Value of Knowledge - Research Details
Environmental Scan
The initial Environmental Scan revealed that there are a number of internet sites dedicated to helping social and environmental organizations conduct their work. However, most of these sites are not dynamic, user-generated, "Web 2.0" platforms. They are not easy to use, and they are not terribly dynamic. Furthermore, most of these sites are geared toward helping these organizations manage themselves and run their operations, while comparatively little exists to help organizations and the sector track program-related successes and failures, identify best-practices and/or innovations, and make progress toward their end goals (alleviation of poverty, dealing with environmental degradation, climate change, homelessness, etc) .
Hypotheses:
1) Organizations could share operational knowledge more effectively and develop best practices in their shared challenges, including fundraising, HR, and volunteer management, which would help them operate more efficiently and free up time and resources to devote to programs- the raison d'être for the organizations.
2) Organizations could learn a great deal by sharing their program knowledge with similar, like-minded organizations and tracking successes, failures, and new initiatives in the sector.
3) This knowledge would be worth something if it could be captured, and an incentive system could be put in place to encourage people to contribute.
Employment Opportunities Snapshot
To build on and extend the conclusions and observations emerging from the environmental scan, a snapshot of 18 charitable organizations was complied by looking through listings on www.charityvillage.com and cross-referencing those listings with information on CRA's website and the organizations' websites. The snapshot captured information from organizations across various disciplines (e.g. arts & culture, social services, environment) and of differing staffing sizes (e.g. 1-4, 10-25, 100+).
Observations:
- not surprisingly, larger organizations have more positions with higher pay.
- 17 of the 18 organizations have part-time or part year staff
- these part time positions account for anywhere from 3 to 100 percent of employees, averaging at 47%
- these part time employees make anywhere between $13,00 and $35,000, averaging at $14,000 per person
- across these 18 organizations, there are nearly 5000 part time/part year positions (the bulk are with George Brown)
- 5 of 18 positions are for fundraising/development employees.
- not surprisingly, all organizations share some operational qualities (fundraising, volunteer management, outreach, HR practices, board management, etc,) and employees in this sector are expected to have experience with or knowledge of these matters
- many organizations cross disciplinary boundaries (e.g. a single organization may deal with health, education, and social services)
- 6 of 18 organizations fund research, and many produce their own research (e.g. CPAWS, Nucleus)
- a quick glance reveals many opportunities for collaboration both from an operational perspective (e.g. Heart and Stroke foundation and Juvenile diabetes foundation are similar operations) and program perspective (e.g Camh, and Canadian Mental Health Assoc.)
- of the 18 job postings, 4 of them can be assumed to be contributing to program knowledge, 9 to operational knowledge, and 1 to both.
- it's difficult to say how much of their time would be dedicated to that work.
From Imagine Canada:
35% of all the staff in the nonprofit and voluntary sector are temporary, 23.5 part-time.
Hospitals provide the most employment opportunities (23.8%) and Sports and Recreation and Social Services have the most volunteers (27.6%, 18.8% respectivley)
The initial Environmental Scan revealed that there are a number of internet sites dedicated to helping social and environmental organizations conduct their work. However, most of these sites are not dynamic, user-generated, "Web 2.0" platforms. They are not easy to use, and they are not terribly dynamic. Furthermore, most of these sites are geared toward helping these organizations manage themselves and run their operations, while comparatively little exists to help organizations and the sector track program-related successes and failures, identify best-practices and/or innovations, and make progress toward their end goals (alleviation of poverty, dealing with environmental degradation, climate change, homelessness, etc) .
Hypotheses:
1) Organizations could share operational knowledge more effectively and develop best practices in their shared challenges, including fundraising, HR, and volunteer management, which would help them operate more efficiently and free up time and resources to devote to programs- the raison d'être for the organizations.
2) Organizations could learn a great deal by sharing their program knowledge with similar, like-minded organizations and tracking successes, failures, and new initiatives in the sector.
3) This knowledge would be worth something if it could be captured, and an incentive system could be put in place to encourage people to contribute.
Employment Opportunities Snapshot
To build on and extend the conclusions and observations emerging from the environmental scan, a snapshot of 18 charitable organizations was complied by looking through listings on www.charityvillage.com and cross-referencing those listings with information on CRA's website and the organizations' websites. The snapshot captured information from organizations across various disciplines (e.g. arts & culture, social services, environment) and of differing staffing sizes (e.g. 1-4, 10-25, 100+).
Observations:
- not surprisingly, larger organizations have more positions with higher pay.
- 17 of the 18 organizations have part-time or part year staff
- these part time positions account for anywhere from 3 to 100 percent of employees, averaging at 47%
- these part time employees make anywhere between $13,00 and $35,000, averaging at $14,000 per person
- across these 18 organizations, there are nearly 5000 part time/part year positions (the bulk are with George Brown)
- 5 of 18 positions are for fundraising/development employees.
- not surprisingly, all organizations share some operational qualities (fundraising, volunteer management, outreach, HR practices, board management, etc,) and employees in this sector are expected to have experience with or knowledge of these matters
- many organizations cross disciplinary boundaries (e.g. a single organization may deal with health, education, and social services)
- 6 of 18 organizations fund research, and many produce their own research (e.g. CPAWS, Nucleus)
- a quick glance reveals many opportunities for collaboration both from an operational perspective (e.g. Heart and Stroke foundation and Juvenile diabetes foundation are similar operations) and program perspective (e.g Camh, and Canadian Mental Health Assoc.)
- of the 18 job postings, 4 of them can be assumed to be contributing to program knowledge, 9 to operational knowledge, and 1 to both.
- it's difficult to say how much of their time would be dedicated to that work.
From Imagine Canada:
35% of all the staff in the nonprofit and voluntary sector are temporary, 23.5 part-time.
Hospitals provide the most employment opportunities (23.8%) and Sports and Recreation and Social Services have the most volunteers (27.6%, 18.8% respectivley)
