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The voluntary sector is made up primarily of not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations that engage with social issues. Voices from the Voluntary Sector contains reasoned reflections by practitioners on some of the significant challenges faced by today's not-for-profit organizations in Canada. Broad in scope, these essays present a rich, multi-dimensional set of vignettes that as a whole express the vitality and humanity of the voluntary sector in Canada. The contributors discuss organizational and managerial challenges, social entrepreneurship, and how to foster effective global movements. The essays include a reflection on the ways that young people can find the courage to become leaders, an exploration of the absence of First Nations peoples within voluntary sector organizations, and a consideration how parental incarceration affects the life prospects of children. Voices from the Voluntary Sector is a valuable resource that addresses a wide range of concerns related to the responsiveness, character, and leadership of third sector organizations.

The voluntary sector is made up primarily of not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations that engage with social issues. Voices from the Voluntary Sector contains reasoned reflections by practitioners on some of the significant challenges faced by today's not-for-profit organizations in Canada. Broad in scope, these essays present a rich, multi-dimensional set of vignettes that as a whole express the vitality and humanity of the voluntary sector in Canada. The contributors discuss organizational and managerial challenges, social entrepreneurship, and how to foster effective global movements. The essays include a reflection on the ways that young people can find the courage to become leaders, an exploration of the absence of First Nations peoples within voluntary sector organizations, and a consideration how parental incarceration affects the life prospects of children. Voices from the Voluntary Sector is a valuable resource that addresses a wide range of concerns related to the responsiveness, character, and leadership of third sector organizations.

Background Despite the widespread proliferation of food banks in high-income countries over the past several decades, there is a paucity of data regarding the long-term experiences of the people who rely on food banks. We were unable to find any other studies with follow-up interviews later than 6 months after baseline. Objective This study examined the changes in the lived experiences of people who accessed food banks over a period of 18 months. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 people who accessed food banks in Ottawa, Canada and who had participated in a 6-month study that ended one full year before this follow-up study was done. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed through a general inductive approach involving repeated readings and coding of relevant segments of text with NVivo software according to themes that emerged iteratively. Code reports were then used to discuss and reach consensus on a final set of themes. Results Three main themes emerged: (1) chronic physical and mental health issues intersecting with food bank access; (2) psychosocial impact of relying on food banks; and (3) living on a low income and dealing with poverty. Chronic physical and mental health conditions were prevalent among the participants. As well, 10 of the 11 participants in this 18-month follow-up continued to rely on food banks as a regular resource – not as an emergency relief measure – to supplement their nutritional needs. While most of the participants reported that food banks helped them in some way, many shortcomings were also noted regarding food amounts, quality and choice. Overall, there was little change reported since the 6-month follow-up. Conclusions The shortcomings reported by participants can mostly be attributed to the dependence of food banks on charitable donations; thus, despite the commendable work of food bank staff and volunteers, participants described the food assistance as inadequate. Additionally, long-term food bank usage was a common denominator in the lived experiences of all our participants; therefore, our findings reinforce the need for assistance programs that target long-term food insecurity and its underlying causes, to replace or supplement charity-based food bank programs.

Period poverty is the lack of access to menstrual products, sexual and reproductive health education, safe waste management, and adequate facilities. Despite its being a public health issue and a significant concern for numerous Canadians, there is a lack of peer-reviewed research on period poverty in Canada. Existing Canadian research has primarily been conducted by non-profit organizations/charities or industry leaders for menstrual products, resulting in incomplete data. More research is needed to explore the menstrual inequities in Canada and their impact on the well-being of Canadians. This is a critical step to ensure the menstrual needs of Canadians are appropriately addressed.

This article examines whether charitable organizations use discretionary accruals to manage their surplus or deficit. Linear regression was used to analyze the financial data of a broad sample of Canadian charitable organizations. Results showed that discretionary accruals were used to manage these income figures. This approach is compounded by the magnitude of grants, public benefit, and leverage. The results hold whether the charity anticipates a surplus or a deficit, but not if it displays a high level of public benefit. In that case, charities with an anticipated surplus increase their use of discretionary accruals to decrease earnings, whereas charities that anticipate a deficit are not inclined to manage their deficit toward zero. This study complements prior literature on nonprofits and shows that even though tax laws differ among countries, charity managers in various contexts are motivated to manage earnings and are influenced by various factors in doing so.

