Donor Advised Funds (or DAFs) have become increasingly popular in Canada. The amount of funds in DAFs has grown considerably. While DAFs can be useful in certain circumstances, there are a myriad of legal, ethical and practical issues that donors, charities and regulators need to consider relating to DAFs. If you would like legal advice relating to DAFs, then please contact us.
Here is the Blumbergs’ Pre-Budget Submission for the 2025 Canadian Federal Budget. For those who have been following our law firm’s submissions over the last ten or more years, they have focused on transparency and accountability in the non-profit and charity…
We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2023 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers about 83,540 of the approximately 86,000 registered charities in Canada that had filed their T3010 and were…
The CRA has recently begun collecting information on donor advised funds (DAFs) in Canada. We have blogged about it here. These are the questions that have been added: Line 5860 – Did the charity hold any donor advised funds (DAF)…
We will be having a new online course on “Professional Advisors and Philanthropy: Helping Clients Give Effectively to Good Causes” on November 26, 2024, from 1:00 PM EST to 2:30 PM EST. The cost is $249, but there is an…
CRA advised on November 9, 2023, that there will be a new T3010 form for those filing on or after December 31, 2023. The form will be called T3010 version 24. Here is our blog. On December 14, 2023, we…
Here is the Blumbergs’ Pre-Budget Submission for the 2024 Canadian Federal Budget. For those who have been following our law firm’s submissions over the last ten or more years, they have focused on transparency and accountability in the non-profit and…
There has been some coverage in the media of a concern that Canadian charities may be required to file a T3 form for each of their “express trusts”. Examples of express trusts could be a perpetual endowment or a long-term…
Recently there has been more scrutiny on donors and restricted gifts. Here is an article by US professor Roger Colinvaux entitled “Strings are Attached: Placing a Spotlight on the Hidden Subsidy for Perpetual Donor Limits on Gifts“. It will be…
Not sure how many people have an hour to hear me discuss with Mary Barroll, President of CharityVillage, issues facing the Canadian non-profit and charity sector. For those who are interested in the sector and its future, it may be worthwhile. I try…
We received a note from CRA that they have updated their T3010 forms to include the questions on the new qualifying disbursement regime. In other words, if a Canadian charity makes a grant to a grantee that is a non-qualified…
We recently reviewed: How much did the largest Canadian private foundations spend in 2021 on charitable activities or gifts to qualified donees according to their T3010 filings. We also noted the amount expended on charitable activities and gifts to qualified donees…
We recently reviewed for 2018, 2019 and 2020 how much the largest 500 Canadian private foundations spent on charitable activities or gifts to qualified donees according to their T3010 filings. We also noted the amount expended on charitable activities and…
As many know, there were changes to the disbursement quota announced/proposed in the April 7, 2022, Federal Budget. Finance released draft changes on August 9, 2022, which showed that they were basically increasing the DQ from 3.5% on assets over…
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently heard its first case on donor advised funds in The Joseph Lebovic Charitable Foundation v. Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto. (PDF) This is the first time a court in Canada has discussed donor…
We just launched a new course titled Professional Advisors and Philanthropy: Helping Clients Give Effectively to Good Causes. Professional advisors can play a key role with clients in helping them understand options relating to philanthropy. Whether it is lawyers, accountants,…
Guardian Capital recently published another edition of its Amplify newsletter with an article from Blumbergs on ‘Top Fallacies about Canadian Private Foundations in Canada in 2022‘.
In this article, Gifts by Canadian Charities to Donor Advised Funds in 2019, we will look at gifts from Canadian registered charities to Canadian charities that are donor advised funds. We recently reviewed the T3010 information for 2019. The database…
In an article entitled Charities will soon have a higher spending quota to keep charitable status, Chris Nardi of the National Post discussed the Federal budget’s change in the disbursement quota. For our coverage, see Canadian Federal Budget 2022 and…
Here is the Blumbergs’ Pre-Budget Submission for the 2022 Federal Budget that we filed on February 25, 2022. Our top recommendations are: List of Recommendations Primary Recommendations Recommendation 1: That the Federal government amend Section 241 of the Income Tax…
I was very pleased to see an article by Roger Colinvaux “Speeding Up Benefits to Charity: Donor Advised Fund and Foundation Reform“. This US article looks at the US charity system but in Canada, we are currently examining similar issues. …
On October 19, 2021 I read the following from a newsletter of Imagine Canada: Imagine Canada supports increasing the disbursement quota to above 5% The disbursement quota consultations closed on September 30. In our submission, we recommended that the…
Here is Blumbergs’ Written Submission to the Department of Finance about the disbursement quota. As we note in the submission, we are firmly in favour of an increase in the disbursement quota. We so suggest possible changes in our submission…
In this article “Should the disbursement quota for registered charities in Canada change or be left alone?”, Mark Blumberg and Jessie Lang discuss the disbursement quota (DQ) and the Department of Finance’s consultation on whether the Income Tax Act should be…
The Conservative party has just released their platform and they have committed to increasing the disbursement quota from the current 3.5% to 7.5%. The Liberal government is currently undergoing a consultation on whether the disbursement quota should be left at…