A Message from Volunteer Toronto
Rise to the occasion and create a better tomorrow.
This was our ethos stepping into 2020-2021. It guided a year of action. It reminded us to listen closely and adapt quickly, and spurred the development of new programs designed to mobilize hundreds of thousands of volunteers where they are needed most.
There was no silver bullet. And it hasn’t been easy. But we couldn’t be more proud of the role our Volunteer Centre played in meeting this moment, empowering organizations and volunteer-led initiatives to help our city’s most vulnerable residents.
Over the past 12-months, our dedicated teams have adapted to a new virtual service model that kept our clients, staff, and volunteers safe. We couldn’t step back. What we knew long before COVID-19 is that our social safety net is powered by volunteers. As the pandemic challenged volunteer engagement, we stepped in to consult and support one program, one organization, and one sector at a time, ensuring our volunteer community continued to deliver for those who needed it most.
This year, you'll notice we've focused on intensifying engagement with both non-profits and grassroots groups. This is in direct response to the disruptions we saw on the frontlines:
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Fewer active roles on our website
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1 in 2 volunteer managers experiencing significant employment disruption
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60% of non-profits expressing concerns about their short-term future
To troubleshoot these challenges, we've cultivated opportunities to partner with GTA Volunteer Centres, essential services, and support networks to create new paths to volunteer engagement. This work has required more ears on the phones and boots on the ground, but funders made it possible with increased investment in our organization.
We have also prioritized the needs and impact of building spaces of belonging, and to better understanding our colonial history. With the support of experts specializing in this work, our staff team is dedicated to identifying transformational priorities for the organization by challenging long-standing conventions, and ourselves. This year we have:
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Ensured that Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour serving, engaging & led groups have dedicated space to recruit and recognize volunteers through our communications channels
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Created new policies for groups accessing our services to ensure our platform does not enable harmful volunteer practices
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Created a new volunteer team focused on ensuring all roles on our site abide by the Ontario Human Rights Code
We know we have more work to do.
Despite all of the challenges we’ve faced as a city, this year has taught us so much about our role. It’s served as a resounding reminder of the value of volunteerism in our society. This year has given us an opportunity to reimagine what meaningful and ethical community engagement can be.
Toronto’s 1.6 million volunteers contribute an estimated $1.04 billion to Canada’s GDP every year (Volunteer Canada, 2020). This translates into millions of hours of capacity for causes in our city, and new connections, skills, reduced isolation, and increased employability for volunteers. Our work directly contributes to making Canada’s volunteer rate among the highest in the world. However, COVID-19 has disrupted this baseline, and in doing so, has transformed the gravity of our mission and outlook over the next five years. Our recent response programs, research and leadership has been just the start of a drastically new chapter in our history.
With this annual report and at this moment in time, on behalf of Volunteer Toronto's Board of Directors, we are pleased to release Volunteer Toronto's new Strategic Plan for 2021-2025.
You can watch and overview below or download the full Plan here.
Volunteer Toronto’s Strategic Plan is founded on two clear insights from the early response to the pandemic. First, that specialized expertise, lived experience, and intensive support will be necessary in rehabilitating the voluntary sector, and second, that technology alone will be ineffective in levelling out the forces of volunteer supply and demand.
Stabilizing the voluntary sector is our responsibility, and this goal will guide our actions over the next five years. The delivery of our Strategic Plan will be approached through two key pillars— fostering and elevating volunteerism—to reflect the immediate needs of our city recovering from COVID-19 and the advancement of the future of volunteerism.
Volunteerism is a critical aspect of our social and economic recovery as a city and as a country. Shifting the systemic support to enable ethical volunteer engagement will take dedicated time and capacity to do so, but it's also our responsibility. We will take the lessons learned this year, and continue to build informed programs, cross-sectoral relationships, and a body of evidence that reinforces the essential role of volunteerism.
These are our commitments to our city, to our non-profit sector, and to you.
Joanne McKiernan
Executive Director
Maryann Istiloglu
Board Chair