The purpose of this paper is to test an expanded model of charitable giving and the intention to donate based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The novelty of this research resides in disaggregating the overall attitude a donor may hold into three different attitude constructs: attitude toward a charity, attitude toward helping, and attitude toward donation. An online survey was conducted of 202 potential Canadian charitable donors. By using a hierarchical multiple regression, results show that overall, the extended TPB model proposed in this study is significantly better than those found in the extant research in predicting the intention to donate. The strongest influences on the intention to donate were past behaviour, moral norms, and perceived behavioural control. Subjective norms and attitude toward charitable organisation were found to be non-significant predictors. Managerial implications are also presented at the end of the paper.

Farming God’s Way (FGW) is a type of conservation agriculture (CA) that re-interprets the CA principles of no tillage, mulching and crop rotation using biblical metaphors such as God doesn’t plow, God’s blanket, and the Garden of Eden. Through faith-based networks, FGW has spread throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and beyond, as a development intervention for improving food security, adapting to climate change, and restoring soil productivity for resource-poor farming households. This research identifies and compares the production, sustainability and faith claims of FGW to ascertain which claims are contested. A qualitative study of Canadian program managers with responsibilities for CA or FGW projects in Africa and smallholding FGW farmers in Kenya is employed using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Production-related claims of improved soil moisture and climate change adaptation are generally consistent among program managers, farmers and the literature, but social claims of increased labour demand on women and religious claims of faith enhancing CA are contested. Findings show that female farmers unanimously contest the claim that their labour for weeding is increased under FGW. Similarly, FGW farmers contest the claim that faith inhibits adoption or innovation on the farm, reporting instead that FGW connects faith to their vocation, transforms why and how they farm, and changes mindsets for adopting faith-based CA.

