in this together. There is no “us” and “them”. A decent work environment improves employees’ work lives, employment...
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Sep 2018How we developed a pension plan tailor-made for the nonprofit sector
By Michael Kainer Let me start with an ending: I am pleased to share that ONN’s pensions implementation task force – created in 2017 to implement the first pensions task force’s recommendations – has brought its work to a close. Our main proposal is that ONN recommend OPTrust Select as the pension plan for the sector. And the ONN Board has accepted that recommendation. It’s...
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Sep 2018Let’s Talk About Learning Before We Talk About Measurement
By Andrew Taylor and Ben Liadsky Andrew and Ben are working with the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund on a project to explore what it means for nonprofits and funders to have strong learning cultures and how, together, nonprofits and funders can have a relationship more focused around shared learning. Imagine a grantmaker that has very clear investment priorities. Perhaps, for example, their focus is on helping...
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Aug 2018How I spent my summer vacation
By Benjamin Miller The Ontario Nonprofit Network has been studying the way the government funds nonprofits through transfer payments for many years. I was brought on this summer as a research fellow to take a fresh look at these relationships. I started by reading through Ontario’s core policy statements like the Transfer Payment Accountability Directive and the Transfer Payment Operational Policy Agreement, and the government’s...
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Jul 2018I am Charity, Hear Me Roar
Court recognizes charities’ unlimited right to nonpartisan political advocacy for charitable purposes By Benjamin Miller Two years ago, Canada Without Poverty (CWP), an Ontario anti-poverty charity that advocates for policy change, took the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to court for limiting its constitutional right to political speech. This week, the Superior Court of Ontario said CWP was absolutely right. The court struck down CRA’s 10%...
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Jul 2018Lobbying is not a dirty word…
By Burkhard Mausberg Government relations is a fickle art. Its success is rarely guaranteed. Outside events can scuttle the best laid plans. Access to decision-makers is often limited. And then elections happen. All this makes government relations a marathon, never a sprint. I’ve used the words “government relations” here because the words “lobbying” and “lobbyists” have become dirty words. The image of greedy industrial lobbyists...
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Jun 2018Partnering for People
By Teshini Harrison, ONN policy analyst Every Ontarian is connected to a nonprofit – whether through the cultural festival on the weekend, the environmental program at a local park, the social housing services, the hockey league at the town arena, the child care program, or the community research on food security.” – ONN Value framework for Ontario’s Nonprofit Sector Ontario has a new government. So...
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May 2018Invisible Heart: A Good Start But Time to Ask Some Deeper Questions
By Benjamin Miller The Invisible Heart is a documentary about the promise and pitfalls of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). While the film may serve as a helpful introduction to those unfamiliar with SIBs, and raises the right issues, it does little to address those issues. To do that, the film would have to situate SIBs in the much longer story of how private sector thinking...
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May 2018Learning about Learning Organizations
By Andrew Taylor and Ben Liadsky Andrew and Ben are working with the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund on a project to explore what it means for nonprofits and funders to have strong learning cultures and how, together, nonprofits and funders can have a relationship more focused around shared learning. What is meant by a strong learning culture We often think about the word learning in...
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Apr 2018Examining women’s compensation in the nonprofit sector – Part 1
The Care Penalty By Pamela Uppal This is the first in a three-part series of blogs examining women’s pay in the nonprofit sector. Part 2 and Part 3 are also available online. Given the broader gender pay gap for women in the labour market, how does it manifest in the nonprofit sector? In short, what does women’s compensation in the nonprofit sector look like? Based...
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