This article discusses a Canadian legal perspective on Planned Giving Internationally. It was written by Mark Blumberg and recently appeared in “Your Guide to Charitable Giving and Estate Planning”, a supplement that appeared in the Globe and Mail on Friday May 11, 2007 and was produced by the Greater Toronto Area Roundtable of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners.

This brief article looks at how many Canadian Charities operate in each foreign country. The Top Five countries of operation are the United States (964), Mexico (423), India (356), Haiti (285) and the Philippines (191). It is no surprise that the US is number 1 as many charities are involved with US charitable activities or use US agents, although some of the other rankings are interesting.

In these files we list every country and the individual Canadian charities that operate in those countries according to the 2005 T3010 information.  By providing this information charities and donors will be aware of which organizations operate in each country.  This will assist charities interested in beginning a new operation to identify a source of information on a particular country or perhaps to partner with that Canadian charity instead of going it alone.  Although the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC) has a good map on its website (http://www.ccic.ca/) with information on which countries each of its members operate in, the map only covers their 100 or so members and not the 12,000 or so other organizations that operate outside of Canada.

In the Travel Just case CRA had refused to register an organizations whose objects were very broad.  The Federal Court of Appeal agreed with CRA.  [Subsequently the Supreme Court of Canada refused an application for leave to appeal.]

In this article I discuss the importance of remittances by Canadian residents to foreign countries. Canada is the third largest country in terms of remittances at $6.3 billion, after the US at $61B and the UK at $6.6B. The impact of these flows of funds can be substantial and the charitable sector should consider encouraging those who remit to donate to charities instead so that the funds can have a broad public purpose and be efficiently spent on long-term goals such as education.

The Globe & Mail article I referred to above on Canadian disaster relief charities not complying with the rules provides one of many illustrations of the importance of Canadian charities understanding and complying with CRA guidelines on Canadian charities operating outside of Canada. If you make it through this giving season with your fingers crossed and without any scrutiny then consider in the new year having a informal legal audit of your foreign activities. It is the best gift you can give to your charitable loved one!

An Ipsos Reid poll suggests that Canadian donors have low levels of trust of “international development” charities.  This article will attempt to explain why and suggest how to increase levels of trust.

Here is a copy of my recent presentation on the legal requirements for Canadian charities operating abroad. The presentation discussed CRA positions and documents, case law, and various other legal, practical and ethical issues that a Canadian charity may face.