Canada’s voluntary sector is as diversified as it is ubiquitous. Yet most nonprofit organizations share a common objective: the need to engage in an ongoing, mutual dialogue with government to help shape and influence public policy. From large, well-funded foundations, down to the smallest community groups, all have a stake in public policy issues. And in order to help the sector better engage on various issues, umbrella organizations have been popping up across the country to provide nonprofits with the means to achieve more leverage with government.

Build it and they will engage

Katherine Van Kooy is president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (CCVO). In 2003, the CCVO officially launched its operation to provide the city’s nonprofits with a strong, central support network. “One of our roles is to act as a clearinghouse of information, a ‘go-to’ place for organizations who want to engage with the sector around their issues,” she says. To that end, the CCVO publishes bi-weekly e-bulletins, conducts surveys, and convenes workshops to keep their members informed and engaged about impending issues and trends. But Van Kooy realizes that the CCVO and other organizations like hers have a lot of work to do to if they wish to “up” the engagement quotient in the voluntary sector.

“In the business community, the concept of chambers of commerce is well-established,” she says. “If you start up a new business, even if you’ve never been in contact with the chamber, it’s not unfamiliar. It has more brand recognition. [Ours] is a very different approach for the sector. Often [voluntary] organizations seem to be challenged in understanding what a CVO might do. Because there’s been so little experience, there was very little to cling to.” But all that is changing as CVOs and similar organizations begin to emerge across the country.

From marginalizing to legitimizing

Mary Pat MacKinnon is the director of public involvement research at the Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN) in Ottawa. She agrees that engaging the voluntary sector is of crucial import and that the emergence of voluntary chambers and their ilk will help the cause. “Gone are the days where only a few experts addressed the needs of a complex, post-modern society,” she asserts. “It is no longer the role of experts to determine choice and which values are more important to the voluntary sector. Citizens and the voluntary sector have a right to shape public policy. We get more legitimate policies this way and people can embrace them and reflect what they want from them.”

MacKinnon points to efforts like the five-year Voluntary Sector Initiative (VSI), a joint project between the voluntary sector and government that helped raise the profile of the sector, as a prime example of how the voluntary voice has had an impact on public policy engagement. “The voluntary sector is a stakeholder [in public policy] and through the VSI they now have a legitimate and credible role at the table alongside government,” she says. But there are still hurdles to overcome. MacKinnon is convinced the government could do more to execute on the Accord Between the Government of Canada and the Voluntary Sector, and worries that if engagement of this sort isn’t institutionalized and fostered, it could wane. Other organizations are working hard to ensure this does not happen.

Engaging from experience

Over in the Maritimes, Penelope M. Rowe is the CEO of the Community Services Council of Newfoundland and Labrador (CSC). Her organization has been involved in public policy engagement since 1976 and uses its experience to help the region’s nonprofit community engage. “One of our incorporating objectives was to create greater cooperation within the voluntary sector around issues of mutual concern and find ways in which the sector and government could have better communications and relationships,” she says. Rowe knows that the sector has many challenges, but thirty years of experience has taught the CSC a thing or two.

“We convene round tables to which we invite people from all levels of government – different departments – to participate. We pull people’s opinions together through research, reports…[and] use those issues wherever we can in a public forum, so that we don’t only speak directly to a particular government or minister. We [bring] them to the public and the media,” she says, adding that these methods have helped the CSC influence public policy in her region.

“As a result of our organization being here, there have been many initiatives that have been beneficial to numerous organizations. If we were to disappear, there would be a huge gap in the type of infrastructure that could accumulate [the sector’s] opinions and turn them into policy direction,” says Rowe. It’s a further illustration of how important the need is for the sector to continue to organize itself and maintain good representation with government. Sector analysts concur wholeheartedly.

Engagement is a two-way street

Dr. Maureen Molot is co-director of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development (CVSRD) in Ottawa. She has seen many studies and reports that reflect the importance of a well-engaged voluntary sector and encourages organizations to learn more about what the government needs from them. “No government can have the [same] level of knowledge of a sector that its participants have,” she cautions. “Government relies on [the voluntary sector] for a certain amount of input. And it also relies on [it] to organize itself in a way to participate in public policy dialogue.” Which is why the CVSRD is the secretariat for the Canadian Federation of Voluntary Sector Networks (CFVSN), the uber-umbrella organization for all the CVOs and other comparable representative bodies across Canada. The CFVSN was created to assist the regional federations or chambers engage in public policy at the national level.

The other co-director at the CVSRD is Paula Speevak-Sladowski. She also emphasizes the importance of a knowledgeable and well-engaged voluntary sector. “Voluntary organizations can provide authentic and targeted input into the development of public policy by virtue of their direct experience with programs and services that address critical issues, through their relationship with various populations, and through their ability to convene and mobilize communities,” she says. But she too acknowledges the chasm that still exists between the government and voluntary sector when it comes to engagement.

Calling on Joe Public

In Speevak-Sladowski’s opinion there are three main obstacles still in the way of full participation and engagement between government and the voluntary sector. First, is a lack of familiarity with the public policy process by nonprofits. Second, is the policymakers’ lack of understanding of the voluntary sector and its potential value in the public policy process. Third, is the lack of an ongoing relationship between the public and voluntary sector. “This is why it is important to educate both the public and voluntary sector on how to engage in public policy dialogue,” she stresses. To that end, the CVSRD conducts ongoing discussions and conventions to bridge these gaps between the public, the voluntary sector, and government in the hope that public policy engagement will one day be ingrained as part of Canadian culture.

And with all this diligent work, perhaps one day it will.

Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf is president of WordLaunch professional writing services in Toronto. He can be reached at andy@wordlaunch.com