I was recently interviewed by Mary Gooderham from Canadian Family Offices on private foundations in Canada. The article is a mix of issues relating to private foundations and some of my personal background. Here is the article: Private foundations are…
In Bridgewater v. Stockey, 2024 ONSC 6165, there was a bequest in a will that read “I leave to Guide Dogs of Canada the balance of my estate after all liabilities have been settled.” Needless to say, there is no…
In a recent case, Gruber v. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2025 ONSC 3088, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dealt with a bequest from a Canadian estate to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is a qualified donee as a…
In this case, Allan et al. v. Thunder Bay Regional et al., recently, there was a decision made by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. It dealt with Mr. Iwachewski, who had died with a proper will prepared by a…
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…
A very interesting case from BC is a must-read for any fundraiser who deals with restricted gifts. The case Boys and Girls Club of Greater Victoria Foundation v British Columbia (Attorney General), 2024 BCSC 442 (CanLII) (PDF) deals with cy…
CRA has recently updated guidance “P113-23e Gifts and the Income Tax Act” with information on the donations and tax incentives. CRA updates the guidance every year although the changes are usually not that substantial. In this case, there were no…
Here is our article How much publicly listed securities are donated to Canadian charities and how will AMT changes affect charities November 2023 With all the confusion about donations of marketable securities and the AMT, we thought we would offer…
Although often discussed in the Canadian charity fundraising area, charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) are rarely implemented in Canada. Most of the time, when someone is very excited about a CRT they are either an American or have just read a…
The Globe and Mail recently had an opinion piece criticizing changes to the rules relating to donations of marketable securities for some taxpayers who are also affected by the alternative minimum tax (“AMT”). In essence, next year, but not this…
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…
Here is an updated Canadian Charity Legal Checklist by Mark Blumberg – July 2023. It is a checklist for Canadian registered charities to assist them with managing compliance issues. We use it as part of our informal risk reviews for…
I recently requested and paid for some customized data from Statistics Canada on donations to charities by income percentile. Here is the data on individual giving, followed by some source information from Statistics Canada. Here is a similar blog but…
Here is the Blumbergs Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2021. We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2021 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers about 83,771 of the approximately 86,000 registered charities…
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,…
Here is the Blumbergs Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2020. We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2020 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers about 83,991 of the approximately 86,000 registered charities…
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‘.
On June 8, 2022, the House of Commons considered a private members bill namely C-240, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (donations involving private corporation shares or real estate). The vote was for second reading and having the…
I will be presenting to the Foundation, Endowment and Not For Profit Investment Summit on Navigating the Top Compliance Issues Facing Canadian Foundations. Here is some further information: Thursday, May 12, 2022, at 9:30 AM LEGAL UPDATE: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS Navigating…
The CRA recently published their annual “Report on the Charities Program 2020 to 2021″. (PDF) Here are some comments: The Minister of National Revenue states: “To continue building and maintaining public trust in the charities regulator and the charitable sector,…
CRA has recently updated guidance “P113 – Gifts and Income Tax 2021” with information on the donations and tax incentives. CRA updates the guidance every year although the changes are usually not that substantial. In this case, there were no…
Recently Ontario passed Bill 9, Non-Profit Sector Appreciation Week Act, 2021. Now in Ontario, the third week in February is non-profit appreciation week. On the plus side, this could be a focal point for organizing some events that show appreciation…
Cryptocurrency has been in the news now for many years. While cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. have received a lot of attention, in my anecdotal experience, very little money has been provided to Canadian charities through cryptocurrency. We…