‘The non-profit sector touches every one of us’: Ontario marks first Week of Appreciation for the Nonprofit Sector
Why It Matters
Running a Week of Appreciation is one way to help non-profit employees — who can suffer from burnout and overwork — feel valued, rewarded, and proud of all the work they’ve accomplished.
Valentine’s Day 2022 marked Ontario’s first-ever Week of Appreciation for the Nonprofit Sector, a way for Ontarians to show their love to the 850,000 nonprofit workers across the province.
The virtual ceremony to mark Ontario’s first Week of Appreciation featured pre-recorded speeches from Premier Doug Ford and Progressive Conservative MPP Daisy Wai, who spearheaded the private members’ bill that enshrined the Week of Appreciation. There will also be recorded speeches from RBC Dominion Securities and McDonald’s – not to mention nonprofit heavyweights such as United Way Centraide Canada CEO Dan Clement, Imagine Canada president Bruce MacDonald, and former New Brunswick Lieutenant Governor Margaret McCain.
Ontario’s Week of Appreciation for the Nonprofit Sector is the brainchild of Raksha Manaktala Bhayana, CEO of the Bhayana Family Foundation. “My first career was in the non-profit sector and then I went to the for-profit sector,” Bhayana told Future of Good. “One of the things I realized when I made the transition was that we had numerous awards and lots of incentives in the for-profit sector. There were few, if any, awards for staff in the non-profit sector.”
Meanwhile, Cathy Taylor, executive director of the Ontario Nonprofit Network, played a behind-the-scenes role by creating “key messaging” for ONN’s 56,000 members. She said many Canadians still aren’t aware of the sector’s importance – or its size. Ontario’s non-profit sector includes everything from large publicly funded hospitals to tiny one-person charities. Its workforce is larger than Ontario’s entire mining, agriculture, forestry, oil and gas extraction, and fishing industries combined.
“We were really keen that the government and the public and other stakeholders actually acknowledge and recognize and learn that there are this many workers in our sector,” Taylor said. Bhayana listed them off: arts charities, religious organizations, sports clubs, environmental organizations. “It’s really important for our workers to have external stakeholders say thank you and support them,” Taylor added.
Bhayana said she recommended Canada create a national day of recognition for the non-profit sector to the Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector, but some senators felt she should start by working on the provincial level. In 2019, Bhayana was doing an award ceremony in Halifax as part of a partnership with United Way Centraide Canada when she was introduced to Myra Freeman, the former Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. Bhayana spoke with Freeman about the idea of a day of recognition – and Nova Scotia became the first Canadian province to make it happen.
Bhayana then set her sights on Ontario, home to Canada’s largest non-profit sector. With the help of MPP Daisy Wai, the parliamentary secretary to Ontario’s Minister of Long-Term Care, Bill 9 – the private members’ bill that would enshrine the Week of Appreciation – wound its way through the Legislature. (The bill actually had to be re-submitted after Ford prorogued the Legislature due to COVID-19, thereby canceling all bills that hadn’t yet been passed into law.)
Bill 9 was only passed in December, Taylor said, so Ontario non-profits didn’t have a lot of time to prepare. But some managers, and outside businesses, are pitching in to show their appreciation. “Some are having conversations, some are getting coffee or snacks for their staff,” Taylor said. “In Orangeville, Ont., we’ve heard a number of restaurants downtown are giving non-profit workers free samosas and free coffee during the week.”
Wai said the Week of Appreciation will help “ignite the passion and the performance of workers who are understandably exhausted and feeling burned out,” in a statement. After all of the long hours and hazardous conditions nonprofit workers have faced during COVID, Wai said they deserve to be celebrated. “Their sense of dedication, powered by their personal vision and mission has supported them through many challenges, but our appreciation and support for them will go a long way,” Wai’s statement read.
But Taylor said appreciation for non-profit workers can’t end with a commemorative week. Improving non-profit pension plans, paying living wages, and getting funders to cover the true cost of service delivery are more ways of showing appreciation for Ontario’s non-profit sector – changes ONN and many other organizations are pushing for every day.
“Recognition is great,” Taylor said. “Saying thank you is so valuable – and we have to continue to invest in decent work and making sure that organizations ensure their staff are paid well and have all the benefits that other industries have.”
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