CC/Overview

Canadian Voluntary organization overview:

The Canadian voluntary sector is an important part of Canadian life. It often addresses the needs and interests of citizens that governments and the private sector do not, building social capital, sustaining social cohesion, and making a substantive economic contribution.

In 2000, volunteer labor services contributed about $14 billion, or nearly 18% of the total extended value of the non-profit sector's GDP. The Canadian voluntary sector plays an important role in educating the public, providing support for individuals, families and communities in transition. The voluntary sector also reinforces common values and purpose that allow communities to cope with change. It does not only strengthen but also embodies our civil society.

In 2003, about 161,000 nonprofit and voluntary organizations were operating across the country. They operate in a wide variety of areas, such as, sports and recreation; religion; social services; grant-making, fundraising and voluntarism promotion; arts and culture; and development and housing. However, the distribution of the volunteering time is not even: most volunteering time was directed towards four types of organizations, sports and recreation; social services; education and research organizations.

Volunteers and government funding are the two major resources for many volunteer organizations. More than half of these organizations are entirely run by volunteers and 49% of these organization's reported revenues comes from governments. These organizations draw on more than 2 billion volunteer hours annually, the equivalent of more than 1 million full-time jobs.

The characteristics of a Volunteer organization:

A volunteer organization can include but is not limited to the following four criteria:
 * 1.	Some degree of organizational permanence;
 * 2.	Not a part of nor controlled by government or any other outside entity;
 * 3.	Any 'profits' are plowed back into the basic mission of the organization;
 * 4.	Some meaningful degree of voluntary participation, either in conducting the organization's activities or in managing or directing its affairs;

The challenges facing Volunteer organizations:

Stemming from the National survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary organizations conducted in 2004, several challenges were identified:

1)	Nearly half of the volunteer organizations had problems with 2)	Half reported the difficulty in 3)	Nearly half of organizations are facing:
 * i) planning for the future,
 * ii) recruiting the types of volunteers needed by the organization and
 * iii) obtaining board members.
 * i) retaining volunteers,
 * ii) obtaining sufficient funding from other organizations and individual donors.
 * i) serious financial problem due to reductions in government funding,
 * ii) the unwillingness of funding providers to provide for core operations (e.g., long-term programs and administrative expenses) and
 * iii) over-reliance on project funding.