This session shares insights and wisdom from two volunteer centres—Volunteer Manitoba and Volunteer Toronto—currently tackling large-scale data projects. Volunteer Manitoba will share how they’ve built the case and capacity to conduct the Province’s first-ever State of the Nonprofit Sector survey in Summer 2026, harnessing their role as a non-profit connector to unearth brand new insights and advocate for the needs of Manitoba’s cause-based organizations. 

Volunteer Toronto will share lessons learned from their work to build a collaborative of aligned partners in ongoing data collection by harnessing membership programs, volunteer portals and direct programming at volunteer centres across the country. The vision? Standardize volunteer and non-profit data to build a national aggregation system as a part of Volunteer Canada's National Volunteer Action Strategy, solidifying a long-term data-informed voice for volunteerism in Canada. 

Speakers:

Cara Eaton

Volunteer Toronto