We all benefit from decent work. As employees, we excel in fair working conditions. As employers, we attract and retain high-calibre staff by offering good jobs. And as nonprofits, we achieve our mission to contribute to thriving communities while leading the way to a stronger, more resilient sector.
Through adopting decent work practices, your organization will be better able to meet your mission and contribute to thriving communities. And in doing so, you help build a stronger, more resilient nonprofit sector.
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What is decent work?
Decent work means more than fair wages and benefits. It reflects a cultural shift that builds on the values that drive your work in your community. Decent workplaces are fair, stable and productive workplaces. Decent work means building a culture of equity and inclusion at work, and ensuring everyone’s voices are valued and heard. Decent work means acknowledging the highly gendered nature of the nonprofit sector’s workforce – and developing solutions that address women’s particular interests and concerns.
Decent Work Movement
Harnessing the power of the nonprofit sector for the good of its workers
Early on at ONN, we asked a simple but powerful question: how do we make decent work a reality for the nonprofit sector?
Decent work isn’t only about pay. It’s about changing workplace cultures, addressing systemic inequities, and building a sector that values its people as much as its mission.
From those early conversations to a province-wide movement, for more than 10 years we’ve been working alongside you – nonprofits, leaders, and workers – to make that vision real. Together, we’ve spent more than a decade championing fairness, equity, and stability for the nearly 850,000 people who power Ontario’s nonprofits.
As we recognize the official 10 year anniversary of the launch of our decent work movement building, we are looking back at how far we’ve come – and where we’re going next.
*Hint: There’s more work to do.
Timeline of the Decent Work Movement
Early 2010s: We listened
It all started with listening. We asked nonprofit workers and leaders across Ontario what decent work meant to them. We heard about the challenges – low wages, job precarity, lack of benefits – but also about the hope: nonprofits could lead the way in creating equitable, fair workplaces. In 2013 we published Shaping the Future: Leadership in Ontario’s Nonprofit Labour Force – focused on the future of the sector. The idea generated in this early phase became the seed of the decent work movement.
2015: We sparked a movement for strong organizations and healthy communities
The decent work movement officially launched. For the first time, our sector had a shared commitment to improving wages, job security, and equity. We began framing decent work not as a perk, but as a necessity for strong organizations and healthy communities.
2016: We turned values into action
With the support of The Neighbourhood Group (TNG, formerly known as St. Stephen’s Community House) and Toronto Neighbourhood Centres (TNC), we created a first decent work checklist and over 100 sector leaders committed to advancing decent work with their boards.
2018: We began to advance our work and reach more people
We created social media campaigns, including videos and a World Day for Decent Work toolkit. We worked with partners and media across Canada to amplify these conversations and advocate for public policy that supports quality nonprofit jobs. We also created the Decent Work for Women campaign. And, after years of planning, we supported the launch of a nonprofit pension plan – a sector-wide pension plan recommended by ONN: OPTrust Select is an affordable way to ensure nonprofit workers will have a stable and secure retirement income from a defined benefit pension.
2021: We intensified our work on racial justice
We focused on anti-racism and reconciliation, weaving equity into the heart of decent work. From our Digging In podcast, to updated resources to sector-wide learning opportunities, we worked to ensure that equity wasn’t just an HR checkbox – it became a shared value across the sector – a shared value that all of us need to continually commit to.
2023: We launched Pathways to Decent Work
We launched the Decent Work Pathways microsite, a culmination of two years of research, conversations, convening, and input from our Partnership Table and advisors. There are eight pathways, and numerous resources to help organizations advance decent work and equity for Black, Indigenous, and/or racialized people in our sector. Pathways also includes an updated Decent Work Charter for employers to endorse. We also shared a look back at the movement over the last several years.
2025: We’re just getting started.
Ten years in, decent work is more than a movement – it’s a commitment. We’ve normalized conversations about decent work and made tangible gains in both the national and provincial policy arenas. The challenges are still real: wage gaps, job precarity, burnout, unpaid labour, but so is our resolve.
The next decade is equally about holding onto the gains we have made through decent work movement building over the last 10+ years, but also grappling with new intersections with decent work – technology (including AI), caregiving, affordability crises, climate change, and economic uncertainty. It’s vitally important not to go backwards in the movement, and continue to focus on creating decent work, and deafening our gains in decent work, across the sector while meeting the moment of persistent change.
We can’t do it without you.
Sign the Decent Work Charter. Share your decent work story on social media, tag ONN, and use the hashtag #DecentWork. Check out and share our resources focused on decent work and the nonprofit labour force.
- Pathways to Decent Work
- The Nonprofit HR Crisis
- Three ways to use Decent Work as a tool for advancing racial justice
- Labour force initiatives to adapt to the future of work
- Decent Work for Women
- Leading our future – Reimagining leadership in Ontario’s nonprofit sector
Keep the movement going – because when nonprofit workers thrive, our communities thrive.
Recognizing vital investment in decent work
In a world of competing priorities, The Atkinson Foundation believes people come first.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the Atkinson Foundation for their generous, decade-long, support of the Ontario Nonprofit Network’s Decent Work campaign.
Their commitment helps ensure that nonprofit workers across Ontario have access to fair, equitable, and meaningful employment. Only with their support can we continue advocating for decent work for all and to make workplaces stronger, more inclusive, and more sustainable.
The Atkinson Foundation supports organizations and networks that amplify workers’ voices. They’re building movements strong enough to change the headlines – from stories about the problem of poverty and an unjust society to the solution of decent work and a fair economy.
Learn more about Atkinson’s pivotal work today.
ONN is also grateful to the Department of Women and Gender Equality Canada and the Government of Canada’s Community Services Recovery Fund for supporting decent work and labour force projects.
