Public Policy & Advocacy

 

Pillar Nonprofit Network Public Policy Priorities, Advocacy & Actions 2021-2024


Our Strategy | Strategic Plan Alignment | 2021-24 Public Policy Priorities and Actions | Pillar's Submissions | Pillar Policy Talk Sessions & Reports 

Our Strategy

Pillar’s public policy strategy is grounded in organizing around issues to help improve the social impact sector through a heightened equity lens and to encourage a regulatory environment and broader culture that enables the sector to operate with the greatest impact. We look to our network-informed provisional strategic plan to ground our areas of focus and to the truth that capacity building for nonprofits can no longer exist without systems transformation and issues-based advocacy. 

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and amplified hard truths that our members and communities have long known to be true. The systems of oppression (such as colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy) that our society is built upon are the cause of unequal access to resources and rights for historically marginalized people. These groups, who already faced barriers such as unequal access to employment, healthcare, housing, resource stability, environmental racism or other forms of oppression, found their outcomes in these areas worsened by the effects of the pandemic. We have heard of these realities globally and from our own members of the communities they serve. 

While the breadth and scope of institutions in the impact sector is diverse, historically marginalized groups often look to the sector to meet their needs and to advocate for improved outcomes for their communities. Many sector organizations who were already facing resource challenges have been stretched even further in the wake of COVID putting a strain on employees and communities served. For these reasons, we must call for systems change in both the external and internal environment of the impact sector. We believe it is time to turn our attention towards systems level issues of racial equity, environmental sustainability and building an equitable economy that serves the many, not the few.

It starts with us

While we focus on the external systems in our society, we must also re-evaluate the foundations of the sector itself from funding structures to how we uphold systems of oppression in our own operations. We know there are many problems to be solved within the sector such as a lack of diversity in staffing and ongoing issues of inadequate community consultation in service providing organizations. We have work to do to ensure that our sector reflects the diversity of the local community and country more broadly, and we ground our work in radical accountability for our own actions.

Impact sector organizations cannot be neutral about the systemic barriers to a just, equitable, and green recovery; taking a stand on systemic issues and following through on those commitments is a matter of building and keeping trust with the communities we serve. For nonprofits, charities and social enterprises to be most effective, we need to fix the root causes that perpetuate inequities, in our communities, in our network, and in our teams.

Strategic Plan Alignment

Pillar’s public policy priorities and actions have been srtrongly influenced by the themes and priorities of our 2021-2023 Strategic Plan, but need to align with our 2024-25 Provisional Strategic Plan. Building this alignment is among the expected outcomes of our 2024 #PolicyTalk series. (Go there now.)

This moment calls for us to move forward as an organization and as a sector and do all we can to shift the systems that maintain inequities, many of which were amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. At a societal level we are all being called upon to confront problems of pandemic proportions, including colonization and anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Black racism, gender inequities, oppression, and a climate emergency.

2021 - 2024 Public Policy Priorities and Actions

The following represents Pillar Nonprofit Network’s current focus in terms of proactive policy advocacy. We bring a cross sector approach of engaging nonprofits, social enterprise, business and government to this work. Our network, Public Policy & Government Relations Committee, Board and Executive Director set public policy direction and priority areas. Our key policy priorities are sector-focused, rather than issues-focused. The issues that Pillar focuses on are sector wide and affect more than one sub-sector (e.g. arts, education, environment, faith, health, heritage, social services, sports, and volunteerism/philanthropy).

Local/Regional Priorities

  • Advocate for our network and raise awareness about its needs and how we can contribute to an equitable and sustainable recovery that addresses the inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Advocate for an Inclusive Economy, including measures that support Decent Work for Nonprofits.
  • Advocate for policy that advances environmental sustainability in our network and community (e.g. London Environmental Network - Green Economic Recovery)
  • Advocate for social innovation, social enterprise and social finance as tools for equity, change and recovery in action.
  • Advocate for structural changes to address institutional forms of oppression showing up in funding mechanisms.

Provincial Priorities

  • Advocate for our network and raise awareness about its needs and how we can contribute to an equitable and sustainable recovery that addresses the inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic across the three pillars.
  • Advocate for recovery supports for nonprofits and social enterprises and the role of business in rebuilding our communities.
  • Advocate for an Inclusive Economy, including measures that support Decent Work for Nonprofits, social enterprise, social finance, community-owned structures and social procurement.
  • Advocate for social innovation, social enterprise and social finance as tools for equity, change and recovery in action.
  • Advocate for an enabling regulatory environment.
  • Advocate for structural changes to address institutional forms of oppression showing up in funding mechanisms.

NOTE: Pillar is an active member of Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) and the Ontario Volunteer Centre Network, and we work collaboratively to move forward shared policy priorities.

National Priorities

  • Advocate for our network and raise awareness about its needs and how we can contribute to an equitable and sustainable recovery that addresses the inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Advocacy for an equitable recovery for all (e.g. Just Recovery)
  • Advocate for an enabling regulatory environment (e.g. Funding Reform)
  • Advocate for social innovation, social enterprise and social finance as tools for equity, change and recovery in action.
  • Advocate for structural changes to address institutional forms of oppression showing up in funding mechanisms.

NOTE: Pillar is an active member of Imagine Canada, Volunteer Canada, the Canadian Federation of Nonprofit Networks, the Federal Nonprofit Data Coalition, the federal Funding Reform Working Group, and a supporter of the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience, and we work collaboratively to move forward shared policy priorities. including a national volunteer strategy, a national nonprofit data strategy, a national nonprofit workforce development strategy, a national strategy for anti-racism and hate, and a home in government.

