What would a day look like without nonprofits?
Start removing them and your childcare disappears. Your elder care? Gone. The local soccer league, the community garden, the neighborhood playground - evaporated.
This is the invisible infrastructure that makes our communities liveable and our economies viable. That message ran straight through the 2026 Connections Conference. The takeaway was clear: nonprofits are essential infrastructure. But if we want governments, funders, and the public to recognize our value, we must get better at making ourselves visible.
The 2026 Connections Conference was a beautiful blur of bagpipes, dance music, nonprofit economics, leadership training with the Next Institute, and a workshop on storytelling, truth, and the lies underselling our position that we need call “bullsh*t” on. We had an absolute blast and can’t wait for next year!
The Incoming Crunch in the Care Economy
When economist Armine Yalnizyan took the stage as our keynote speaker, she dropped a fact that surprises many Albertans: the care economy is the largest source of earned income in both Alberta and Canada, and the third-largest contributor to Alberta's GDP.
It is an economic pillar, yet it is rarely treated like one. Yalnizyan warned we can no longer afford to overlook this.
Investing in care isn’t separate from investing in our economy, Yalnizyan tells us - it is the economy.
We are facing a massive demographic shift. Canada has its smallest working-age group in 60 years, while the number of children and seniors relying on those workers is skyrocketing. When parents can't find childcare or workers are stretched thin caring for aging parents without support, they reduce their hours or leave the workforce entirely.
A shortage of care is a bottleneck on the entire economy. Yalnizyan describes this as an "output gap in care”: demand for essential services is surging, while public funding has flatlined.
However, this gap is also an economic opportunity. While Alberta's traditional sectors remain vulnerable to global trade instability and fluctuating commodity prices, the care economy is inherently domestic. The work must be done here, and the jobs cannot be outsourced. With rising oil prices potentially producing a provincial surplus, Yalnizyan points out that “the cupboard is not bare” - it’s simply a matter of what we choose to invest in.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves (and the World)
If nonprofits are this vital, why are we so misunderstood?
We turned that question over to the 450+ conference participants in the room. The crowd called out the false narratives that hold us back—the "bullsh*t" we need to reject—and pointed to a fundamental truth: we are a silent economic force. We are too humble, and we are too quiet about our impact. When we do speak about our impact we often focus on the moral argument for our work, but there’s an economic argument too.
Changing the narrative requires leaders who are also great storytellers. We need to proudly shout the realities: our work is essential, we are highly resourceful innovators, and we fiercely require unrestricted funding (a message guest speaker Jeromy Farks, Mayor of Calgary didn't just endorse, but turned into a room-wide chant).
“The cliche about our entrepreneurial culture applies to Alberta’s sector. We don’t wait for permission to solve problems, we get to work and make solutions that work.”
“We are humble and need to own our impact and broadcast it.”
From Conversation to Action
We didn't just talk about collaboration; we put it in ink. Right there in the room, we announced a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mayor’s Office to strengthen the partnership between the City of Calgary and the nonprofit sector. This is now the first MOU of Farkas’ term, demonstrating not only his commitment to the sector, but his appreciation of our essential role in making the city function and thrive.
Moving forward, the Nonprofit Chamber is fully committed to equipping leaders to carry these stories forward. Through our ongoing leadership and storytelling training (more to come!) we are making sure our sector has the tools to speak up loudly and clearly.
We’re also committed to carrying what we learned from Armine into our sector reports, presentations, and communications. We hope you’ll do the same.
Thank you to everyone who joined us, challenged the status quo, and celebrated with us. Let's keep telling the true story of our sector—over and over again.