The Atlantic Canada Community Sector
Facts about the community sector in the four Atlantic provinces.
In Atlantic Canada there are approximately 13,000 organizations formally registered as either incorporated nonprofits or charities. There are numerous other groups that are more informal and unincorporated. Collectively, formally registered organizations in Atlantic Canada have annual revenues of $6 billion and an estimated paid staff of 106,000 ($4 billion annual revenues and 83,000 staff when Hospitals, Universities, and Colleges are excluded).
Volunteering
Atlantic Canada reports a volunteer complement of one million people who contribute about 175 million hours of volunteer time per year!
Atlantic volunteers each contributed an average of 177 hours, while Canadians as a whole contributed an average of 166 hours. About 11% of the population in Atlantic Canada gives about three-quarters of the total volunteer hours.
The average Atlantic Canadian is a member of two organizations.
Financial Donations
88% of Atlantic region residents (about 1,700,000 residents) made financial donations in 2007, while 84% of Canadians donated in the same year.
Atlantic donors each donated an average of $375, with a median donation of $121. Canadian donors contributed an average of $437 each, with a median donation of $120.
Atlantic donors collectively contributed $643 million.
[Source: Highlights from the 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating.]