If you are a Federal non-profit corporation under the CNCA, then you can search your organization’s corporate profile at Search for A Federal Corporation. It will show you what documents have been filed with Corporations Canada. At the same place,…
So far, there is nothing too definitive from the CRA on their approach to the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) and changes that will be made to governing documents to bring Ontario non-profit corporations into alignment with ONCA. Unlike the…
Over the last decade, we have provided to the public CRA letters relating to a number of Canadian registered charity revocations. These letters from CRA cover many different grounds for de-registration. Some relate to relatively minor matters such as an…
We received this message from the Charities Directorate about applications for the Community Services Recovery Fund: The Canada Revenue Agency is pleased to share the following message with you on behalf of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). On January…
The Canadian government has announced a match of $10 million for the Canadian Red Cross response to the devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria. Here is the press release from the Government of Canada: Canada to match up to $10…
I have learnt that one sometimes needs patience when dealing with the Federal government. For example, when you put in an ATIP request, they have 30 days to respond. Thirty days may seem like a long time, but I got…
Here is our note: Which Canadian charities spent money on foreign activities in 2020 and how much did they spend? Canadian registered charities spent over $4 billion on direct foreign activities (not including gifts to qualified donees), and in this…
CRA continues to encourage Canadian registered charities to sign up for the CRA’s My Business Account or MyBA. CRA has made a number of attempts to provide instructions to charities on how to register for the MyBA system. It will…
The CBC recently had a report, “Manitoba investors, 2 charities, out over $1M after being misled into investing in Bolivian bank“. The media does not cover investments of charities that much, so it was interesting. Charities have assets of around…
The many failures of governance and compliance with Hockey Canada has raised the profile of transparency and accountability in the non-profit and charity sector. The Sprott Business School has put out further reports that some may find interesting. Brouard, F.,…
The Department of Finance has launched a Pre-Budget consultation for the 2023 Federal Budget. This is not the same thing as the Finance Committee (FINA) budget consultation that happens every year. It does seem a bit duplicative. This process allows…
The CBC recently covered the issue of fundraising costs by Canadian charities in an article “For every dollar donated to CNIB’s ‘urgent’ guide dog campaign, it spends 52 cents on fundraising“. If you want to read CRA’s guidance on fundraising,…
I recently took a look at ChatGPT and how it deals with charity law questions. The results were interesting. Sometimes it did a good job, and other times, it failed miserably. For example, I asked ChatGPT, “How to explain charity…
There are many questions and issues with the new qualifying disbursement and anti-avoidance rules. One of those questions related to reporting and the T3010. CRA has put out a note today on this. We are generally suggesting to organizations to…
The new Qualifying Disbursement rules will give some charities (with certain objects) some more flexibility when dealing with non-qualified donees in Canada and outside of Canada. At the same time, the anti-avoidance provision passed at the same time will make…
The Government has provided the Canadian Red Cross, United Way Canada and Community Foundations of Canada with a total of $400 million to create a Community Services Recovery Fund. The fund is available to both charities and non-profits that are…
I am delighted to be doing my third webinar for Blackbaud’s True North Webinar Series. Here are the details: Compliance and Receipting for Canadian Charities Thursday, January 26 at 1:00 p.m. ET Legal compliance is important for all Canadian organizations.…
The Canadian charity and non-profit sectors 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 relatively up-to-date and detailed information.…
As part of CRA’s online services for registered charities through the MyBA system, CRA had previously added an online progress tracker feature for certain online submissions. This feature was mostly inactive last year, but with the new year, it appears…
The list of municipal or public bodies performing a function of government in Canada registered as qualified donees has now increased to 555 entities. These groups, which are largely Indigenous bands but also other organizations, can issue official donation receipts…
Currently the list of “List of foreign charities that have received a gift from Her Majesty in right of Canada” only has two charities, namely: Council for Canadian American Relations and The Canada-UK Foundation. As these groups are qualified donees,…
We recently reviewed for 2018, 2019 and 2020 how much the largest 500 Canadian private foundations spent on charitable activities or gifts to qualified donees according to their T3010 filings. We also noted the amount expended on charitable activities and…
As many know, there were changes to the disbursement quota announced/proposed in the April 7, 2022, Federal Budget. Finance released draft changes on August 9, 2022, which showed that they were basically increasing the DQ from 3.5% on assets over…
Effective January 1, 2023, Blumberg Segal LLP will become Blumbergs Professional Corporation. We will still use our business name “Blumbergs” and will continue to be a law firm committed to focusing on the non-profit and charity sector. For over 38…