On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new $350 million Emergency Community Support Fund to help charities and nonprofits across Canada.

The nonprofit and charitable sector has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, as organizations on the frontline deal with disruptions to their work due to physical distancing and a surge in demand for services from vulnerable Canadians. 

“Long before this pandemic, charities and nonprofit organizations were doing crucial work to help our communities,” said Trudeau in his daily COVID-19 update outside Rideau Cottage. “But COVID-19 is putting a tremendous amount of pressure on those organizations because more people need help,” he said. 

Although full details are yet to be released, the government plans to disburse the funds through national intermediaries including United Way Centraide Canada, the Canadian Red Cross, and Community Foundations of Canada.

With a particular focus on vulnerable populations – including seniors, members of the LGBTQ2+ community, and those with disabilities – the funding will support local community-based organizations in activities like home deliveries of groceries and medications, transportation services, and help lines for information and support.

“Organizations have also had to change the way they deliver services because of the rules that everyone has to follow to keep each other safe,” Trudeau explained. “It takes resources to make these kinds of adjustments. Resources these groups don’t have because they’re spread so thin trying to help as many people as possible.”

The reaction so far from the sector has been positive but measured, considering the scale of the challenge ahead and what will be needed to tackle it.

“This fund will help the Canadian Red Cross offer programs and services to support community agencies and not-for-profit organizations during this unprecedented health emergency,” said Conrad Sauvé, President and CEO of the Canadian Red Cross.

“Through our work with community agencies and not-for-profit organizations, and as a convenor of the sector,” he said, “the Red Cross knows that not-for-profits are being heavily impacted by COVID-19 in terms of workforce capacity and lost revenue at a time when their services are most needed.”

The number of vulnerable Canadians is increasing, and so this is important funding that will ensure that there is rapid relief for those who need it most. 

Andrea Dicks, president of Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), a network of 191 community foundations across the country, agrees. “The number of vulnerable Canadians is increasing, and so this is important funding that will ensure that there is rapid relief for those who need it most,” she said. “We know that vulnerable Canadians are disproportionately impacted by this crisis,” she said, including groups like the homeless, people with disabilities, those facing food insecurity, non-binary people, and women.

“The focus is really on the immediate response, the need to make sure we can provide supports to Canada’s most vulnerable populations,” said Dan Clement, President and CEO of United Way Centraide Canada. “This funding is going to make sure that we can maintain that level of service,” he explained.

United Way is hearing on the ground that issues like food access and social support have become particularly difficult, he said, especially for the elderly, and the changing of social delivery models is “driving up cost.” 

Along with the Canadian Red Cross, these intermediaries will be entrusted with disbursing much of the government’s fund. Although these are extreme circumstances, Clement is confident in their ability to work together.

United Way has worked very closely with the Canadian Red Cross in the past, including in response to the Fort McMurray wildfire, and local United Ways across Canada work in partnership with community foundations to mobilize resources that are available locally, coordinate investments and fill gaps in support, he said.

Dicks says CFC’s connection with communities is a key tool the organization will bring to the table. “The experience of COVID-19 differs across communities,” she said. “When you use that community knowledge to make locally-driven decisions about your community, you understand its needs and you understand the way in which it functions.”

However, Dicks hopes today’s announcement is just the first step. “I think the government can continue to do more in the same way that it’s supporting other sectors,” she said.

The nonprofit and charitable sector is demanding a much larger ‘sector stabilization’ fund to secure its longer-term survival. Charities and nonprofits account for 8.1 percent of GDP and employ 2.4 million Canadians, of which 70 percent are women.

The nonprofit and charitable sector is demanding a much larger ‘sector stabilization’ fund to secure its longer-term survival. 

According to modelling by Imagine Canada, three months of mandated social distancing and the economic downtown will cause the charitable sector to lose $9.5 billion in revenue and lay off more than 117,000 staff, the majority of whom would be women. A six-month lockdown would mean a loss of $15.6 billion and 194,000 employees, it said.

“It is startling, the impact [COVID-19] is going to have,” Dicks said. “As organizations don’t have liquidity and don’t have security that they can provide to their employees and to the people who they serve most, that precarity of the sector only increases so organizations have to make difficult choices,” she explained.

Imagine Canada has been leading the sector’s lobbying efforts for an emergency $8 billion stabilization fund to deal with the crisis. Although Tuesday’s announcement has signalled the government’s support and will undoubtedly help several community organizations, it appears modest when compared to the broader challenge. 

“Sector stabilization is really a recognition that the charitable sector, as demonstrated today, is a tremendously important support to Canadians in times of need,” said Clement, pointing out that many charities do not have the financial capacity to withstand long periods of economic instability. 

“What we need to ensure is that the sector is able to respond today but is also able to be there to serve Canadians in six months and in 12 months,” he said.

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