Finance Minister Morneau delivered the 2019 Federal Budget today. Here is our article “2019 Canadian Federal Budget – How will it affect the Canadian charitable sector?“ Finance has already released a Fall Economic Statement that did contain a number of initiatives…
The Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Charities Directorate is the de facto regulator of Registered Charities in Canada and they audit between 600 and 800 charities per year. This article Registered Charities and CRA Charity Audits will help you understand the process…
Global News journalist Stewart Bell recently wrote an article “Government revokes charity status of Canadian Jewish group that supported ‘foreign armed forces’“. The articles discusses the recent revocation of the Canadian registered charity Beth Oloth Charitable Organization. You can see detailed…
I recently wondered with this new Ontario government whether there was any change relating to the new Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA). It is supposed to come into force at the beginning of 2020. So I wrote to the Ontario…
The CRA today released its draft guidance “Public policy dialogue and development activities by charities”. This guidance will replace CRA's Guidance CPS-022, Political activities. The CRA is asking for feedback on this draft administrative guidance and providing until April 23, 2019…
We have created a course entitled “Should We Establish a Canadian Social Enterprise, Non-Profit or Charity and How to Do It?”. The course is $149 and you can register at https://charity-law.teachable.com/ Here is an overview of the course: Should We…
The compliance requirements and restrictions on private foundations in Canada are frequently misunderstood, even by those who run large private foundations. Here is our article Fallacies about private foundations in 2019 that might be helpful in dispelling these myths. If you are…
On Thursday December 13, 2018, Bill C-86 received Royal Assent. Within this Bill, there are several changes to the Income Tax Act related to charities, especially with regards to political activities. The change allows Canadian registered charities to conduct public policy dialogue…
I wrote an article many years ago encouraging informal legal reviews by non-profits and charities. It was called “Canadian nonprofit and charity legal audits: Forget about it!”. Over the past 11 years the world has changed a bit – more…
On Monday November 19, 2018 I presented to the Special Senate Committee on the Charity Sector in Ottawa. My presentation dealt with a number of areas especially transparency of non-profits and registered charities, good charity regulation, and political activities by…
Even with the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) looming, we are still seeing recently incorporated non-profits that are set-up under the Ontario Corporations Act (“OCA”). Here is an article on some of the reasons why this is generally not a good…
Here is Blumbergs' submission to the Department of Finance on their recent Draft Legislative Proposals Regarding Political Activities of Charities. For further information on political activities and Canadian registered charities see our directory of blogs and documents.
We launched today at the Blumbergs' Charity Law Institute 2018 the Blumbergs Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2016. It has some interesting statistics on the Canadian charitable sector from the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return filings. Some of the highlights of the…
If your Canadian registered charity conducts foreign activities there are rules that apply. If you are having trouble explaining that to foreign groups that you work with you might find our article “Canadian Charities and Foreign Activities – A Very…
[FURTHER UPDATED ARTICLE: Foreign Universities Applying to be Registered Universities in Canada: What we have learned.] Here is our updated article on Foreign Universities Applying for Prescribed University Status in Canada 2018. If your university or alma mater is outside…
I felt I had to write an article because the myth that low overhead is good is so widespread and pernicious. I originally wrote the article in 2008 and updated it in 2018. When a charity does financial statements that…
Here is our article Ontario rules change for compensation of certain directors of non-profit corporations that are charities.
Canadian Charities do a lot of great work. But with over 86,000 of them, there may be a few hundred really bad apples amongst the lot and probably thousands of ineffectual charities, there will be times that you will be…
Here is our Blumbergs’ Receipting Kit for Canadian registered charities 2018. If you wish to receive updates on the Receipting Kit you should join our Blumbergs email newsletter to receive regular updates on charity compliance issues affecting Canadian registered charities. There is…
The Canadian charity and non-profit sector are an important part of the Canadian economy and have a huge impact on the lives of Canadians. With the registered charity sector (approximately 86,000 organizations) the public has up-to-date and detailed information. Unfortunately,…
I am still surprised at the number of Canadian fundraisers that I meet who have not read the CRA's Fundraising Guidance or have read it but don't remember any of the details! Here is the Fundraising Guidance on the CRA…
Here is my recent webinar Top Charity Compliance Issues for Canadian Registered Charity with Mark Blumberg. It was wonderful to have over 3000 people registered for the webinar and thank you CharityVillage for hosting. You can see the presentation, the slide…
Here is our article Common Paragraphs from CRA in the Notification of Registration Regarding Operating a Registered Charity. It provides many of the common warnings or suggestions from CRA that are included in Notifications of Registration from the Charities Directorate.
Here is an article I recently wrote entitled Top Canadian Charity Law Issues for Charity Village. It highlights some of the top compliance issues that a Canadian charity should be concerned with.