Policy agenda
From Thunder Bay to Barrie, Windsor to London, and across the GTA to Ottawa, the nonprofit sector plays an essential role in building thriving communities where people are connected, well-resourced, and effecting change for the public good. To continue doing so, we require an enabling public policy environment.
Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) advances bold and comprehensive public policy that reflects the needs and aspirations of Ontario’s nonprofit sector. Our policy agenda is aligned with our current strategic framework, and plots a course with nine focus areas consisting of various policy files that we advance through either legislative, regulatory, budget, and/or implementation initiatives.
Vetting criteria for our policy agenda
The issues that ONN primarily focuses on are a combination of:
- Sector-wide: affecting more than one subsector (e.g. social services, arts, faith groups, and environmental organizations);
- Ontario-wide or have Ontario-wide repercussions: given the interconnectedness of public policy issues across jurisdictions, ONN may lead and/or support advocacy on issues impacting nonprofits in Ontario at the federal and/or municipal levels;
- Impacting nonprofits of all sizes: dependent on a combination of budget, staff, volunteers, in rural or urban settings;
- Impacting nonprofits and grassroots groups either led-by, focused on, and/or serving equity-deserving communities: Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities, women and gender-diverse people, 2SLGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, newcomers, and low-income individuals and families.
Approach to ONN’s policy agenda
To surface and advance our policy agenda, ONN takes a network approach by building trusting, reciprocal relationships across our diverse sector. A network approach allows us to address complex issues collectively as a sector, rather than alone and in silos. Our policy agenda consists of issues brought forward directly by various members of our network, and through our state of the sector surveys, conferences and policy summits, regional meetings, informal convenings, and collaborative research and data work.
Our approach to equity in our public policy and advocacy work is not ad-hoc nor siloed in a single part of the policy agenda, rather it is embedded across our focus areas. We recognize that each focus area disproportionately impacts nonprofits led-by, focused on, and/or serving equity-deserving communities. More specifically, ONN is continuously:
- Highlighting the differential impacts of our public policy environment on nonprofits and the communities they serve that are often overlooked and underrepresented in policymaking;
- Centring the experiences of nonprofits and grassroots groups led-by, focused on, and/or serving equity-deserving communities;
- Addressing power imbalances that exist across the sector, such as between rural and urban areas, established organizations and grassroots groups, settler-led organizations and B3, I4, and/or ethno-specific organizations, and established organizations and women and gender diverse organizations and disability justice organizations.
- Elevating and supporting public policy and advocacy work of nonprofits and grassroots groups led-by and serving equity-deserving communities.
