I recently checked the Advance Search page of the Charities Listing. CRA has now added another search function which divides groups into “Type of Qualified Donee,” and there are now listed namely:

1) Registered Charities (85,842 in total)

2) Registered Canadian amateur athletic associations (137 in total)

3) Registered National Arts Services Organizations (30 in total)

Also, if you use the regular search page and search for an RCAAA, such as the Canadian Olympic Committee, it will now show the entity as being “registered” and being a CAAA (which is another way of saying RCAAA!) This will be helpful for grantmakers as they now can just use one list, will not have to look at a separate list for RCAAAs.

The registered charities and RNASOs were always combined together in one list, and there was a category for RNASOs if you wanted to separate them out. The transparency is similar for registered charities and RNASOs.

The addition of RCAAA to the list is a new development and interesting. It does not provide much more information at the moment than the static list which CRA maintains on their website.

What are the improvements in terms of transparency with respect to RCAAAs now that they are on the “Charities Listing?”:

a) It now has a more detailed address – before, only the city and province was provided;

b) it has a place for a Sanction if one is given;

c) it has a language of correspondence;

d) it has “charity type” and lists “Other purposes beneficial to the community“, although I don’t think that is accurate as these are not charities.

e) email address (although none seemed to be filled in)

f) website address (although none seemed to be filled in)

One would think that the two lists would be the same, but one says 137 RCAAAs and the other 138 RCAAAs. Probably, someone has to update one of the lists.

What is more interesting is that perhaps now that the RCAAAs are part of the Charities Listing database, CRA will hopefully put up additional information on them, such as their annual filings or even their financial statements!

One of the big problems, as has been noted by many people in the Hockey Canada saga, was that there is almost no transparency when it comes to RCAAAs in Canada. Lack of transparency can be extremely costly – in terms of dollars and cents, human lives and reputations (not in any particular order but in our society, I thought it would be fitting to put money first). The amount of money lost by Hockey Canada over the last few months and the next few years might be enough to pay for great transparency for every one of the 137 or 138 RCAAAs for the next 10 years!

On the CRA’s RCAAA webpage, it notes:

Use this page to confirm an organization’s status and its Business/Registration number. The Charities Directorate has not necessarily verified the other information provided by the organization. [my emphasis]

On the Charities Listing search page, it notes:

Note

The CRA strives to ensure that only organizations meeting the requirements are registered. While most organizations operate within the rules, changing circumstances in an organization’s operations may affect its continued eligibility for registration. Registration should not be viewed as proof of an organization’s credibility. The CRA encourages donors to learn more about donating wisely. [my emphasis]

I am glad that CRA has these warnings on their website.  They should probably add similar warnings to their Advanced Search page.

Here are the Registered Canadian amateur athletic associations (RCAAAs) as of November 11, 2022:

Here are the Registered National Arts Services Organizations (RNASOs) as of November 11, 2022: