Analytical report >

Human resources

Introduction
How much do organizations rely on volunteers?
How have volunteer levels changed between 2000 and 2003?
How do volunteer levels vary by province and territory?
How much do organizations rely on paid staff?
How have employment levels varied between 2000 and 2003?
How does use of paid staff vary by province and territory?
Is there a relationship between volunteers and paid staff?
Summary

Introduction

Many nonprofit and voluntary organizations consider their volunteers and paid staff to be one of their greatest strengths,¹ and the NSNVO demonstrates how important both are. Virtually all nonprofit and voluntary organizations rely on volunteers to some degree, and more than half rely solely on volunteers to fulfill their mission.² Many Canadians volunteer for more than one organization. As a result, nonprofit and voluntary organizations report a combined volunteer complement of over 19 million³ that contribute more than 2 billion hours of volunteer time,⁴ or the equivalent of more than 1 million full-time jobs.⁵ From the perspective of an individual organization, this represents an average of 14,360 hours, or 7.5 full-time jobs per year.

Although just under half of all organizations have paid employees, these organizations employ a total of 2 million people.⁶ One-third of these people are employed by Hospitals and Universities and colleges, which make up less than 1% of all organizations.

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How much do organizations rely on volunteers?

Volunteers serve a variety of functions in nonprofit and voluntary organizations. Ninety-three percent of volunteers are engaged exclusively in activities such as delivering, or helping to deliver, programs and services and engaging in fundraising and campaigning activities. Collectively, these volunteers account for 91% of volunteer hours. While 31% of these volunteers give their time only once or twice a year, for example, to do campaigning or fundraising, 69% are more frequently engaged by the organizations for which they volunteer.

The remaining 7% of volunteers are engaged in governance, serving on the organization's board of directors.⁷ In fact, for 20% of organizations, all of their volunteers are involved in governance activities. Collectively, volunteers involved in governance account for 9% of all volunteer hours.

Although nearly all organizations make use of volunteers, most volunteers are concentrated among a relatively small number of organizations: 73% are engaged by the 6% of organizations that have volunteer complements of 200 or more (Table 3.1).

Table 3.1. Nonprofit and voluntary organization volunteers, by number of volunteers, Canada, 2003

Sports and recreation organizations account for 28% of all volunteers and 23% of total volunteer hours (Table 3.2), although these organizations account for only 21% of nonprofit and voluntary organizations. In contrast, Religion organizations account for 11% of volunteers and 12% of volunteer hours, but make up 19% of nonprofit and voluntary organizations.

Table 3.2. Nonprofit and voluntary organization volunteers, by primary activity area, Canada, 2003

Most people who volunteer for nonprofit and voluntary organizations do so with registered charities. Although registered charities represent only 56% of organizations, they account for 71% of all volunteers and 67% of total volunteer hours.

While organizations with annual revenues of more than $10 million make up only 1% of all organizations, they account for 20% of all volunteers and 13% of total volunteer hours (Table 3.3). The 13% of organizations with revenues of $500,000 or more accounted for 41% of all volunteer hours. The smallest organizations (revenues under $30,000) make up 42% of all organizations, but account for only 12% of volunteers and 14% of total volunteer hours.

Table 3.3. Nonprofit and voluntary organization volunteers, by annual revenues, Canada, 2003

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How have volunteer levels changed between 2000 and 2003?

Most organizations (54%) report little change in their number of volunteers⁸ from 2000 to 2003 (Table 3.4): 28% report an increase, and 18% report a decline. Organizations with large volunteer complements (100 volunteers or more) are the most likely to report an increase in the number of volunteers.

Table 3.4 Reported change in number of volunteers for nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by number of volunteers, Canada, 2000 to 2003

Sports and recreation organizations, which account for 28% of all volunteers, are most likely to report a decline in volunteers between 2000 and 2003 (Table 3.5). In contrast, 45% of International, 34% of Social services and 33% of Arts and culture organizations report higher numbers of volunteers.

Table 3.5 Reported change in number of volunteers over the last three years for nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by primary activity area, Canada, 2000 to 2003

Organizations with the lowest revenues (under $30,000) were less likely than others to report that the number of volunteers they engaged had increased between 2000 and 2003 (Table 3.6). Mid-sized organizations (revenues of $250,000 to $499,999) and those with the highest annual revenues ($10 million or more) were most likely to report that the number of volunteers they engaged had increased.

Table 3.6 Reported change in number of volunteers over the last three years for nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by annual revenues, Canada, 2000 to 2003

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How do volunteer levels vary by province and territory?

