Canada's Non-Profit/Volunteer Sector 2nd Largest in the World

This is a follow-up to the post from a few days ago concerning a Canadian government report on the volunteer sector.

According to new research released this week by Imagine Canada (formerly the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy), Canada has one of the largest non-profit sectors in the world:

• it accounts for 6.8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product
• it employs 12 percent of Canada’s economically active population
• it engages nearly as many full-time equivalent workers as all branches of manufacturing
  in the country
• it relies more on the efforts of paid employees than sectors in other countries. However, the absolute amount of volunteer effort exceeds the average for developed
  countries
• 74 percent of all Canadian nonprofit and voluntary sector workers (both paid and volunteer) are engaged in the delivery of direct services such as education, health, and housing (compared to 64 percent internationally)

The report describes in detail the history and composition of the sector, the organizational and financial challenges being faced, as well as regulatory, legal and policy developments that are having an impact, both positive and negative.

The research is part of a two-year initiative being undertaken by Imagine Canada in consultation with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies.

It should be pointed out that Imagine Canada has an extensive library collection on all issues pertaining to the non-profit sector: law, taxation, fundraising, governance, management, and corporate social responsibility.