Caught in the Middle: What Small, Non-profit Organizations Need to Survive and Flourish

Research Method

To understand small, non-profit, community-based organizations, the VSI commissioned a paper (entitled From choirs to conservation groups: small, community-based organizations are the largest part of the voluntary sector) to stimulate discussion on the uniqueness of being small. The paper provided background information on the non-profit sector as a whole and a historical snapshot of the development of formal voluntary action over the past century. A description of the Voluntary Sector Initiative provided the springboard to ask small organizations what they needed to be more effective. To hear from small organizations on what they do and what they need, focus groups were organized in three Canadian sites: Williams Lake, British Columbia; Sydney, Nova Scotia; and Peterborough, Ontario. The focus group format and paper content was tested in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition, the paper was posted on the VSI website with a response form. Ten responses were received and are included in the data analysis.

Although the voluntary sector has a wide variety of organizations, there are no clear distinctions to categorize the different parts of the sector based on size, purpose, constituency, classification, legal status, jurisdiction, and type of activity. The following parameters describing small, community-based organizations were used for the purposes of this research.

"Small" means an income of up to $100,000² (increased from the original discussion paper amount of $80,000 to include agencies with very modest budgets).
"Community-based" means that the organization provides services locally with volunteer involvement.
"Volunteers" are defined as individuals working on their own time. A voluntary sector (not-for-profit) organization has volunteer involvement and has the following characteristics: it is not government or business; it reinvests any profits back into the organization; it is self?governing; and it benefits the public. As an organization, there is some level of formality: purpose, structure, regular meetings, and activities or programs. Some organizations may have infrastructure costs (e.g., paid staff, rent, phone) while others are run totally by volunteers who meet in donated space.

In all, representatives from 19 agencies and 21 other organizations participated in the focus groups. The range of focus group locations provided a geographical spread, economic diversity, and a rural component. The four locations as well as the number of agencies and other organizations that sent representatives were as follows:

Williams Lake, British Columbia: six agencies and eight other organizations.
Sydney, Nova Scotia: four agencies and four other organizations.
Peterborough, Ontario: six agencies and seven other organizations.
Halifax, Nova Scotia: three agencies and two other organizations.

All the focus groups followed the same format: a brief presentation on the Voluntary Sector Initiative followed by an overview of the discussion paper. Most of the time was allotted for separate roundtable discussions among agency representatives and other organization representatives. They were grouped separately for the purposes of feedback because infrastructure issues peculiar to agencies were anticipated.

All representatives filled out a short questionnaire at the end of the session that summarized their individual views about small non-profits and provided background information on their organization. This paper summarizes the successes and struggles for small agencies and organizations; it also provides the VSI with suggestions on how to effectively support the work of small non-profit groups.

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