What quorum applies to a members' meeting of an Ontario not-for-profit corporation?

ONCA sets a default quorum requirement for members' meetings, but allows the corporation's own by-laws to set a different quorum instead, so the first place to look is your organization's own governing documents rather than assuming the statutory default applies. Many not-for-profits, particularly those with large memberships who realistically won't all attend an annual meeting, deliberately set a lower quorum in their by-laws to make sure meetings can actually go ahead and do business.

If a members' meeting doesn't reach quorum, business generally cannot be validly conducted, and decisions purportedly made without it are vulnerable to challenge later — a real risk for organizations that have historically been loose about tracking attendance against their own quorum requirement. This becomes especially important for decisions requiring a special resolution, since those already need a higher voting threshold on top of whatever quorum applies.

Corporations that struggle every year to reach quorum should treat that as a sign their by-laws' quorum requirement may not match how the organization actually operates, and consider whether a lower, still meaningful quorum, combined with reminders and proxy or electronic voting options, would better reflect realistic member engagement.