Donor & Member Survey 2026
Executive Summary
Purpose & Methodology
This executive summary presents the key findings and strategic conclusions drawn from the Tamil Community Centre's Donor and Member Organization Survey, conducted between March and April 2026. The survey was administered in-person, across five community meetings: one membership meeting and four regional donor meetings held in Scarborough, Durham, Peel, and York, collecting 377 total responses.
Survey Structure
Respondents were asked to rank priorities and provide written feedback across seven areas/themes, including:
- Community challenges and identity priorities
- TCC mandate rankings
- Cultural and heritage programming preferences
- Diaspora–homeland connection strategies
- Membership eligibility expansion
- Member governance and decision-making mechanisms
- General recommendations
Findings are presented in aggregate across all meetings, with per-meeting breakdowns noted where notable divergences emerged.
Key Results at a Glance
Responses were collected in person across one membership meeting and four regional donor meetings. All seven questions were answered by participants, with valid response counts used for each calculation. Non-responses were excluded. Due to a form design variation, the membership meeting combined two Q2 mandate items; where this affects comparability, data from the membership meeting is reported separately.
Conclusion & Analysis
With 377 respondents across five meetings and seven structured questions, the dataset provides a reliable and actionable basis for strategic decision-making.
Conclusion 1: The community has given TCC a clear and unified mandate to build the infrastructure for Tamil heritage, starting now. Tamil language preservation and cultural continuity ranked first across every meeting without exception. Heritage exhibitions and archival spaces ranked first among cultural programming priorities and preservation of homeland culture and traditions won the diaspora-connection question by a wide plurality. The community expects TCC to translate this mandate into tangible commitments: Tamil-language classes, bilingual communications, a heritage library, and a building whose primary justification is cultural preservation.
Conclusion 2: Governance credibility is not a procedural matter but a matter of trust. The most-cited theme in open feedback and the top-ranked governance mechanism converged on the same point: transparent financial reporting. Respondents explicitly drew comparisons to the reporting standards of publicly listed companies, and calls for elected boards, term limits, and independent oversight appeared across all five meetings. The community is signalling that its continued support, both financial and participatory, is conditional on TCC demonstrating accountability. Quarterly financial updates, published publicly, should be treated as the minimum viable commitment, with a formal governance framework, including documented policies on elections, term limits, and conflict of interest, to follow.
Conclusion 3: The question of membership expansion differs between members and donors. A clear majority of donors (61%) support expanding eligibility, while a clear majority of existing members (60%) oppose it. Donors favour a more inclusive membership; members want to protect governance integrity. The survey data, particularly the qualitative emphasis on legitimacy verification, points toward a tiered membership model as the most viable path forward, one that would enable broader participation without immediately conferring full voting rights.
In summary, the community has articulated its expectations with clarity and consistency: an institution grounded in Tamil heritage, governed with transparency, and built with the next generation in mind. This survey data provides TCC's leadership with a robust evidentiary foundation, grounded in genuine community consultation, on which to act decisively and with accountability.
Read the Full Survey Report
Detailed findings across all seven survey questions, per-meeting breakdowns, Q7 open-comment themes, and complete strategic recommendations (10 pages).