CRA encourages charity sector to “Take action during Charity Fraud Awareness Week”

As a member of the International Charity Regulators, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently participated in a meeting with international partners to discuss topics of mutual interest, including strategies to help protect charities against fraud.

The CRA would like to take this opportunity to share valuable information to help you meet your charity’s obligations and carry on your important work.

Educating volunteers and employees

One way to protect your charity is to make sure your volunteers and employees know how to spot and prevent suspicious activities. To do so, you can identify and document your risks in your charity’s activities or practices that could be susceptible to abuse, such as:

• fundraising practices that are largely cash-based and susceptible to skimming
• cash-based transactions with partners or suppliers that are not easily traceable
• providing support to beneficiaries with items that are more susceptible to non-charitable use, such as cash or capital property
• unrestricted or unsupervised use of assets, such as computers, vehicles, meeting spaces and event facilities, or social media accounts

Carrying on activities outside Canada

It’s important to understand how Canadian rules and regulations apply to your charitable work no matter where your charity operates, particularly in areas of conflict or humanitarian crises. For more information on topics such as working outside Canada, including making sure your charity’s resources are devoted to charitable activities and maintaining proper books and records, see CG-032, Registered charities making grants to non-qualified donees, and CG-002, Canadian registered charities carrying on activities outside Canada.

Like all individuals and organizations in Canada, charities are responsible for making sure they do not operate in association with individuals or groups that are engaged in or support terrorist activities.

For more information on assessing your charity’s level of risk and measures to prevent abuse, visit our pages Educating charities about the risks of terrorist abuse and Checklist: How to protect your charity against terrorist abuse. The measures identified in the checklist can also help protect your charity from other types of fraud.

Additional links

• Make sure your contact details are up to date
• Protect your MyBA account – Scams and fraud
• Know how to recognize a potential case of fraud
• Learn about how to donate wisely and avoid fraud

Reporting suspected fraud

If you suspect a business, charity, or person is cheating in Canada, such as charities making profits from non-charitable activities, report them to the CRA by submitting a lead to the Leads Program. The information you provide in your lead could help the actions the CRA is already taking to fight tax cheating.

We’re here to help

For other fraud-awareness-related questions, please call our Charities Directorate client service team at 1-800-267-2384. Our representatives are available to help you Monday through Friday, from 8 am to 5 pm, Eastern time.