In Canada, we have a “buyer beware” charity system with very limited transparency and regulatory oversight. Moreover, with an influx of new charities every year, and turnover at existing charities of staff, boards, and membership, the sector changes at a rapid pace. Due diligence in grantmaking is important and the lack of transparency in the non-profit and charity sector makes it harder for some foundations and individual donors to make gifts and grants with confidence.
Over the last 15 years, our firm has developed many resources to assist funders in their giving and to bring more transparency to the charity sector, including:
At Blumbergs, our lawyers and consultants have extensive experience in reviewing charities and their operations. Mark Blumberg has worked on compliance issues in the charity sector for almost 30 years.
In addition, over the last two decades, our firm has worked with many large charities, philanthropists, foundations, and government departments to assist with due diligence on non-profits and charities.
We work with our clients to understand issues that are of importance to them and to establish an appropriate due diligence model. Different clients have varying sensitivities to different issues – including legal, practical, and reputational issues. We also try to work out a budget that is appropriate for the needs of the client. In some cases, our clients have significant staff or resources that they can use, and our role is more to assist them with the due diligence model and to evaluate certain issues that may arise out of their own due diligence. In other cases, where clients have minimal staff, we can assist them with the whole grantmaking process.
If you wish to retain our law firm to assist your charity or foundation with grantmaking, you can contact us.
Here is the Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2019. We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2019 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers about 83,892 of the approximately 86,000 registered charities…
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…
In the 2021 Federal Budget, it was announced that the Department of Finance will be doing a consultation on the disbursement quota and whether it should be raised. Interesting that the title used by Finance is “Consultation: Boosting charitable spending…
Here is the Blumbergs’ Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance for the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the Upcoming 2022 Federal Budget. We offer 11 recommendations namely the following: List of Recommendations Primary Recommendations Recommendation…
With respect to a recent bill passed by the Senate, but not the House of Commons, relating to structured arrangements/direction and control we have prepared the following blog posts with our concerns about the bill and its ultimate impact. …
We have created a new online course, Should Our Canadian Business Establish a Corporate Foundation? This course will discuss when it may be advantageous for a Canadian business to launch a corporate foundation. Whether you are a large bank, small…
In our note “How has COVID affected funding of the Canadian charity sector Part 2?” we reviewed T3010 data and found amongst the 11,821 registered charities that total revenue for these charities from 2019 to 2020 is down by 5%…
In this article Canadian charities giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees – 2018, Sharon Redsky, Wanda Brascoupe, Mark Blumberg and Jessie Lang reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2018 to see how many gifts and the…
I listened to a webinar recently that I thought was very good entitled: Community Learning Series – Trust-Based Philanthropy Here is a description of the webinar: As grantmakers, we have a responsibility to confront the ways our sector has contributed…
In the last couple of weeks I have read two separate CRA notes on the importance of maintaining sufficient separation between a registered charity and a non-qualified donee (whether non-profit, foreign charity, for-profit, etc) Here is an excerpt from a…
We have recently made a number of updates to CharityData.ca. The most important update is including more 2020 and 2019 charity returns. Also, if you review the foreign activities of Canadian charities under the “Programs” tab you will see that…
I just finished reading an excellent paper entitled Cross-Border Philanthropy – A U.S. Perspective by Eric Zolt. It both provides a good summary of the rationale for donation tax incentives but also raises questions of whether the US system is…
Well, we are in the midst of a pandemic and this has resulted in some grantmaking foundations and philanthropists increasing giving and thinking carefully about how and who they give to. Unfortunately, and we may only know for sure in…
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate –BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own activities” requirement of charities and change the rules for Canadian charities working with non-charities,…
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate –BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own activities” requirement of charities and change the rules for Canadian charities working with non-charities,…
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate –BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own activities” requirement of charities and change the rules for Canadian charities working with non-charities,…
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate –BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own activities” requirement of charities and change the rules for Canadian charities working with non-charities,…
The US largest organization representing non-profits, which has over 25,000 non-profit members, has called for the IRS to eliminate their Form 1023-EZ charity application. They call for “the need to eliminate Form 1023- EZ and restore integrity to the process…
After years of seeing less and less transparency about registered charities in Canada coming from the CRA, for various reasons, we now have one improvement from CRA in terms of disclosure about foreign activities. I want to commend them for…
I recently ran across a very good article entitled: “Going the Extra Mile: The Liability of Foreignness in U.S. Foundation International Grantmaking to Local NGOs”. It was written by three US professors namely Carrie R. Oelberger, Jesse Lecy, and Simon…
We recently did a course entitled Multiple Corporate Structures for Canadian For-Profits, NPOs, + Charities to Enhance Flexibility and Impact. People who run charities, for-profits and non-profits in Canada and wish to understand the benefits of multiple entities for liability…
In a recent CRA document, we obtained that was released through access to information, it provides a good explanation of why CRA cares about charitable purposes and ALSO charitable activities. For most people the point is obvious. If you are…
A recent report entitled “Unfunded: Black Communities Overlooked by Canadian Philanthropy” is a wakeup call that Foundations and Charities are not doing enough to fund Black led organizations and groups that work primarily on Black communities. Their recommendation is to…
I wish I did not have to write this article about the Canadian rules around international philanthropy and foreign activities but unfortunately, a small group of people has been constantly complaining about direction and control for 20 years. It is…