Ethics and Canadian Charities
February 2012
There will be another Being Good at Doing Good conference on February 13 and 14, 2012 organized by the Charity Law Information Program - you don’t want to miss this conference. We will have some of the top experts from Canada, the US and the UK on governance, financial management and compliance. Here is the registration page: http://www.clipconference.wildapricot.org/ The conference is “Doing Good” at registrations with over 205 people signed up so far. Here is the Preliminary Conference Schedule
Here is another short article on the Cannon v. Funds for Canada Foundation class action lawsuit.
CRA will be shortly releasing their much anticipated revised Guidance on Fundraising. Join charity lawyer Mark Blumberg as he presents a webinar on behalf of the Charity Law Information Program entitled “CRA’s New Fundraising Guidance” on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 1PM EST for approximately 1 hour.
January 2012
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Here is a copy of my submission to the Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on Motion 559 dealing with transparency.
Here is the Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Law List - January 2012
There are a couple of interesting websites which allow much easier searching of information from the T3010 databases. One is CharityFocus.ca (discussed at http://www.globalphilanthropy.ca/index.php/blog/comments/charity_focus_from_imagine_canada_-_a_helpful_tool_to_analyze_canadian_char/ ). Another interesting website is http://www.opencharity.ca Opencharity.ca allows for visitors to search not only by charity name but also directors name.
Imagine Canada will be officially launching its Charity Focus website soon. You can review the website at http://www.charityfocus.ca/
On January 23, 2012 the National Post published an article entitled “Judge OKs suit against charity tax ‘scheme’” by Joseph Brean which discusses a class action lawsuit against various parties relating to the “Donations for Canada Gift Program”.
The first class action lawsuit involving what CRA terms an “abusive charity gifting tax scheme” has settled at a Settlement and Class Counsel Fee Approval Hearing that was held on January 17, 2012 in Toronto. The material for that hearing is on the Scarfone Hawkins website and is quite interesting reading providing lots of interesting details about the scheme. Here is announcement from the Plaintiff’s lawyers Scarfone Hawkins LLP.
On December 21, 2011 the Department of Finance announced a consultation on “updating Canada’s regime for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.” They also put out a consultation paper, “Strengthening Canada’s Anti-Money Laundering and Anti‑Terrorist Financing Regime,” which contains a number of proposals, a couple of which relate to charities. The deadline for submitting comments is March 1, 2012. The two proposals relating to charities are pretty minor - first for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to share information with CRA Charities Directorate on seizure reports when they seize forfeited currency. Second, the Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (“Fintrac”) already provides disclosure to CRA but such disclosure may be more proactive. These recommendations will facilitate the Charities Directorate having greater awareness of potential money laundering or terrorist activities that could potentially involve charities.
December 2011
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Here is a great piece by Katherine Van Kooy in the Calgary Herald entitled ‘Charity rankings often don’t tell the full story’. Katherine van Kooy is the president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (CCVO).
November 2011
Charity Central, based in Edmonton, has released a series of resources entitled Road to Accountability to help Canadian charities deal with the issues of accountability and transparency.
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The US Chronicle of Philanthropy has written an article entitled “Controversy Over Drug Values at Aid Groups: A Look at a Key Player” - it has some discussion on valuation schemes in the Canadian context.
I recently gave a presentation to the Law Society of Upper Canada’s 14th Annual Estate and Trust Summit providing the Charity Law Update.
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Avoiding 'Charity' Scams
Today the Toronto Star posted an article entitled “Audit of charities encounters resistance”. I think that it is very important that there be transparency about charities and I have written quite a bit on the subject. Charities must be transparent with various stakeholders because such transparency is important in informing stakeholders of the work of the charity, and maintaining public trust and confidence in the charitable sector. However, I have a number of concerns with some of the statements and quotes in the article and also the article fails to broach many important issues and complexities with transparency in the charitable sector.
Another Canadian charity has been revoked involvement with “abusive charity gifting tax shelters”. [Update] Here is a copy of various letters from CRA to The Malvern Rouge Valley Youth Services.
October 2011
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The Charity Tribunal in the UK delivered a decision on public benefit and private schools which will affect almost a thousand UK private schools that have charitable status. This will be of interest to Canadian private schools that are registered charities as well as those interested in the importance of charities providing “public benefit”. The debate over public benefit and what is sufficient public benefit for certain types of charities has gripped the UK. The discussion is interesting and one that we should engage in more often in Canada.
Here is a copy of the Blumbergs Canadian Charity Law List - October 2011. To sign up and receive monthly updates go to http://www.canadiancharitylaw.ca/index.php/pages/subscribe/
I am working through the Charity Law Information Program of Capacity Builders to prepare a “Receipting Kit” which is a 25 page explanation of how charities should receipt. It also includes an appendix with CRA policies or guidances on receipting that is about 120 pages long. Together it will be a “Receipting Suitcase”. I don’t expect people to read the 120 pages of CRA policies and guidance but it is good for searching through to find references to “auctions” etc.
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Imagine Canada is looking for peer reviewers for its new Standards Program. “Are you interested in collaborating with a team of qualified colleagues to evaluate the practices of charities and nonprofits against a new set of Canada-wide shared standards? As a member of the Peer Review Committee you will have a hand in shaping the peer review process as we pilot the new Standards Program that was designed by the sector for the sector. For details on how to apply please see the Call for Peer Reviewers”
September 2011
Here is a very interesting document from the Max Bell Foundation which outlines some of the difficulties and opportunities for Canadian charities and NGOs to engage in more meaningful and effective public policy discussions.
Here is an upcoming webinar “The role of the Not-for-Profit Board Treasurer”.
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Here is an archived webinar that was originally recorded on March 23, 2011 entitled “Dangerous Opinions – Legal and Ethical Issues with Legal Opinions on Charity Law and the Income Tax Act” with David Thompson from Scarfone Hawkins LLP. Mr. Thompson is a class action lawyer who has launched the Banyan Tree Foundation lawsuit and more recently the class action in the case of Redeemer University and its forgivable loan program.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has published a lengthy article by Caroline Preston entitled “Multiple Methods of Valuing Drugs Create an Unclear Picture of Aid Totals”. It covers a number of important issues for both Canadian and US charities who either receive pharmaceutical donations or who purchase pharmaceuticals to use in developing nations.
In March 2011 a $6 million dollar claim was launched against Redeemer Foundation and Redeemer University College and their “Forgivable Loan Program”. CRA disallowed certain years of the program. We have covered the Redeemer University on this blog in its unsuccessful fight against CRA that went all the way to the Supreme Court. By my count this is the 5th class action lawsuit against a Canadian charity for issuing allegedly inappropriate official donation receipts. None of the allegations have yet been proven in court.
I requested from CRA information about the status of Third Party Penalties (TPP). Some Third Party Penalties are applied to individuals (who are involved with charities) and some to the registered charity itself.
Here is an article that appeared in Valuation Law Review entitled “Lemberg, et al. v. Perris” dealing with accountant liability when referring clients to charity schemes.
Here is an article in Valuation Law Review entitled Tax Donation Fallout
Here is an article entitled Valuation Based Charitable Donations” that appeared in the Valuation Law Review.
