National Survey of Community Sector Organizations

Status:	Active
Frequency:	Occasional
Record number:	5023

The objective of this survey is to produce statistical information on the finances, human resources and challenges faced by these organizations.

Detailed information for 2006 (feasibility study)

Data release – No public use microdata file will be produced by Statistics Canada and data will not be made available through the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI).

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)  (in PDF format)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology

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Description

The National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations (NSNVO), conducted in 2003, was a cost recovery survey funded indirectly by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) for which the objective was to produce statistical information on the finances, human resources and challenges faced by these organizations. HRSDC ultimately decided to expand the scope of the project to include other types of organizations which are not in operation strictly with the objective of making a profit, but that are operating in order to achieve certain cultural, social or economic goals. HRSDC has identified six sub-populations of interest: nonprofit organizations; co-operatives; credit unions and caisse populaires; mutual companies; aboriginal businesses; and for-profit social economy enterprises (i.e. businesses with a dual objective of achieving cultural, social or economic goals as well as making a profit). This survey is being called the National Survey of Community Sector Organizations.

Subjects

• Social networks and civic participation
• Society and community

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Data sources and methodology

• Target population
• Instrument design
• Sampling
• Data sources
• Disclosure control

Target population

There are six sub-populations that together make up the community sector: nonprofit organizations; co-operatives; credit unions and caisse populaires; mutual companies; aboriginal businesses; and for-profit social economy enterprises (i.e. businesses with a dual objective of achieving cultural, social or economic goals as well as making a profit). Strategies exist to both identify and sample organizations that comprise five of these six sub-populations, the exception being for-profit social economy enterprises. The first step towards the national survey then is to develop a sampling strategy for these organizations. That requires analyzing the Business Register (BR) to determine whether it can be used as a potential sampling frame for for-profit social economy enterprises. To that end, a sample of 9,000 enterprises with employees was selected from across all industry groups, sizes and provinces. A short survey will be administered to this sample in order to identify for-profit social economy enterprises. The results of this exercise will provide information about the numbers and characteristics of these organizations, and will enable a statistically representative sample to be selected to represent these organizations in the national survey.

Instrument design

The questionnaire for this phase of the survey was developed by HRSDC and various other stakeholders in consultation with Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada's Questionnaire Development Research Centre (QDRC) was also consulted, and the questionnaire was tested with potential respondents.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

The strata were defined by cross-classification of three variables: industry groupings, province, and size (as defined by employment). The cross-classification of the above three variables would result in 880 possible strata but some of the strata were empty, meaning there were no units on the frame that belonged to these strata. Only 827 strata out of the 880 cross-classification cells were non-empty cells. Thus, the sampling frame was stratified into 827 strata. The sample was allocated to the strata in order to produce survey estimates for the 20 industry groups, 4 size categories and the 5 geographic regions. "Employment" was used as the auxiliary variable in order to allocate the sample across strata. First, all enterprises with 250 employees or more were selected with certainty (i.e. TAKE-ALL) because of their large size, and because of relatively larger variation in their sizes. There were 5,447 large enterprises that were sampled with certainty. The Neyman allocation was used to allocate the remainder of the sample to the rest of the strata. After the sample allocation, all strata with less than or equal to 5 enterprises were also made certainty strata (TAKE-ALL) so that a sufficient number of respondents from these small strata would exist in case the survey response rate was low.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2006-10-16 – 2006-12-15

Responding to this survey is voluntary. Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

The survey is conducted via telephone interview. The data collected is on the structures of the sampled businesses, their objectives and their level of community involvement.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)  (in PDF format)

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any data which would divulge information obtained under the Statistics Act that relates to any identifiable person, business or organization without the prior knowledge or the consent in writing of that person, business or organization. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

It should be noted that no public use microdata file will be produced by Statistics Canada and data will not be made available through the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI).

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