Here are some suggestions for donating to a Canadian charity in a disaster such as we are seeing in Ukraine. You might also find our article Helping Ukraine deal with the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion helpful.
Select charities that are:
a) reputable;
b) experienced in disaster relief operations; and
c) ideally have done past work in the disaster area or have strong local groups they can work with or have people on the ground in the disaster area.
Also, you may want to consider organizations that perhaps have the capacity to move from relief to development work. One can only hope that this war ends quickly.
Generally, avoid telephone solicitations – good disaster relief organizations when dealing with disasters are generally too busy to be calling you – you either have to go to their website or call them to donate.
If you do receive a telephone solicitation or someone knocks on your door, be very skeptical and suspicious and be aware of sound-alike organizations – best is to go to the internet, do your research and donate directly on their website or send the organization a cheque. It is best not to give cash to a door-to-door solicitor.
Generally, avoid newly formed organizations set up to deal with the disaster – by the time they get going months will have passed.
Donate funds, generally not goods. Airlift of goods is very expensive. Goods are often not appropriate or don’t get donated in appropriate quantities – not to mention that one wants to try to support the local economy by buying locally the goods instead of dumping our goods on a country which undermines business in that country. As a result of COVID, there are generally all sorts of supply chain problems around the world which makes it even more important not to gum things up with gifts in kind.
Beware of social media – allow it to inspire you but do your research. Just because someone says on Twitter or Facebook that a charity is great does not make it so.
Beware of organizations that make deceptive or misleading marketing claims. For example, you should be wary of an organization that claims to have no overhead or administration costs. When carrying out complicated international work in a disaster, there will definitely be some overhead, either you or someone else is covering it. Alternatively, all the funds may be used for a purpose that is not the purpose you had in mind.
Is the organization listed as a registered charity on the CRA Charities Listing? Most organizations that are based in Canada and do disaster work will be registered charities, however, those being a registered charity almost guarantees nothing other than that they can issue an official donation receipt. There are superb registered charities and others who are ineffectual, bureaucratic, inefficient, and yes, there are the massive tax evasion scam charities that CRA has been trying hard to weed out but they keep on popping up. Unfortunately, CRA’s audits of charities have dropped by about 75% and often it takes CRA 10-15 years to revoke a charity that is acting badly. So, be careful which charity you donate to.
By visiting the CRA website you can see the T3010 Registered Charity Information Returns for every registered charity which provides some information about the charity. You are cautioned that the individual charities provide the information and it is not verified by anyone and some of the worst charities’ financial numbers look “great”. Sometimes even better is our law firm’s CharityData.ca website for information on charities going back 17 years.
Practically, the best way to determine if an organization is really good is either to volunteer with the organization, have a close friend or someone you really trust volunteer with the organization or for you or a close friend to receive services from an organization. In a disaster situation, you often need to act quickly and you do not have the luxury of doing that due diligence and you therefore may find it helpful to select organizations based on the criteria listed above.