Ontario is home to 28% of nonprofit and voluntary organizations, yet these organizations account for 40% of volunteers (Table 3.7). Although there are more nonprofit and voluntary organizations in Quebec , they account for only 23% of all volunteers. British Columbia also has a smaller percentage of volunteers relative to their share of the total number of organizations.

Table 3.7 Nonprofit and voluntary organization volunteers, by province or territory, Canada, 2003

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How much do organizations rely on paid staff?

Apart from the benefits associated with the programs and services that nonprofit and voluntary organizations deliver, these organizations also contribute to the economic health of Canada by virtue of the employment that they create. Just over 2 million Canadians are employed by nonprofit and voluntary organizations (Table 3.8). About one-third are employed by Hospitals and Universities and colleges, on either a full-time or part-time basis, in both permanent and temporary positions.

Employment among nonprofit and voluntary organizations is concentrated among a small number of organizations; only 46% employ any staff. The 2% that employ 100 or more people account for 71% of all employees.

Table 3.8 Paid staff of nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by number of paid staff, Canada, 2003

Most Sports and recreation, Grant-making, fundraising and voluntarism promotion and Environment organizations have no paid staff, relying on volunteers to operate their organizations. In contrast, most Health, Social services and Religion organizations as well as Hospitals and Universities and colleges have paid staff to run the day-to-day activities of their organizations.

Hospitals and Universities and colleges together account for less than 1% of organizations, but employ 34% of all paid staff. In fact, 43% of Hospitals and 32% of Universities and colleges have staff complements of 100 or more (Table 3.9). In contrast, Sports and recreation organizations make up 21% of all organizations but account for only 6% of all paid employees. Similarly, Religion organizations account for 19% of all organizations, but employ only 5% of all paid staff.

Table 3.9 Number of paid staff in nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by primary activity area, Canada, 2003

Eighty-eight percent of organizations with revenues under $30,000 have no paid staff, as do 52% of organizations with revenues between $30,000 and $99,999 (Table 3.10). In contrast, 69% of organizations with revenues of $10 million or more have staffs of 100 or more.

Table 3.10 Number of paid staff in nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by annual revenues, Canada, 2003

Of the more than 2 million people employed by nonprofit and voluntary organizations, 65% are in permanent positions and 35% are in temporary positions (Table 3.11). Temporary employment is most prevalent among Sports and recreation and Arts and culture organizations (69% of employees in each activity area), and Business and professional associations and unions (65%). Organizations that are most likely to employ staff on a permanent basis are Development and housing (90% of employees have permanent status), Hospitals (84%) and Religion organizations (84%).

Fifty-six percent of paid staff in nonprofit and voluntary organizations are full-time employees; 44% are part-time. Full-time employment is most prevalent among Development and housing (91% of employees are full-time), International (82%) and Environment (77%) organizations. In contrast, part-time employment is more prevalent among Business and professional associations and unions (62% of employees are part-time) and among Universities and colleges (56%).

Table 3.11 Nonprofit and voluntary organization paid staff, by primary activity area, Canada 2003

Given the high concentration of revenues among a small number of nonprofit and voluntary organizations, it is not surprising that employment is similarly concentrated. The organizations with revenues of $10 million or more account for 46% of employees (Table 3.12). Organizations with revenues of $1 million to $10 million account for another 28% of employees.

Among those organizations with paid staff, the tendency to employ permanent staff increases with the size of an organization's revenues. There is, however, one striking exception: among those organizations with revenues between $30,000 and $99,999 that employ staff, 87% of paid staff are permanent employees. These same organizations also have the greatest reliance on full-time staff—87% of the paid staff of these organizations are employed on a full-time basis. This suggests that these organizations are deploying their modest revenues to ensure that they have relatively stable staff support.

Table 3.12 Nonprofit and voluntary organization paid staff, by annual revenues, Canada, 2003

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How have employment levels varied between 2000 and 2003?

Nonprofit and voluntary organizations report that their numbers of employees have been relatively stable. Among those organizations that currently have paid staff, 59% report that employment levels have remained the same since between 2000 and 2003. Thirty percent report an increase in employment; the remaining 11% report declines.⁹

Among those organizations that report having paid staff, Universities and colleges (56%) and Health organizations (43%) are most likely to report rising staff levels from 2000 to 2003 (Table 3.13). Employment is most often reported to be stable by organizations in the fields of Religion (73%), Sports and recreation (67%) and Development and housing (66%). However, Law, advocacy and politics organizations are most likely to report a decrease in staff levels.

