Senator Ratna Omidvar Shares Four Priorities for Charitable Sector Recovery

On April 28, 2020 Senator Ratna Omidvar took part in a Webinar with Future of Good publisher Vinod Rajasekaran. They discussed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the charitable sector. 

Watch the discussion:

Though charities and non-profits are eager to get back work as usual, they should resist the urge to “slide back to business as yesterday,” said Senator Ratna Omidvar in a Future of Good webinar. “We may forget that it is the new normal that we should be preparing for. And the new normal cries out very loudly for a sustained, in depth, ongoing conversation with the government.”

In June of 2019, the Canadian Senate released Catalyst for Change: A Roadmap to a Stronger Charitable Sector, a first of its kind report on ways the Canadian charitable and non-profit sector should modernize. The report made 42 recommendations, and consulted a range of social impact sector professionals, funders, executives, volunteers and public servants. 

It’s only been about nine months since the report was released, but the world has changed vastly. Our institutions, our front lines, our funding mechanisms, service delivery and advocacy will not be the same. What does this mean for the recommendations and the report? Which recommendations are even more important now? And what should the sector be learning from this crisis?

Future of Good hosted a webinar, in which publisher Vinod Rajasekaran sat down (virtually) with Senator Omidvar, Deputy Chair of the Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector, to learn more about what the report means in a post-pandemic Canada. Here are four recommendations that Senator Omidvar said should be even higher priority in light of COVID-19, and are necessary for the non-profit and charitable  sector’s recovery.

Secure a Home for the Sector Within Government 

“I looked at the report again about two or three days ago and said, let me bring a lens of the crisis on this. And I was actually stunned,” Senator Omidvar said. “The report said the sector needs a home in government, a home that would enable it to relate to different departments, to connect its interests and policy and legislation and services across the whole government. And guess what? In a sense, during the crisis, this is what the government has been doing. The home in government for the sector has become the crisis management committee. And if you review the actions of the government, they have been incrementally accommodating and aware of the role of the sector in helping Canada and Canadians overcome.

“For the first time, the sector has been equated with small businesses,” she said, referring to the support measures the federal government has announced, such as wage and rent subsidies, which apply to small businesses, charities and non-profits alike. “This is very, very positive, that when the government makes a decision about small businesses, let’s say the rent stabilization fund, it now automatically says, ‘and this will apply to charities and non-profits too.’” 

Upgrade the Technology Capacity of the Sector

“If I could be wiser with the context of today and rewrite the report, I would have a bigger chapter on digital platforms and technology capacity for the sector,” Senator Omidvar said. “We did allude to it indirectly, in that we said the sector should have access to the same kind of business advisory programs that small and medium sized enterprises do. SMEs have access to capacity building technology, [for example]. They have access to a range of interventions that the charitable sector does not have. 

“We need to develop a playbook. Whether it’s provincial or federal or in the hands of organizations like Community Foundations Canada or Imagine Canada, we need a centralized platform that will help organizations, workers, customers, get tuned into this new digital way of doing business. That would radically change the business model for charities and not-for-profits.

“I think businesses are now questioning the need for expensive real estate, because people are working from home. Maybe this is the new normal. I would encourage charities to have a very targeted digital strategy. And it has to be supported by the government.” 

Implement a Human Resources Renewal Plan for Sector Workers

The non-profit and charitable  sector has seen a wave of layoffs due to COVID-19 shutdowns, and many who are still employed are dealing with heavy workloads due to increased demand for their services — and they’re doing so without the kind of support many workers in the private sector have access to, such as HR structures. 

“There is a lack of human resource capacity in the sector,” said Senator Omidvar. “Many non-profits and charities do not actually have an HR department. They need sort of a backbone instituted, and we [the Senate Committee] felt this was best located as a shared service platform. What has sharpened this recommendation is the fact that the recovery will not get started, and we’ll certainly not succeed in it, without a vibrant service sector on both sides of government. And you need people to do this.

“I continue to hear about layoffs in the sector, and I am worried about those who will not be able to gear up again. We should have a human resources renewal plan in the context of the crisis. What do we have to do, during the crisis, to get the sector up to speed again?”

Remove Barriers to Working with Non-Qualified Donees 

Cooperation and collaboration between charities and non-charities is increasingly a reality to create lasting impact. However, registered charities are currently not allowed to make gifts to non-charities because they are not “qualified donees.” At a time when people are funding projects on platforms, and charities are looking for new partners, this rule is limiting. 

“The other recommendation that has been brought into sharp focus for me,” said Senator Omidvar, is around “the legislative and administrative provisions that prevent charities from working in a meaningful partnership with organizations that are not charities. There is a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) regulation and statute that says charities may not work with non-qualified donees [or organizations that are not registered charities], right? Imagine what that says to charities who are working with Indigenous communities who are not charitable. They cannot be in a partnership of quality.

“We need to accept and understand that in today’s world, empowerment, equality, and equity are actually not reflected in the laws of the Ministry of Finance and the guidelines that the CRA [uses to] administer those laws too. It’s overly constraining. Unlike the UK, the US, Australia, and all others who have modernized their laws, we take a paternalistic top down approach that if you are going to work with me, and I’m talking about a new organization or a civil society movement that is not charitable, then I control everything.”

Senator Omidvar calls on social impact professionals to join her push for lifting these kinds of restrictions. “I have called on the Minister of Finance in the short term to lift back requirements entirely. I have not received a response from them. I would urge others to reach out to him to do the same.”

Quotes have been edited for length and clarity. 

Learn more about the webinar on the Future of Good website