This 6-part series of articles, from the team at Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP), examines the data and research about the highly skilled people who work for the 85,000 charities in Canada. 

In 2025, Imagine Canada published the People First report that details the size and demographics of 2.5 million people working for both charities and nonprofits. This report emphasizes how unique the workforce is and uses labour force data from Statistics Canada as the primary source. “Workers are much more likely to be women and to have a university degree or college diploma. They are also somewhat more likely to be from racialized backgrounds, particularly if they are younger. Overwhelmingly, the data also show that nonprofit compensation significantly lags compensation in other sectors of the economy.”ⁱ This report points to the characteristics of the charitable/nonprofit workforce that make it ideal for federal government investment.

But when the Spring Economic Update came out in April 2026, that investment was absent. The Spring Economic Update focused on the labour market for major projects and a training pipeline for the trades – in other words, jobs and training for men. In a Globe and Mail feature as part of the prosperity seriesⁱⁱ, Ilona Dougherty of the University of Waterloo and Brett House of the Munk School drew attention to the Team Canada Strong program, which will train up to 100,000 trade workers – a 90% male-dominated field. Dougherty and House asked the big question: where is the equivalent stimulus training program for women? The Spring Economic Update missed the opportunity to invest in women in the workforce. For example, they pointed to the need for more and better-paid Early Childhood Educators as part of the care economy. The charitable sector needs to get the federal government to sit up and pay attention to this essential workforce with social capital.

As Canada looks to build a stronger, more resilient and more innovative economy, it is timely to examine the essential role of the charitable sector and its predominantly female workforce. The Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP) at Carleton University has been collecting weekly data from an annual panel of one thousand charities for more than three years. The respondents had a lot to say about the strengths of the charitable sector’s workforce and its needs.

The charitable workforce is resilient, innovative, and well-trained. The CICP has been tracking the sector’s employment footprint, which extends across all provinces/territories and community types, supporting labour market activity throughout the country. As employers, charities draw on a highly educated and mission-driven labour pool. Charities, and nonprofits more broadly, are more likely to have employees with a university education according to Imagine Canada. CICP data indicates that the sector employs people with diverse skills, competencies and lived experiences, including individuals who face barriers integrating into the broader labour market, such as newcomers. CICP’s researchers tracked the top drivers of retention, which include passion for the work (78%), mission and values alignment (77%), and organizational culture (63%). The CICP gathers research and analysis in blogs, briefing notes, and academic papers.

The CICP briefing note, Underrecognized Human Capital: Canada’s Charitable Workforce, examines the charitable sector as a major employer and workforce engine. The note highlights the sector’s economic contributions, the characteristics of its workforce, and the challenges charities face in attracting and retaining talent. It also explores why greater recognition of the sector’s human capital is essential to building a more resilient and prosperous Canada. We hope that it provides you, and others in our sector, with the foundation necessary to hold wider conversations about our workforce and its vital importance.

We all know that the people who work for charities are pivotal members of their communities with social capital. Coming up in the next 5 articles in the series, we’ll take a look at the data that argues this workforce needs to be better recognized, better supported, and better paid.  

The Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP) is a national bilingual research initiative dedicated to improving understanding of Canada’s charitable sector through timely, accessible, and high-quality data. The project works to ensure that policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and the public have access to accurate, real-time information about the issues, trends, and pressures shaping the charitable sector across Canada. 

Dr. Kate Cornell is a passionate advocate for the charitable sector, specializing in strategic communications, government relations, and cross-sectoral partnerships. Cornell is the Senior Advisor for strategic communications with CICP.

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