Table 3.13 Reported change in number of paid staff over the last three years for nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by primary activity area, Canada, 2000 to 2003

Among organizations with paid staff, those with larger revenues are more likely than others to report an increase in staff levels over the three-year period (Table 3.14). For example, 54% of all organizations in the highest revenue category report increased staff numbers, compared with only 14% of organizations with revenues under $30,000.

Table 3.14 Reported change in number of paid staff over the last three years for nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by annual revenues, Canada, 2000 to 2003

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How does use of paid staff vary by province and territory?

Despite having only 28% of all nonprofit and voluntary organizations, Ontario employs 47% of all paid staff (Table 3.15). This appears to reflect the relatively high revenues reported by Ontario organizations: 46% of organizations with annual revenues of $10 million or more are based in Ontario. Quebec, with approximately 29% of all organizations, has 23% of all employees. Thirteen percent of all organizations operate in British Columbia, accounting for 7% of all staff. All other provinces and territories combined account for the remaining 23% of staff.

Table 3.15 Nonprofit and voluntary organization paid staff, by province or territory, Canada, 2003

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Is there a relationship between volunteers and paid staff?

The bulk of volunteers are engaged by organizations that have relatively small staff complements: 64% of volunteers are engaged by organizations with fewer than 10 staff (Table 3.16). The largest paid-staff organizations (staff complements of 25 or more) engage only 14% of all volunteers.

Table 3.16 Nonprofit and voluntary organization volunteers and paid staff, by number of paid staff, Canada, 2003

Hospitals and Universities and colleges together account for less than 1% of organizations, but employ 34% of all paid staff (Table 3.17). Yet these organizations collectively engage less than 2% of all volunteers. In contrast, Sports and recreation organizations comprise 21% of all organizations and engage 28% of all volunteers, but account for only 6% of all paid employees. In fact, 73% of Sports and recreation organizations have no paid employees.

Table 3.17 Nonprofit and voluntary organization volunteers and paid staff, by primary activity area, Canada, 2003

Changes in staff numbers from 2000 to 2003 do not appear to be strongly related to changes in volunteer numbers (Table 3.18). For example, even though 45% of International organizations report more volunteers, only 15% report fewer paid staff.

Table 3.18 Reported change in number of volunteers and paid staff over the last three years for nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by primary activity area, Canada, 2000 to 2003

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Summary

Collectively, nonprofit and voluntary organizations report having more than 19 million volunteers who donated a total of more than 2 billion hours—the equivalent of more than 1 million full-time jobs. Nearly all organizations rely on volunteers to some degree; more than half rely on volunteers exclusively. Nevertheless, only a small percentage of organizations engage the bulk of volunteers. Sports and recreation organizations engage more than one-quarter of all volunteers. Organizations in Ontario engage far more volunteers than do their counterparts in other provinces. Most organizations report little change in their volunteer complements from 2000 to 2003.

Just under half of organizations employ paid staff, but these organizations provide over 2 million jobs. Employment is concentrated among a small number of organizations: Hospitals, Social services, and Universities and colleges provide half of all employment. The bulk of employment is permanent, and a significant proportion of employees work part time. Organizations in Ontario employ nearly half of all paid staff. For the most part, the number of employees working for nonprofit and voluntary organizations was relatively stable from 2000 to 2003.

Most volunteers are engaged by organizations with relatively small staff sizes. There is little relationship between changes in staff sizes and changes in the size of an organization's volunteer complement.

Notes

1. M.H. Hall et al., 2003, The Capacity to Serve: A Qualitative Study of the Challenges Facing Canada's Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations, Toronto, Canadian Centre for Philanthropy.

2. For the purposes of this report, volunteers include volunteer board members, unless otherwise specified.

3. Because people may volunteer with more than one organization, the number of volunteers that organizations engage exceeds the number of volunteers in the population. The National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating estimates that 6.5 million Canadians volunteer over the course of a year (M.H. Hall, L. McKeown and K. Roberts, 2001, Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, Catalogue no. 71-542-XPE, Ottawa, Statistics Canada.).

4. This estimate is based on the total number of volunteer hours that organizations reported receiving. It should be noted that The National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (see reference in note 3 above) estimates that Canadians volunteered a total of 1.1 billion hours in 2000.

5. Full-time equivalencies were calculated using a 40-hour work week and 48 work weeks per year.

6. This includes 884,129 part-time employees. Some employees may work for more than one organization.

7. Volunteer board members may also contribute to their organizations in activities other than governance.

8. These figures apply only to the 64% of organizations that were incorporated, that had been in operation for at least three years, and that had volunteers (excluding those involved in governance).

9. These figures apply only to the 39% of organizations that were incorporated, that had been in operation for at least three years, and that had employees.