Let's Imagine

Vous avez visité un musée récemment? Vos enfants fréquentent la garderie? Vous avez adopté un chien auprès d'un refuge pour animaux? Tous ces services sont offerts par des OBNL, mais on n'y pense pas toujours. Et c'est ce que des données révèlent sur la perception de notre secteur.  Seulement 41 % des gens disent connaître une personne qui a déjà bénéficié des services d'un OBNL. Or, si l'on pense à toute la gamme de services offerts par les 170 000 organismes à but non lucratif du pays, 41 %, c'est peu. Pourtant, huit personnes sur dix estiment que les services fournis par les OBNL sont essentiels pour le bien-être de leur communauté. Alors, si les gens comprennent l'importance du secteur, ils ne sentent pas qu'ils en bénéficient ou que ça les concerne. Cela suggère que l'impact du secteur dans nos vies est largement sous-estimé. Cette perception a des conséquences sur tout l'écosystème à but non lucratif : le financement, le soutien du public, les bénévoles, les membres du personnel et les communautés. Mais si on pouvait changer cette perception, qu'est-ce qui deviendrait alors possible?  Imagine Canada a lancé une campagne de sensibilisation nationale afin de démontrer l'impact du secteur et favoriser un sentiment d'appartenance à notre secteur en montrant que tout le monde bénéficie de nos services, même si on ne s'en rend pas toujours compte. Le message de la campagne est clair : vous en faites déjà partie.  Pour en discuter, nous nous sommes entretenus avec deux dirigeants d'organismes qui constatent l'impact du secteur à but non lucratif sur les collectivités sous des angles différents : Tasha Lackman est présidente et directrice générale de Centraide du Grand Montréal, et Michel Vallée, PDG de Culture pour tous. Au cours de cette conversation enrichissante, nous discutons de la place qu'occupe le secteur dans notre quotidien, de ce qui est en jeu lorsque les gens ne se sentent pas concernés par le secteur, et de l'importance de voir et d'aborder les problèmes sociaux dans leur ensemble et de penser aux services des OBNL comme une gamme de solutions complémentaires plutôt que des services distincts.   Lire la transcription complète ici https://share.descript.com/view/AoidA5gvQge    

A donor becomes a row in a database. A gift becomes a number on a dashboard. A person in need becomes a story deployed to move that number. Somewhere along the way, fundraising can start to feel less like an invitation and more like an extraction - even though the whole thing only works because of something deeply human: the personal decision to give. And that decision is getting rarer. Over the past decade, the share of Canadians who donate has fallen from 82% to 54%, according to Statistics Canada's Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating - roughly three million fewer donors since 2018 alone. So is generosity itself shifting? As Canadians head into the season of giving, host Bruce MacDonald is joined by two leaders who see the question from opposite ends of the gift. Adrian Bartha, CEO of raisin software - the Toronto-based fundraising platform that 1.5 million people give through each year; and Aaron Sanderson, President and CEO of Kids Help Phone Foundation - where phone, text, and chat open the door for young people, but there's always a real person on the other side. Together, they unpack why people actually give (including what the sector tends to get wrong), how to meet people where they are, whether that's a phone call, a text, or a click, and adopt new technology without losing what matters most, and where they draw the line as AI reshapes both fundraising and care. They also share practical advice for small and mid-sized organizations doing this work with limited time and tools - and what gives them hope for the year ahead. It's a conversation about treating every gift not as the finish line, but as the start of a relationship. Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/wY1NInlp6Cb  Listen to past episodes here:https://imaginecanada.ca/en/lets-imagine-podcast 

The hospital where you were born. The summer camp that shaped a childhood. The food bank that carried a neighbour through a hard stretch. The museum you wandered through last weekend. Chances are a nonprofit was behind every one of them - and chances are you never thought of it that way. That disconnect is the heart of this episode. Only 41% of Canadians say they know someone who has used the services of a nonprofit or charity, yet 8 in 10 believe those services are essential to their communities. Canadians understand the sector matters. They just don't see themselves as part of it - even as more than 170,000 charities and nonprofits, and the 2.9 million people who work in them, quietly shape daily life across the country. This fall, Imagine Canada launched a national public awareness campaign to close that gap, with a simple message: you're already part of it. In this episode of Let's Imagine, host Bruce MacDonald is joined by two leaders who see the disconnect from very different vantage points. Heather McDonald, President and CEO of United Way Greater Toronto - one of the country's largest community funders; and Patti Pon, President and CEO of Calgary Arts Development - a corner of the charitable sector that millions pour into their lives without ever calling it charity. Together, they trace where the sector touches an ordinary Canadian day from morning to night; unpack what's really at stake when people don't recognize it as their own - for public trust, volunteering, giving, and our shared ability to solve problems; and reflect on the moments that made them realize just how much the nonprofit world had shaped their own lives. It's a conversation about belonging - and about what becomes possible when Canadians stop seeing the sector as something distant and start seeing it as something they're already part of. To learn more about the campaign - and to download the toolkit for your nonprofit to use - visit AlreadyPartOfIt.ca. Make sure to check out our full episode list. This episode is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/dOEfpHoGWOe 

Every September, millions of students head back to school. For many, it's a familiar rhythm - new school supplies, new teachers, a fresh start. But for young people growing up in low-income communities, the season carries a heavier question: not just whether they'll show up, but whether they'll be able to stay, belong, and imagine a future that includes post-secondary education at all.   The nonprofit sector has poured real effort into closing that gap - mentorship, scholarships, food security, after-school support. And yet the divide in educational outcomes between low-income students and their peers has proven stubbornly hard to close.   In this episode of Let's Imagine, host Bruce MacDonald is joined by Owen Charters, President and CEO of Pathways to Education Canada. Founded in 2001 in Toronto's Regent Park, Pathways was built on a simple but powerful conviction: that a young person's postal code should never determine their potential. More than two decades later, it works in communities across the country and has helped tens of thousands of students graduate high school and move on to post-secondary education.   Together, they explore why wrapping students in integrated support - financial, academic, social, and mentorship - works where piecemeal approaches fall short (ie the importance of supporting the whole person); how Pathways earns trust in communities with complicated relationships to institutions; and how they help position the students to be "job-ready" in a digitally powered, AI-enabled economy.   Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/qYKcafOCbj7    Listen to past episodes here: https://imaginecanada.ca/en/lets-imagine-podcast 

Attirer l'attention des élus et des médias est déjà difficile. Le faire en mobilisant des organismes déjà débordés relève d'un défi encore plus grand. Pourtant, une initiative du secteur communautaire rassemble des organismes de partout au Québec pour revendiquer la reconnaissance du rôle essentiel du communautaire et la fin du financement précaire.   Dans cet épisode du balado Imagine, nous recevons Sophie Tétrault-Martel, intervenante au Centre des femmes de Longueuil, et Caroline Chartier, directrice adjointe du Centre Roland-Bertrand à Shawinigan, toutes deux porte-paroles du mouvement « Le communautaire à boutte ».    Sophie et Caroline nous expliquent les objectifs et actions du mouvement pour dénoncer une réalité de plus en plus intenable : des besoins qui explosent d'un côté, et des équipes à bout de souffle en première ligne de l'autre.   Cette discussion inspirante touche aussi aux défis quotidiens qui poussent les organismes à se mobiliser, à l'importance de continuer à se battre pour se faire entendre et à l'impact de ce mouvement pour les personnes qui en font partie.   Lire la transcription complète ici