This article will try to show you some of the major differences between the CRA’s Charities Listing and the Blumbergs’ CharityData.ca databases as of November 2024 and why depending on what you want to do, one database may be better than another or you might need to access both databases.
For serious researchers who are spending months or even years researching a charity or the sector or subsector, neither of these databases is probably going to be adequate, you can also request data from CRA and documents, and these may be helpful. It can take a few weeks for CRA to fulfill those requests.
The Charities Listing “Basic Search” only allows for searching by name and by status but with the “Advanced Search” you can search by a number of other parameters.
For the most up-to-date information on a particular charity, including whether a charity is still registered as a charity (and not suspended) you should use the CRA Charities Listing. However, for analyzing past data about charities or sorting charities, CharityData.ca is much easier to use and has far more data available. Unfortunately as of 2019 CRA restricted their Charities Listing to only the 5 most recent years for a charity. CharityData has about 20 years data available on every charity that has been around that long.
Keep in mind that both databases are only of registered charities and RNASOs, and that for other qualified donees, you need to go to other lists. Unfortunately, there is no public list of non-profits that are not registered charities. We have an RCAAA transparency project as well as a project to highlight groups in Canada who have filed the US form 990.
Isn’t CharityData just the same as the CRA website?
No. The CRA website is an official website of the Canadian government and can be relied on for example to show that a charity is currently a registered charity. CharityData.ca relies on past historical information from the CRA and therefore some of the charities on our website may have even lost their registered charity status. Newly registered charities will not be listed on the CharityData.ca website.
We encourage people to check out both databases and in fact we have a link on the bottom of every page to each of the registered charities own CRA page on the CRA website which in some cases will have more up-to-date or extensive information on a particular charity. Sometimes, you will have trouble finding a particular organization on one database but will be able to find it on another.
CharityData.ca has over 30 search or filtering abilities, many of which the CRA Charities Listing does not have. For example, CharityData.ca allows you to search which directors serve on which charities and the CRA website does not allow for that. Some registered charities give out hundreds of gifts to qualified donees – the CRA sorts them by the order they are provided and we sort them from highest amount to lowest. Do you really want to scroll through hundreds of small donations to see the main large donations of a charity in a particular year? So, CRA may have more gifts listed on their website but CharityData.ca lists them in a more relevant way for most users.
Also CRA’s Charities Listing only has five years of data whereas CharityData.ca has up to 21 years of data. We provide the largest 300 donations over 10 years from largest to smallest each year. We have, under the tab “Fundraising”, listed at the bottom registered charities that have provided a gift to this charity, not just the registered charities that have received a gift from this charity. It makes it much easier to see flows of money within the charity sector.
Also, we have heard from many people that the user interface on our website is far superior to that of the CRA website but please don’t take our word for it check out CharityData.ca for yourself!
More information on the CharityData.ca FAQs.
| Feature | CRA Charities Listing | CharityData.ca | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search by registered charity name | ✓ | ✓ | On CharityData you can additionally search by Name, BN, Activity all together |
| Know whether registered charity is still registered charity | ✓ | – | CharityData can have charities up to 1 year after they are revoked (still helpful for looking at recently revoked charities) |
| Get the latest information on registered charities | ✓ | – | The latest information is on the CRA Charities Listing but keep in mind that sometimes when a charity files a T3010 if they are not using the MyBA system it can take up to 6 months for it to appear on the CRA Charities Listing |
| Search by charity status (registered, revoked, revoked-audit, etc) | ✓ | – | CharityData Only has registered charities (that were registered as of 1 or so years ago) |
| Nice pie charts | ✓ | – | |
| Nice revenue/expenditure graph | – | ✓ | |
| Search by BN | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Search by effective data of status | ✓ | – | Very helpful for seeing recent changes |
| Search by Sanction (Penalized, Suspension of Receipting and QD status) | ✓ | – | Very important that if a charity is suspended they are not a QD during that time and a charity or individual or business cannot make a gift to them. |
| Search by Designation (charitable organization, public foundation or private foundation) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Designation - information on whether charitable organization, public foundation and private foundation | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Search by City | ✓ | ✓ | On CharityData you can actually see names of cities (don't have to guess) |
| Search by Province | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Search by Postal Code | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Search by "Charity Type" | ✓ | ✓ | 4 Heads of charity. |
| Search by Category | ✓ | ✓ | For some reason CRA only lists about 31 categories but CharityData.ca has 252 different categories. |
| Search content of program descriptions | – | ✓ | Very helpful when searching name and activity together to isolate a larger number of charities than if just searching by name |
| Directors names - listing | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Director search | – | ✓ | The Director Search function of CharityData allows users to search over 600,000 directors by their first and last names (and once you have inserted the names limit it to a province or city) and it is the only publicly available and up-to-date tool for searching the directors of Canadian registered charities. |
| Telephone number of charities (when provided by registered charity) | ✓ | – | |
| Staff and Compensation | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Sort by number of staff | CharityData.ca under Advanced Charity Search lets you filter charities by number of full-time employees. | ||
| Website Address | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Mailing Address of Charity | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Which registered charities gave to this particular charity | – | ✓ | While it is easy to see what gifts a charity gives to other charities on the CRA website but what if you want to know which charities gave funds to a particular charity? Now you can do this on CharityData.ca by looking under the "Fundraising" tab. |
| Search by revenue (all charities in certain bands of revenue) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total assets (4200) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total liabilities (4350) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total revenue (4700) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total expenditures (5100) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total Cash, bank accounts and short-term investments (4100) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Long-term investments (4140) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Land and Buildings in Canada (4145) | – | ✓ | |
| Other Capital Assets in Canada (4160) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Receipted donations (4500) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total amount received from other charities (4510) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total amount of tax- receipted gifts-in- kind (580) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Revenue from sale of goods and services (4640) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total non-receipted revenue from fundraising (4575) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total revenue received from federal government (4540) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total revenue received from provincial / territorial governments (4550) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total revenue received from municipal / regional governments (4560) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total revenue from any level of government (Section D (for charities with revenue under $100,000)) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total tax-receipted revenue from outside Canada (4571) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total non tax- receipted revenue from outside Canada (4575) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total Advertising and promotion (4800) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Occupancy costs (4850) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Professional and consulting fees (4860) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total expenditures on charitable activities (5000) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total expenditures on management and administration (5010) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total expenditures on fundraising (5020) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total expenditures on political activities, inside or outside Canada (5030) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total other expenditures (5040) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total Amounts of Gifts paid to Qualified Donees (5050) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total amounts paid to external fundraisers (5460) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total compensation expenditures (390) | – | ✓ | |
| Sort by Total Expenditures Outside of Canada / Foreign Activities (200) | – | ✓ | |
| Link to CanadaHelps website if you wish to find a charity on the CanadaHelps website and potentially donate to the charity | – | ✓ | |
| Good FAQ with detailed information on the limitations of the database and some humour | – | ✓ |
Overview of the CharityData.ca Website
Blumbergs has created the largest Canadian registered charity information portal at CharityData.ca, with up to 21 years of data on every Canadian registered charity.
