CRA will be shortly releasing their much anticipated revised Guidance on Fundraising. Join charity lawyer Mark Blumberg as he presents a webinar on behalf of the Charity Law Information Program entitled “CRA’s New Fundraising Guidance” on Friday, February 10, 2012…
Here is a copy of my submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on Motion 559 dealing with transparency. “Canadians want charitable donations to benefit legitimate charities” Here are some other submissions: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=5340612&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=1 You can listen…
Canadians want charitable donations to benefit legitimate charities View Article
There are a couple of interesting websites which allow much easier searching of information from the T3010 databases. One is CharityFocus.ca (discussed at ). Another interesting website is www.opencharity.ca Opencharity.ca allows for visitors to search not only by charity…
Imagine Canada will be officially launching its Charity Focus website soon. You can review the website at At CharityFocus.ca you can: -review up to 10 years financial information for any Canadian registered charity in one chart rather than going…
On January 23, 2012 the National Post published an article entitled “Judge OKs suit against charity tax ‘scheme’” by Joseph Brean which discusses a class action lawsuit against various parties relating to the “Donations for Canada Gift Program”. Here is…
The first class action lawsuit involving what CRA terms an “abusive charity gifting tax scheme” has settled at a Settlement and Class Counsel Fee Approval Hearing that was held on January 17, 2012 in Toronto. The material for that hearing…
There has been a little political firestorm last week over US foundations funding of certain Canadian environmental charities. So how much revenue actually comes to Canada from foreign countries including the US? The answer seems to be about $831 million. …
On December 21, 2011 the Department of Finance announced a consultation on “updating Canada’s regime for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.” They also put out a consultation paper, “Strengthening Canada’s Anti-Money Laundering and Anti?Terrorist Financing Regime,” which contains a…
Here is a great piece by Katherine Van Kooy in the Calgary Herald entitled ‘Charity rankings often don’t tell the full story’. Katherine van Kooy is the president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (CCVO). Recently,…
Here is my article Budget 2011 and new “ineligible individual” category: How this can affect your Canadian registered charity. Download Article
Charity Central, based in Edmonton, has released a series of resources entitled Road to Accountability to help Canadian charities deal with the issues of accountability and transparency. Here is a description from the their website: “Road to Accountability, a project…
The US Chronicle of Philanthropy has written an article entitled “Controversy Over Drug Values at Aid Groups: A Look at a Key Player” – it has some discussion on valuation schemes in the Canadian context. Here is the Chronicle of…
I recently gave a presentation to the Law Society of Upper Canada’s 14th Annual Estate and Trust Summit providing the Charity Law Update. Here is a copy of my slides. Here is a copy of my paper Charity Law Update…
Today the Toronto Star posted an article entitled “Audit of charities encounters resistance”. I think that it is very important that there be transparency about charities and I have written quite a bit on the subject. Charities must be transparent…
Another Canadian charity has been revoked involvement with “abusive charity gifting tax shelters”. [Update] Here is a copy of various letters from CRA to The Malvern Rouge Valley Youth Services. November 15, 2011 10:39 ET The Canada Revenue Agency…
The Charity Tribunal in the UK delivered a decision on public benefit and private schools which will affect almost a thousand UK private schools that have charitable status. This will be of interest to Canadian private schools that are registered…
Here is a copy of the Blumbergs Canadian Charity Law List – October 2011. To sign up and receive monthly updates go to FEATURED 1) Industry Canada announces that on Monday October 17, 2011 Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (CNCA)…
[HERE IS AN UPDATED VERSION OF THE BLUMBERGS' RECEIPTING KIT AS OF 2018] I am working through the Charity Law Information Program of Capacity Builders to prepare a “Receipting Kit” which is a 25 page explanation of how charities should receipt. It…
Imagine Canada is looking for peer reviewers for its new Standards Program. “Are you interested in collaborating with a team of qualified colleagues to evaluate the practices of charities and nonprofits against a new set of Canada-wide shared standards? As…
Here is a very interesting document from the Max Bell Foundation which outlines some of the difficulties and opportunities for Canadian charities and NGOs to engage in more meaningful and effective public policy discussions. Canada’s Voluntary Sector and Public Policy…
Here is an upcoming webinar “The role of the Not-for-Profit Board Treasurer”. Here is the blurb: Free webinar: The role of the Not-for-Profit Board Treasurer Treasurers of not-for-profit organizations play a key role in ensuring the financial sustainability of the…
Here is an archived webinar that was originally recorded on March 23, 2011 entitled “Dangerous Opinions – Legal and Ethical Issues with Legal Opinions on Charity Law and the Income Tax Act” with David Thompson from Scarfone Hawkins LLP. Mr.…
Here is a brief note entitled Foreign Contractors of Canadian Registered Charities Carrying out the Canadian Charity’s Projects – A Very Simplified View of the Process Hopefull,y this article will help Canadian charities understand in a simplified manner how a…