PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ontario (ICAO) and Queen's School of Business (QSB) have collaborated to create the first Voluntary Sector Reporting Awards in Canada (VSRAs) to recognize volunteer organizations that practice transparent reporting. Designed to promote a higher quality of reporting, the VSRAs:
- Reward best practices in financial and non-financial disclosure
- Raise the standard of not-for-profit annual reports
- Encourage more voluntary sector organizations to provide their financial information online
The awards are administered by the CA-Queen's Centre for Governance on behalf of the sponsors, PwC, the ICAO and QSB.
To nominate your voluntary sector organization, fill out the online nomination form. The VSRAs must receive nominations by July 15th, 2008 at midnight EST.
Eligibility and Deadline
The VSRAs accept publicly available annual reports from any registered charity operating primarily in Ontario, excluding those associated with municipalities, universities, hospitals and school boards. Divisions of national charities that produce separate annual reports in Ontario are also eligible. Contact the CA-Queen's Centre for Governance if there is some doubt about your organization's status.
Nominated organizations must have audited financial statements drawn up in accordance to Canadian GAAP.
Entrants must submit the most up-to-date annual report for the last completed fiscal period. For example, those whose fiscal year ends early 2008 should nominate their 2007 annual report.
Online reports can be an interactive part of the organization's website or downloaded as a PDF or Word document. Where not provided on-line, reports can also be in hard copy format if made available or distributed to the organizations' stakeholders. Submitted online annual reports must remain in their original format during the judging period: July 15 to September 2008. If the report sits on an external website at the time of nomination, the VSRAs' judging panel will assume it is available to stakeholders.
Nominations must be submitted via the VSRA nomination form by July 15, 2008. Anyone can nominate an organization.
Selection Criteria and Process
Judges assess the annual reports on the following criteria:
- Availability: Is the online annual report easy to find on the organization's website? For example, can visitors find the report within three clicks of the homepage, through a search facility or site map? Are hard copy versions distributed to stakeholders in a manner appropriate to the organization?
- Clarity: Does your annual report clearly state your mission and list your achievements?
- User-friendliness: Is there a good balance of design, content and functionality? Have you used graphs and pictures? Does your report complement other areas of your communications strategy?
- Accessibility: Is your report easy to read and available in more than one format such as a download option from your website?
- Impact: Does your reporting demonstrate transparency and include detailed financial and non-financial results? Does it tell a story to draw supporters to your work? Does it give information about the future?
A screening group will evaluate the annual reports for technical merit. The highest scoring annual reports will go through to the second stage and be judged by an independent panel of experts.
Once the VSRAs announce the winning recipients, each entrant will receive a copy of the technical screeners' completed checklist. Award recipients and short-listed organizations will receive a certificate of commendation and additional feedback on their reports based on the above criteria. The jury's decision is binding and no correspondence about the results is possible.
To learn factors that contribute to excellent reports, read: "Best in Class" Annual Reports: Results from a Focus Group and Imagine Canada's The Ethical Code.
How to Enter
Entries must include a link to your organization's most recent annual report. However, if your annual report is not available online, you will be asked to e-mail an electronic version or mail a hard copy of the report upon submission of the VSRA nomination form with a statement explaining when and how it is distributed to the organization's stakeholders and how this sufficiently meets your organization's accountability to stakeholders.
The VSRA will not penalize organizations that provide only hard copies of their annual reports as long as an explanation accompanies their nomination.
Award Categories and Prizes
Submissions fall under one of four categories:
- Total revenues over $5 million
- Total revenues from over $1 million to $5 million
- Total revenues from $500,000 to $1 million, and
- Total revenues less than $500,000
Although nominators must classify the reward category for which they qualify, the CA-Queen's Centre for Governance makes the final category assessment upon reviewing the submitted annual report.
Winners in each category will receive a $5,000 award for training and development, to be announced at a luncheon in November 2008.
Awards Luncheon
All entrants will be invited to attend the awards luncheon, which will be held in Toronto in November 2008. We will provide event details as soon as they become available.