CharityData.ca provides an easy-to-use interface that is far easier to use than the CRA’s Charities Listing to analyse T3010 Registered Charity Information Return data on a particular charity. It also allows the user to sort charities under “Advanced Charity Search” by over 30 criteria.
The information on the CharityData.ca website is public data and is provided by the CRA. CRA sends us the data on a monthly basis, and we upload it two to three times per year. We don’t make any changes to the information. Yes, that means that we don’t delete charities. We don’t fix mistakes that charities have made in their filings. You can read more details about the CharityData.ca website at the FAQs. www.CharityData.ca/faq/
The portal is free, and it aims to increase transparency in the Canadian charity sector. Canadian charities have revenue of over $300 billion per year and millions of Canadian volunteer their time every year. Therefore it is important that there is more transparency about the operations of charities.
As you know, it is the responsibility of the registered charity to provide accurate and complete information to CRA on a timely basis and CRA’s responsibility to input that information correctly. We highlight this on the CharityData.ca website on the home page and in the disclaimer on every page. www.CharityData.ca/terms/. The information on CharityData.ca is only as good as the information provided by charities to CRA.
We also note on CharityData.ca “For the most up-to-date information use the CRA’s own Charities Listing database. If you notice errors in the CRA information, let CRA know. A charity can file a T1240 (10) Registered Charity Adjustment Request.”
As well for many of the changes to information such as name, directors, address, changing organization’s designation, etc., you can find out how to accomplish such changes and notify CRA through their website page on “Making a change to your organization“:
While it is easy to see what gifts a charity gives to other charities on the CRA website, what if you want to know which charities gave funds to a particular charity? Now, you can do this on CharityData.ca by looking under the “Fundraising” tab.
The Director Search function of CharityData.ca also allows users to search over 562,000 directors by their first and last names, and it is the only publicly available and up-to-date tool for searching them.
You can use CharityData.ca to search or sort by the following:
Search by Name of Charity, BN, Program Descriptions, Designation, Category, Total Revenue, Total Assets, Total Expenses, Number of Employees, Province, City, and Postal Code.
You can also sort by over 33 different parameters listed below.
– Relevance
– Legal name
– Total assets (4200)
– Total liabilities (4350)
– Total revenue (4700)
– Total expenditures (5100)
– Total Cash, bank accounts and short-term investments (4100)
– Long-term investments (4140)
– Land and Buildings in Canada (4155)
– Other Capital Assets in Canada (4160)
– Receipted donations (4500)
– Total amount received from other charities (4510)
– Total amount of tax-receipted gifts-in-kind (580)
– Total non-receipted revenue from fundraising (4630)
– Revenue from sale of goods and services (4640)
– Total revenue received from the federal government (4540)
– Total revenue received from provincial/territorial governments (4550)
– Total revenue received from municipal/regional governments (4560)
– Total revenue from any level of government (4565)
– Total tax-receipted revenue from outside Canada (4571)
– Total non-tax-receipted revenue from outside Canada (4575)
– Total Advertising and promotion (4800)
– Occupancy costs (4850)
– Professional and consulting fees (4860)
– Total expenditures on charitable activities (5000)
– Total expenditures on management and administration (5010)
– Total expenditures on fundraising (5020)
– Total expenditures on political activities, inside or outside Canada (5030)
– Total other expenditures (5040)
– Total amounts paid to external fundraisers (5460)
– Total compensation expenditures (390)
– Total Expenditures Outside of Canada / Foreign Activities (200)
– Total Amounts of Gifts made to Qualified Donees (5050)
For the most up-to-date information on a particular charity, including whether a charity is still registered, you should use the CRA Charities Listing at apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplyAdvncdSrch. However, for analyzing the past data of charities, CharityData.ca is much easier to use.
CharityData.ca is part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project, which is in memory of my youngest brother Sean Blumberg. Sean was a sweet, kind person, a great brother who helped me on a number of occasions with many tasks, including the time-consuming and arduous task of reviewing T3010 databases and making them into something useful. As part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project, Blumbergs has been releasing information on the Canadian charity sector to provide a better understanding of the size, scope, complexity, and challenges of the sector.