May 2010
 
Highlights of ONN's Our Sector, Our Vision 2010 Conference
 We are delighted to announce that ONN’s 2010 conference for Ontario’s nonprofits and charities, Our Sector, Our Vision, was a great success! Over 200 individuals from across Ontario gathered at the Hart House, University of Toronto to meet colleagues and to contribute meaningful input for the future of our sector.
Day One brought together some of our own to share their experiences and ideas, provoking thought on key issues such as building HR capacity in the sector and evolving ideas regarding youth engagement in nonprofit work. Speakers and participants shared their excitement for their work and future visions and brought their ideas forward into the discussion that ensued the following day regarding our sector’s four key priority areas: Raising Our Profile; Renewing Our People Power; Engaging Our Provincial Government; and Maximizing Our Impact.
Many great and innovative ideas were generated at the conference and we are reviewing this feedback to incorporate it in our “Taking Charge of Our Future: Ontario Nonprofit Sector Priorities". The revised report will be available and shared widely in the near future.
The success of our conference would not have been possible without the support of numerous individuals and organizations.
We would like to extend a special thank you to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their generous contribution to our conference subsidies program and to the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration for Minister Eric Hoskins opening address on Day Two of the conference, as well as their conference sponsorship.
ONN also thanks our outstanding conference volunteers (we couldn't have done it without you!) and all those who attended this year’s conference. Together we are making a difference!
Take a look at our wonderful pictures taken by Patrick Ma.
Read:
Robin Cardozo’s speech, "Multi-Cellular Metazoan: The Evolution of Ontario’s Nonprofit Sector" delivered at the opening of Day One of our conference.
Minister Hoskin's speech at the opening of Day Two of our conference
HST and Memberships
by Jonathan Spencer, Ministry of Revenue
GST registered organizations are reminded that effective May 1, 2010, they must collect HST on memberships that straddle the July 1, 2010 HST implementation date. While many memberships are exempt of GST and HST, some memberships are taxable.
Nonprofit organizations which currently collect GST on their organization’s membership fees are reminded that the transitional rules for HST require GST-registered organizations to start collecting 13% HST on taxable memberships they sell after May 1 for the portion of the membership that applies after July 1, 2010. For example, a membership fee received in May, 2010 for a one year membership in a sports club would be subject to 13% HST on the portion of the membership after July 1, 2010.
The basic GST rules governing the taxability of memberships do not change for HST. For more information, please contact the CRA at 1-800-959-5525.
ONN has been working hard to make sure that you have the information you need. To download our lastest HST Brief, visit our website. To purchase our webinar on how you can best prepare your organization for the new HST, click here.
Update on Government Relations and the White Paper Initiative
ONN is delighted that our work in raising the profile of the sector and promoting the sector with government has contributed to this government initiative. Spearheaded by Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and the Trillium Foundation, a White Paper focused on improving the relationship between the sector and government to better serve the people of Ontario is a wonderful opportunity for the sector. ONN has scheduled meetings with OTF and MCI to get some clarity as to how this consultation will unfold and as soon as we have news on what they are planning, we will let you know.
Building on our successes so far, ONN has been thinking about how best we can add to the process and help the sector be heard. We think it will be most helpful if we build on what we have already been doing. By that, we mean, we will pull together ideas that have cross sector resonance, prepare briefing notes for the sector and send it out to all of you for reaction and feedback. In this way we can measure the degree of cross sector agreement and /or better understand the differences of opinion and views. We can then refine the proposals to reflect the feedback and send it back out to the sector. In this way we hope to identify the areas where we have consensus and where the sector voices are divergent and why that might be the case.
We hope and expect that all parts of the sector will actively input their views and ideas to Minister Hoskins and Helen Burstyn. In the course of doing so, the sector will put forward some great ideas on how to move forward. We also hope you will share these proposals with ONN so we can identify where we have cross-sectoral convergence of interests and build your ideas into sector consensus briefings.
We have a historic opportunity to reset the role of the nonprofit sector in the Ontario landscape and if we all work together we can make the most of it.
ONN Announcements
- ONN Receives More Generous Support!
ONN would like to thank Christine Moynihan for her kind financial contribution to ONN. ONN is your network of networks and is here to help support your work by helping build communication and collaboration among Ontario's 45 000 nonprofits. Together we are making difference!
Donate Now»
- Sector Consultants and ONN – Working Together
ONN is a network of networks that brings together people and groups wanting to work together to strengthen the nonprofit sector. As we have been helping to build communication amongst Ontario's nonprofits, it occurred to us that sector consultants might be a potential resource for ONN. We set out to find out if sector consultants would be interested in ONN and what their involvement might look like.
Through a couple of small group meetings and an online survey, ONN has been exploring ways in which w can tap into consultants specialized knowledge and expertise to move the sector’s agenda forward. So far we have learned that there are consultants who are interested in contributing to ONN efforts to strengthen the sector. They believe their cross-organization/cross-sector vantage point and specialized skills could be put to good use. They are also interested in getting together in person and online to discuss and share on topics of interest among themselves.
We have a survey open for sector consultants that takes five minutes. To date, 49 people have completed it and, of those, 45 have indicated a willingness to be involved with our work.
• 62% are prepared to participate on ONN constellations;
• 62% are willing to report on emerging trends when they see them;
• 67% are willing to create, contribute or get involved in sector research.
Sector consultants are invited to complete the survey and get on the list for future notifications.
- ONN is undertaking research on collaboratives for the Trillium Foundation.
The Trillium Foundation is interested in the many collaboratives forming in the sector and wants to better understand how they can be supported to thrive and flourish. This is also a keen issue of interest for ONN as it is so crucial to the sector’s ability to undertake its work, so when Trillium included ONN on the bidders list requesting proposals, we decided to put together a team and bid. Linda Mollenhauer, Cathy Lang, and Heather Graham, make up our research team. They each bring different perspectives and in depth experience with collaboration in the sector. We believe they will do a great job for Trillium and in so doing serve the sector well too.
- Government to Build A Strong Partnership With ONN
It was with great delight, and on the heels of ONN's Provincial Conference for Ontario's Nonprofits, that the Ministry of Citizenship, in collaboration with the Ontario Trillium Foundation, announced that they will lead province wide discussions on how government and the sector can be working together more effectively.
Read more»
Sector News & Events
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