The Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP) published insights into policy & advocacy in the Canadian charitable sector. The report features CICP survey data from 2023-2025. According to the 2023 research, 42% of organizations engaged in advocacy to change laws, rules or programs. Meanwhile, in 2025, 55% of charities indicated that they engaged in advocacy. For the organizations not engaging in advocacy, 45% indicated that advocacy is not relevant to their mission, 33% indicated they are not skilled in advocacy, and 30% noted time constraints (2025 data).

The research found that over half of organizations either strongly agree (31%) or agree (29%) that establishing a dedicated ministry or department for the charitable and nonprofit sector within the Canadian government would be beneficial (2023). When asked about the effectiveness of government engagement with charities in addressing policy concerns and needs, the majority of charities rated this metric as either neutral (31%) or somewhat ineffective (27%) (2024 data). According to the research, the majority of charities noted that increasing their level of participation in public policy dialogue and development activities is important (17% – very important; 23% – important; 18% – moderately important; 18% – slightly important) (2024 data).

According to the 2025 data, 80% of organizations do not engage in lobbying, with the main reasons noted being: not skilled in lobbying (42%), not relevant to their mission (36%), and time constraints (36%). Compared to 2024, 20% of organizations indicated that they increased their resources dedicated to advocacy and/or lobbying in 2025.

Check out the CICP data for further insights, click here.