Invest in Trust: Imagine Canada’s Standards Program
The Standards Program is a set of shared standards for charities and nonprofits designed to strengthen practices in five fundamental areas. The Program’s goals are to build excellence within Canada’s charities and nonprofits through common standards of practice and to strengthen confidence in the sector. Those five fundamental areas are:
A. board governance
B. financial accountability & transparency
C. fundraising
D. staff management
E. volunteer involvement
Accredited organizations are awarded a program Trustmark so they can showcase this achievement in their materials, such as tax receipts, program brochures, websites and more. More than 150 organizations are now accredited.
The Standards Program is first and foremost a capacity-building initiative. Any organization may use these standards to improve and monitor its practices. Information about how to comply with the standards, as well as tools and resources to help organizations continue to strengthen their practices, is available free of charge. Organizations wishing to demonstrate publicly that they meet the standards can participate in a voluntary peer-review-based accreditation process.
