Here are two further warnings by the Charity Commission of England and Wales about problematic charity social media use. I have no reason to believe that CRA would necessarily take a different position, and therefore Canadian charities should pay close attention. The only difference is that whereas the Charity Commission is putting out a press release now (because England and Wales has better transparency rules relating to charities), the CRA, on the other hand, can only say something publicly about a registered charity after it has penalized, suspended or revoked the charity that is involved with similar types of conduct because of the confidentiality requirements of the ITA. So we will be hearing perhaps in 1-5 years of more Canadian registered charities being revoked for inappropriate social media use. As you can tell, I think that the transparency rules in Canada need to be changed.
Here are some press releases from the Charity Commission of England and Wales over the last week:
Investigation opened into charity over potentially inflammatory sermon and social media – GOV.UK
Places of worship warned by regulator over “inflammatory and divisive” language – GOV.UK
As we have noted in another blog recent, Charitable Organizations’ Responsible Use of Social Media, all Canadian registered charities that utilize social media should have policies and procedures dealing with how the charity will use social media and what should be avoided.