When we think about the impact of the community sector, what springs to mind are images of our people caring for their fellow community member. We see the valiant volunteer firefighter answering an early morning call to help a fellow community member during their worst day or the retiree kneading dough to make fresh bread for those availing of drop-in services at an emergency shelter or even a coach blowing a whistle to bring the kids together after a soccer game at the summer day-camp.

These images resonate because the impact on our communities is truly invaluable. One cannot easily put a price on safety, food-security, socialization or any of the positive, social impacts our sector has on society as a whole.

Yet, we often miss the part of our collective story which speaks to the full impact our sector has on our province. We sometimes forget how the community sector plays a critical role in economic prosperity.

Agents of (Economic) Change

Out of the 3,400 formal and 3,000 additional informal organizations in our sector, we must also acknowledge those championing economic development. From our community directory, there are approximately 116 categorized as business, professional and industry. These include your local harbour authority to regional chambers of commerce to provincial industry associations. There are a further 798 categorized as community and economic development, including development committees, local service districts and employment corporations. With other employment and training organizations included, we have approximately 1,000 community sector organizations overseen by volunteers who focus their efforts on advancing the key drivers of the provincial economy.

And our part of the economy as a whole should not be understated. Statistics Canada now places non-profits (not including any government non-profits) as contributing $584 million to 2022 provincial gross domestic product (GDP) or a share of 1.79% overall. For perspective, using the North American Industry Classification System, that places our sector ahead of the arts, entertainment and recreation (0.25%), accommodations and food services (1.52%), and primary (less processing) agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (1.64%) industries while trailing behind the information and communication technology (2.57%), wholesale trade (2.15%) and information and cultural industries (1.92%).

Since the community sector is not a classified industry but instead denoted by a legal structure, our economic impact is embedded within and found across all industries. It is when we bring together the sum total of our sector we begin to see its significance.

(Not Just) Government Grants

Here is when the common misconception then arises: “well, isn’t the sector just funded by government anyway?” Well, yes, but not to the tune we assume it is. In 2022, the community sector reported over $1.227 billion in income with 65% coming from earned income including the sale of goods and services (41%), membership fees (18%) and investment income (6%). The remaining 35% came from households through donations and giving (21%), government transfers through grants (11%) and businesses through corporate giving (3%).

It is important to note the difference between two types of government income as it is found in both the sale of goods and services and government transfers. Government transfers are grants while selling of goods and services to government is a contract to deliver not unlike any other type of government purchasing. For example, when a local construction company secures a government contract and builds a section of road, they do not classify it as a government transfer. The company sold a service and earned revenue. When community sector organizations are contracted to supply housing, care for youth or rent a venue for an event, the organization sold a service and earned revenue.

We do not have the level of detail to separate out government purchasing of goods and services in our sector, but we can get a sense. In 2015, CSCNL partnered with the Collaborative Applied Research in Economics (CARE) group with Memorial University’s Department of Economics on a pilot study to understand the economic contributions of the community sector in the metro region. From a sample of 45 organizations representing a combined $60.99million of revenues, it was discovered more than half of revenues were generated from non-government sources while 47.8% were from federal, provincial and/or municipal sources.

Our (Combined) Workforce

Using provincial employment sources, we estimate there are over 16,000 people employed in the community sector representing approximately half a billion dollars on salaries and wages each year. However, this only forms part of who works in our sector.

Newfoundland and Labrador with a 46% rate of volunteerism can count 210,455 people who volunteer. On average, they spend 161 hours per year volunteering – the highest in the country – for a total of 33.8M hours of labour provided freely to our society. To replace those hours, we would need to hire 16,290 people full-time at a cost of $529 million – if we assume only minimum wage, of course.

Combined, the paid and voluntary workforce represent an estimated 32,000 with a total value exceeding one billion dollars. For perspective, it is higher than the technology (9,726), fishery and aquaculture (16,100) and construction (19,500) sectors and second to only the health care and social assistance (45,400) sector.

That is a lot of soccer coaching, bread baking, firefighting – and more.

Socio-Economic Impact

To tell our story, our sector needs to embrace our socio-economic impact and formally incorporate into our storytelling the economic indicators befitting of our focus, income and size. The soccer coach’s wage pales in comparison to the reduction of downstream costs on our health care system through early well-being interventions. The baker is supporting local small businesses by purchasing goods locally while combatting food insecurity. The firefighter is saving lives and when joined by the estimated 5,500 other volunteer firefighers are collectively saving communities between $18.4 to $27.3 million per year in labour given freely.

We know our impact is invaluable… in more than one way.

Sources Consulted:

CSCNL Community Directory: https://cscnl.ca/directory/

Statistics Canada: Table 36-10-0616-01  Gross domestic product (GDP) of non-profit institutions by sub-sector (x 1,000,000)

Statistics Canada. Table 36-10-0402-01  Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories (x 1,000,000)

Statistics Canada. Table 36-10-0400-01  Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories, percentage share

Statistics Canada. Table 36-10-0613-01  Production, income and outlay accounts of non-profit institutions (x 1,000,000)

Demonstrating the Economic Contributions of Community Sector Organizations in the St. John’s Region: A Pilot Study 2015: https://cscnl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/demonstratingeconomiccontributions.pdf

The Way Forward with Community: A Sector Work Plan to Advance the Social and Economic Contribution of Community Organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador: https://www.gov.nl.ca/thewayforward/files/The-Way-Forward-with-Community.pdf

The Economy 2024: https://www.gov.nl.ca/budget/2024/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/03/The-Economy-2024.pdf

Canadian Knowledge Hub for Giving and Volunteering: https://app.givingandvolunteering.ca/Who_volunteers_and_how_much_time_do_they_contribute_2018

Corner Brook Union Contract: https://www.cornerbrook.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/1222-Collective-Agreement-2021.pdf

St. John’s Fire Fighters Association: https://www.sjffa.ca/about/

Newfoundland and Labrador Association for Fire Services: https://nlfireservices.com/