The regulation of charitable fundraising is no longer just about the regulation of fundraising but about good governance, and increasingly involves coregulatory regimes which blend elements of self-and state regulation. Canada's charitable sector has undertaken a bold experiment in creating a comprehensive certification system for good governance, including fundraising, which reframes the target of regulation from the informed donor to the well-performing charity and has the ambitious goal of building a community of practice for self-improvement. At the same time, the federal government has introduced new guidance on fundraising that not only outlines accepted cost to revenue ratios but also specifies standards of good governance. It is an open question as to whether this new self-and state regulation will remain as dual systems or evolve into a hybrid co-regulatory regime in which government integrates sector certification into its own risk management. La régulation de la collecte de fonds caritative n'a plus seulement trait à ladite collecte mais traite de la bonne gouvernance, et implique de manière croissante des régimes co-régulateurs associant des éléments d'autorégulation comme de régulation par l'état. Le secteur caritatif du Canada a initié une expérience audacieuse avec la création d'un système exhaustif de certification pour une bonne gouvernance, incluant la collecte de fonds. Le cadre de la régulation se voit modifié pour cibler non plus un donateur informé mais une organisation caritative au fonctionnement adéquat, et il a pour objectif ambitieux de construire une communauté de pratique visant à l'amélioration propre. Le gouvernement fédéral a concomitamment introduit des directives nouvelles quant à la collecte de fonds qui exposent non seulement les ratios charges/produits acceptés mais précisent les normes de bonne gouvernance. La question reste ouverte de savoir si cette nouvelle autorégulation comme cette régulation par l'état demeureront en tant que systèmes doubles ou évolueront en un régime co-régulateur hybride dans lequel le gouvernement intègre la certification du secteur au sein de sa propre gestion du risque. Die Regulierung der Geldmittelbeschaffung für gemeinnützige Zwecke dreht sich nicht mehr ausschließlich um die Regelung der Geldmittelbeschaffung, sondern auch um eine erfolgreiche Steuerung und umfasst zunehmend ein co-regulatorisches System, das Elemente der Selbst-sowie der staatlichen Regulierung vereint. Der Wohltätigkeitssektor in Kanada hat ein gewagtes Experiment durchgeführt und ein umfassendes Zertifizierungssystem für eine erfolgreiche Steuerung, einschließlich der Geldmittelbeschaffung, entworfen, das das Regulierungsobjekt vom informierten Spender zur gut funktionierenden Wohltätigkeitseinrichtung verlagert und das ergeizige Ziel verfolgt, eine praxisbezogene Gemeinschaft zur Selbstverbesserung zu entwickeln. Gleichzeitig hat die Bundesregierung neue Richtlinien zur Geldmittelbeschaffung eingeführt, die nicht nur das Verhältnis zwischen genehmigten Kosten und Einnahmen abdecken, sondern auch die Standards einer erfolgreichen Steuerung festlegen. Es bleibt die Frage offen, ob diese Selbst-und staatliche Regulierung als Dualsysteme bestehen bleiben oder sich in ein vereintes co-regulatorisches System entwickeln, in dem die Steuerung die Sektorzertifizierung in ihr eigenes Risikomanagement integriert. La regulación de la recaudación de fondos con fines benéficos ya no tiene que ver solamente con la regulación de la recaudación de fondos sino con la buena gobernanza, e implica cada vez más regímenes correguladores que mezclan elementos de auto-regulación y de regulación estatal. El sector benéfico de Canadá ha emprendido un audaz experimento creando un sistema de certificación integral para la buena gobernanza, incluida la recaudación de fondos, que redefine el objetivo de regulación desde el donante informado a la organización benéfica competente y tiene la ambiciosa meta de edificar una comunidad de práctica para la auto-superación. Al mismo tiempo, el gobierno federal ha introducido nuevas orientaciones sobre la recaudación de fondos que no solamente esbozan los ratios aceptados costes/ingresos sino que especifican normas de buena gobernanza. Resulta discutible si estas nuevas auto-regulación y regulación estatal seguirán siendo sistemas duales o evolucionarán hacia un régimen corregulador híbrido en el que el gobierno integre la certificación del sector en su propia gestión del riesgo.

Purpose: This paper aims to: (i) visualize the networks of food insecurity policy actors in Canada, (ii) identify potential food insecurity policy entrepreneurs (i.e., individuals with voice, connections, and persistence) within these networks, and (iii) examine the political landscape for action on food insecurity as revealed by social network analysis. Methods: A survey was administered to 93 Canadian food insecurity policy actors. They were each asked to nominate 3 individuals whom they believed to be policy entrepreneurs. Ego-centred social network maps (sociograms) were generated based on data on nominees and nominators. Results: Seventy-two percent of the actors completed the survey; 117 unique nominations ensued. Eleven actors obtained 3 or more nominations and thus were considered policy entrepreneurs. The majority of actors nominated actors from the same province (71.5%) and with a similar approach to theirs to addressing food insecurity (54.8%). Most nominees worked in research, charitable, and other nongovernmental organizations. Conclusions: Networks of Canadian food insecurity policy actors exist but are limited in scope and reach, with a paucity of policy entrepreneurs from political, private, or governmental jurisdictions. The networks are divided between food-based solution actors and income-based solution actors, which might impede collaboration among those with differing approaches to addressing food insecurity.

Can bottom-up relief efforts lead to recovery after disasters? Conventional wisdom and contemporary public policy suggest that major crises require centralized authority to provide disaster relief goods. Using a novel set of comprehensive donation and expenditure data collected from archival records, this paper examines a bottom-up relief effort following one of the most devastating natural disasters of the nineteenth century: the Chicago Fire of 1871. Findings show that while there was no central government relief agency present, individuals, businesses, corporate entities and municipal governments were able to finance the relief effort though donations. The Chicago Relief and Aid Society, a voluntary association of agents with a stake in relief outcomes, leveraged organizational assets and constitutional rules to administer aid.