Key Networks

Municipal

  • Workforce Development Table of the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community Response
  • Business Reference Table of the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community Response
  • Strategy Table of the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response
  • Research and Evaluation Tables of the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community Response
  • Local Funders Table
  • London Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership
  • Child and Youth Network/Age Friendly Network London Basic Needs & Essential Skills Working Group
  • Child and Youth Network/Age Friendly Network London Inclusion & Belonging Working Group
  • London Community Recovery Network

Provincial

  • Ontario Nonprofit Network
  • Ontario Volunteer Centre Network

Federal

  • Canadian Federation of Nonprofit Networks
  • Equitable Recovery Collective
  • Imagine Canada
  • National Impact Investment Practitioners Table
  • Volunteer Canada
  • Federal Nonprofit Data Coalition
  • Federal Funding Reform Working Group

Pillar's Recent Submissions to Government

Municipal
 
Provincial
 
Federal
 

Pillar Policy Talk Sessions & Reports

After the significant shift of resources to emergent crises from 2020-2022, Pillar Nonprofit Network is co-designing, with our local and national networks, a public policy program that builds the capacity of our member organizations and community in public policy and advocacy for impact. Pillar recognizes that one of the strengths of the nonprofit sector is our ability to collaborate and share best practices. To this end, we have launched in 2023 and continued in 2024 a #PolicyTalk series for our members to discuss policy so they can develop tools, partnerships, and strategies that will help further their missions and the local sector's collective voice. 

On June 28, 2023, we hosted Building the Plane While we're on the Runway, an inaugural in-person #PolicyTalk, and encouraged people from our member organizations and the community at large to join the conversation. In this gathering, we used the City's Multi-Year Budget process as a container for identifying our shared priorities and co-creating the way we can work together to achieve our goals. As we have in the past, we reported back to the attendees, the membership, and the community what arose from that meeting, including further opportunities for engagement. Read the report from the June 28 event.

With the encouragement of attendees from the June #PolicyTalk, Pillar convened a second event -- Defining Shared Goals -- on August 10 and facilitated a discussion about our shared aspirations for the City's Multi-Year Budget. In that conversation, participants were able to identify specific tools and resources that were needed to overcome barriers to participation in the budget development process, including 1) an account of the timelines, critical pathways, and opportunities to intervene in the budget process; 2) a one-page document that would make the case to boards that advocacy is allowed and, indeed, necessary; 3) a mapping template that would help organizations to identify points of intersection with the City's 2023-27 Strategic Plan; and 4) a broader toolkit for municipal advocacy, a resource Pillar identified as being the past work of the Urban League of London. You can read the report of the August #PolicyTalk event here.

Pillar staff presented draft versions for group feedback on September 9 at #PolicyTalk 3: Doing Things Together, including an example of outputs that could be achieved using a mapping template; notes toward a one-pager on advocacy for nonprofit boards; and a timeline for the budget process (since edited to reflect the introduction of a "Mayor's Budget" under 'Strong Mayor Powers" granted to London's Mayor by the Province of Ontario); and the opportunity to collaborate on the Urban League's toolkit. At this event, it was identified that nonprofit board members may need greater elaboration than possible in a one-page document (which was seen as a useful 'reminder' resource). Learn more about the August event here.

Throughout the series, participants identified a persistent "advocacy chill" as a barrier to public policy work, especially at the organizational and board levels. With this in mind, we offered #PolicyTalk 4: Yes, Nonprofits Can Do Advocacy, Actually; Let's Get Started, with board members as the principal audience. In that session, we noted the significant changes to the regulatory environment for charities in 2018, allowing them to devote 100% of their resources to public policy work, but also the reasons that organizations still lack "policy muscle." View the slide deck.

Returning to the "canister" for the capacity-building conversation, this first series of #PolicyTalks continued with "Ready for (Positive) Impact," a workshop meant to prepare senior leaders and other individuals to make delegations to a February 2024 Public Participation Meeting on the City's Multi-Year Budget.

The 2024 series is aimed at re-convening to build a broad understanding of community and sector issues that will:

  • inform ongoing advocacy to all levels of government;
  • inform the best way to build and populate Pillar's 2024-2025 Policy Framework (e.g., a community of practice, a committee, a drop-in, or continued formal events)
  • culminate in a pair of large events, The Big Picture in October, focused on understanding the challenges of the local sector and community, and The Bigger Picture, co-hosted with Imagine Canada, focused on contextualizing the London region and Pillar Nonprofit Network in the national impact sector ecosystem.

With this work, we hope to forward, but re-focus, the capacity-building work that we've been engaged in for years, most notably in a series of three policy conversations in 2019. Our 2023-24 program is consciously undertaken as a re-launch of this work initiated by our colleagues and deferred by the emergent and tactical policy work of the pandemic years.

  • Navigating the New Economic Realities was hosted by Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN), Pillar Nonprofit Network, United Way Elgin-Middlesex, and London Community Foundation on June 18, 2019 with 88 participants.  At that event we discussed the current climate of uncertainty created by the 2019 Budget and Expenditure Estimates and heard how organizations can engage in policy development and advocacy efforts. To check out this report click here.
  • Beyond the Talk, Getting to Action was created as a follow-up discussion so we could start to learn from one another with 35 participants. But this dialogue isn’t limited to one event; we can take our conversation online. Pillar members are encouraged to seek advice, share expertise, and exchange ideas with like minded organizations right here on Pillar’s online community. To check out the report click here.
  • Future Forward Thinking was the third in the Policy Conversation series, hosted on September 30, 2019 with 29 participants. Andrew Chunilall, CEO of Community Foundations of Canada and Vinod Rajaskeran, Future of Good, discussed Future Forward Thinking and the trends and shifts we need to be paying attention to as a community as well as the actions we can take to prepare for these anticipated changes. To check out this report click here.

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