Last month, Stats Canada released the results of its latest survey on the demographics of non-profit and charity boards in Canada.
One finding stood out to us: based on the information provided by respondents, nearly 60% of Canadian non-profit and charity board members are women. That being said, female board members are much more common at the local level (63%) than at the national level (54%). And while women are well represented in all types of non-profits, they seem to be particularly engaged in organizations devoted to social services (67%), the environment (64%), education and research (63%), or law, advocacy and politics (60%). The area with the fewest female board members? Sports and religion. No surprise there.
This International Women’s Day, we are celebrating all the amazing women leading the way at charities doing local on-the-ground work in their communities and engaging in grassroots activism.
But we also wonder: does this balance of leadership equal an equitable distribution of funding?
Studies consistently show that women give more often than men and spread their giving out to more organizations.
At the same time, this survey suggests female leadership is concentrated at charities less likely to have access to big-time fundraising dollars. Local non-profits tend to be dwarfed by national ones in terms of fundraising, and the one area with the most male board members — religion — also regularly tops the list in terms of dollars given. And female board members may still not have the same access to high-net-worth networks, which tend to align with very male c-suites.
In 2021, charities and non-profits across Canada will be struggling to get back on their feet after COVID. Many, particularly the local social services organizations with female-majority boards, are also seeing an increase in demand as those living on the margins find themselves even more vulnerable.
Will they have access to the funding they need to survive — and to meet the growing demand brought on by the pandemic?
In honour of International Women’s Day, we want to challenge donors to look beyond their typical giving networks and remember the local on-the-ground organizations who are caring for the most vulnerable in our communities. They need your help now more than ever.
Cadence Charity Services is a proudly female-led company that helps people do good by providing compliance and advisory services to charities, non-profits and benevolent sector entrepreneurs.
