Political Activity and Advocacy by Canadian Charities: Piloting a Networked Policy Process

Summary

None of the umbrella organizations serving Canada’s charitable and nonprofit sector alone has sufficient resources to effectively advance policy advocacy on behalf of the entire sector. Further, if a number of Canada’s major umbrella organizations and other charities each committed to the same policy “ask” on a particular topic, the credibility and likely success of that “ask” would be enhanced.

To this end, Imagine Canada has developed and piloted a “network model” of policy advocacy.

The goal of this proposed project was twofold:

• to develop and pilot test a “network model” of policy advocacy within Canada’s charitable sector; and
• focus the pilot around the issue of advocacy and “political activity” by charities, and in so doing materially inform federal policy choices on this topic