There has been a lot of coverage of the JNF Canada revocation and lots of discussions, especially in the Jewish community. The short answer to the Question, “How much of an impact will revocation of JNF Canada have on Canadian Jewish groups doing work in Israel?” is that there will be almost no impact whatsoever and perhaps actually an increase in funds going to Israel as I will explain below.
First, using 2022 T3010 numbers, which are currently the last complete set of numbers for the approximately 950 Jewish organizations and also the year with the last JNF Canada T3010 filing, we can see that Jewish groups gave about $242 million to Israeli groups plus about $120m of gifts to Israel universities which are qualified donees. Therefore, the total amount contributed by Jewish charities to Israeli non-profits/amutot and Israeli universities is about $362m. This does not include non-Jewish groups which are very supportive of work in Israel. This does not include many other ways that the Jewish community supports Israel such as tourism, informal giving, Israeli bonds, buying Israeli products, etc.
Looking at 2022 for JNF, they spent, according to their T3010 filings, $4.7m on charitable activities, $1.5m on gifts to qualified donees, $3.9m on management and admin, and $3.9 on fundraising. So if we combine funds for charitable activities plus gifts to qualified donees, that is $6.2m in “charitable activities,” and if you combine management and admin plus fundraising, you are at $7.8m.
Of 4.6m that went to Israel from JNF Canada, according to the JNF Canada filings, $3.8m went to JNF Israel, and the rest went to 2 other Israeli organizations.
If you look at the $4.6m going in total to Israel compared to the total of $362m going to Israel, that is less than 1.3% of the funds going to Israel in 2022.
Now let us be clear that JNF Canada was not revoked in 2022 but only in 2024. As a result of the Hamas attack on Israel, anecdotally, we know that the amounts raised by Jewish groups funding activities in Israel have risen significantly. I would not be surprised if the amount doubled, but let us say it is $500m. We will probably know in about 2 years the full numbers! But suffice it to say that those who would want no Canadian money going to Israel, such as BDS groups, will be very unhappy with such a massive increase.
Another factor is that unless the courts unwind the CRA revocation, which is not likely, JNF Canada will have to disgorge its assets (last shown in 2022 as being at about 30m). I am not sure where these funds will go and whether they are restricted, etc., but perhaps they will go to other Jewish organizations doing projects in Israel. So maybe this could result in even more funds going to Israel and more quickly.
What is the likelihood that former donors to JNF Canada will decide because JNF Canada has been revoked that they will never give to any Jewish charity that works in Israel again because JNF Canada is gone? This is very unlikely. These donors will probably give funds to other Jewish organizations, almost all of whom have much lower costs than JNF Canada. So, probably most of the JNF Canada donors will just give to other Jewish organizations working in Israel. After all, there are about 950 of these Jewish registered charities to choose from, and many of them are doing very good work in different areas both in Canada and Israel.
For more information on JNF Canada’s historical financials, see CharityData.ca
The Jewish Community has about $9.2b in assets as of 2022, and some large Jewish private and public foundations that predominantly support the Jewish community and do projects in Israel have another $5 billion in assets.
Key takeaways are that one may think that because JNF has a lot of brand recognition, it was a very important group funding work in Israel, and it was not unimportant, but it was about 1.3% of the work.
Another key takeaway is that it is very important for organizations that want to be sustainable to put in place systems that result in compliance.