ONN constellation

ONN - Government Sector Table

Through our connection at the Counterparts Meeting 2008 hosted by the Canadian Federation of Voluntary Sector Networks, ONN had the opportunity to meet with our colleagues from the Ministry of Citizenship and other provincial ministries. We discussed what was happening in other regions of Canada and quickly identified that Ontario was way behind in its own organizing and in its relationship with government.  read more »

Social Enterprise Ontario (SEO) is a constellation of ONN and a regional partner of the SECC. Primarily SEO is a mailing list of over 600 practitioners that have an express interest in social enterprise. At the moment, there are no resources allocated to support SEO. It has been initiated by the Centre for Social Innovation with the hopes of providing a vehicle to communicate and connect with social entrepreneurs across the province.  read more »

Coming out of ONN's June 19th event, several people indicated interest in looking deeper at issues related to leadership and human resources. This constellation had its first exploratory meeting in October and the direction of this group is still under discussion. It may lead to two separate groups - one looking at issues like staff retention, pay equity, etc. and another looking at sector renewal and burnout from a more personal, individual perspective.

The Leadership Constellation includes:

Marguerite Pyron, Newcomer Women's Services
Colette Murphy, Metcalf Foundation
Doug Kerr, Sage
Jini Stolk, Creative Trust
Pat Thompson, Metcalf Foundation Fellow
Margaret Emin, Provincial Sport Organizations Council

The purpose of this constellation is to look at how to create an enabling environment for social finance, such as tax credits and incentives. This group will focus on Ontario, have cross-sectoral relevance, and will research current and desired financing tools.  read more »

CRA issued fundraising expense guidelines for comment in early July 2008, with a deadline of August 31 for responses. As they had significant implications for small and mid-size agencies, ONN hastily pulled together a group of interested individuals to assist in drafting a response. We interviewed many individuals about their own agency's situation and by early August the constellation's analysis and comments were circulated to the field to assist interested organizations in responding to CRA. Concurrently, three individuals from ONN's constellation participated in Imagine Canada's efforts, which included the Health Charities and the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and we contributed the perspective of the mid and small sized charity.  read more »

This constellation met twice to examine CIC and L3Cs and the group's analysis was that they were useful tools but wouldn't solve the problems of our sector. With work on this issue being done at the Fraser Valley Centre for Social Enterprise and Causeway, the constellation decided that, for the moment, they no longer needed to meet.

This group was comprised of:

• Anne Jamieson - Toronto Enterprise Fund - United Way
• Ethel Cote - Economie Solidaire de l'Ontario
• Tonya Surman - Centre for Social Innovation

In coming together to address the Corporations
Act, we have assembled a small working group. Individuals with a wide
diversity of views and perspectives from the sector, in partnership
with some legal experts in nonprofit law, have formed an Expert
Reference Group. This committee is charged with examining the
consultation documents and legislative reform proposals from the
Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, providing feedback to the
Ministry, and providing the sector with advice and comments.  read more »