Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies

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New study completed by CVSS in partnership with the Government of Ontario on risk management and insurance for non-profit organizations is now available in both official languages.

  • Taking Risks Safe Way
  • Prendre des risques en toute sécurité
  • We welcome post doctoral fellow Dr. Katie Misener to the CVSS research team. Her post doctoral fellowship is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for 2009-2010.

    New working papers are added to CVSS Working Paper Series.


    9% of Canadian employers are nonprofit organizations, employing 20% of the Canadian labour force. This translates to 2 million jobs.
    The nonprofit sector accounts for 6.8% of Canada's GDP while the agriculture sector accounts for 1.5%, mining, oil and gas for 4.0%, retail for 5.0%, food and accommodation for 2.3% of the nation's GDP.
    63% of nonprofit organizations are small and operate with an annual budget of less than $100,000. Only 30% of these small organizations have paid staff. Generally their paid staff numbers less than 2 full-time employees.
    Six and a half million Canadians volunteer in nonprofit organizations, but because many volunteer at several organizations, Nonprofit and voluntary organizations report a combined volunteer complement of over 19 million. This translates into 1.1 to 2 billion hours of volunteer labour representing about 7.5 full-time jobs per voluntary organization.
    Most nonprofit sector managers are women, ranging from 50% in hospitals and universities to 66% in other nonprofits. This compares favourably with the for-profit sector, where only 36% of managers are women.
    54% of nonprofit organizations rely exclusively on volunteers to carry out their missions.
    More than two thirds of the employees in the nonprofit sector are women, compared with less than half in the for-profit sector.
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    • Spring 2006. The Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies: A Decade of Growth and Achievement. This publication provides an overview of the achievements of the first decade of research and education at CVSS. Hard copies are available.
    • 2005:

      Spring | Fall