This 22-minute free course, presented by Mark Blumberg, will take you through the functionality and variety of information available on CharityData.ca.
Blumbergs has created the largest Canadian registered charity information portal at CharityData.ca, with up to 19 years of data on every Canadian registered charity.
The portal is free, and it aims to increase transparency in the Canadian charity sector. Canadian charities have revenue of over $300 billion per year and millions of Canadians volunteer their time every year. Therefore, it is important that there is more transparency about the operations of charities.
CharityData.ca provides an easy-to-use interface that is far easier to use than the CRA’s Charities Listing to analyse T3010 Registered Charity Information Return data on a particular charity. It also allows the user to sort charities under “Advanced Charity Search” by over 30 criteria.
The information on the CharityData.ca website is taken directly from the public portion of CRA‘s database of registered charities. CRA sends us the data on a monthly basis, and we upload it two to three times per year. We don’t make any changes to the information. You can read more details about the CharityData.ca website at the FAQs. www.CharityData.ca/faq/
We also note on CharityData.ca, “For the most up-to-date information use the CRA’s own Charities Listing database. If you notice errors in the CRA information, let CRA know. A charity can file a T1240 (10) Registered Charity Adjustment Request.”
The Director Search function of CharityData.ca also allows users to search over 500,000 directors by their first and last names, and it is the only publicly available and up-to-date tool for searching them.
You can use CharityData.ca to search or sort by the following:
Search by Name of Charity, BN, Program Descriptions, Designation, Category, Total Revenue, Total Assets, Total Expenses, Number of Employees, Province, City, and Postal Code.
You can also sort by over 33 different parameters listed below.
– Relevance
– Legal name
– Total assets (4200)
– Total liabilities (4350)
– Total revenue (4700)
– Total expenditures (5100)
– Total Cash, bank accounts and short-term investments (4100)
– Long-term investments (4140)
– Land and Buildings in Canada (4155)
– Other Capital Assets in Canada (4160)
– Receipted donations (4500)
– Total amount received from other charities (4510)
– Total amount of tax-receipted gifts-in-kind (580)
– Total non-receipted revenue from fundraising (4630)
– Revenue from sale of goods and services (4640)
– Total revenue received from the federal government (4540)
– Total revenue received from provincial/territorial governments (4550)
– Total revenue received from municipal/regional governments (4560)
– Total revenue from any level of government (4565)
– Total tax-receipted revenue from outside Canada (4571)
– Total non-tax-receipted revenue from outside Canada (4575)
– Total Advertising and promotion (4800)
– Occupancy costs (4850)
– Professional and consulting fees (4860)
– Total expenditures on charitable activities (5000)
– Total expenditures on management and administration (5010)
– Total expenditures on fundraising (5020)
– Total expenditures on political activities, inside or outside Canada (5030)
– Total other expenditures (5040)
– Total amounts paid to external fundraisers (5460)
– Total compensation expenditures (390)
– Total Expenditures Outside of Canada / Foreign Activities (200)
– Total Amounts of Gifts made to Qualified Donees (5050)
For the most up-to-date information on a particular charity, including whether a charity is still registered, you should use the CRA Charities Listing at apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplyAdvncdSrch. However, for analyzing the past data of charities, CharityData.ca is much easier to use. Here is a detailed comparison of the CRA’s Charities Listing vs. Blumbergs’ CharityData.ca 2023.
CharityData.ca is part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project, which is in memory of my youngest brother Sean Blumberg. Sean was a sweet, kind person, a great brother who helped me on a number of occasions with many tasks including the time-consuming and arduous task of reviewing T3010 databases and making them into something useful. As part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project, Blumbergs has been releasing information on the Canadian charity sector to provide a better understanding of the size, scope, complexity, and challenges of the sector.
About Blumbergs Professional Corporation and Mark Blumberg
Mark Blumberg is a lawyer at the law firm Blumbergs Professional Corporation (Blumbergs) in Toronto and works almost exclusively advising non-profits and registered charities on their work in Canada and abroad. Mark has written numerous articles, is a frequent speaker on legal issues involving charity and not-for-profit law and is quoted extensively by the media. He is the editor of a blog, www.CanadianCharityLaw.ca, and created the largest portal of data on the Canadian charity sector, www.CharityData.ca.