Global Giving
April 2013
In this case Trinity Global Support Foundation (the “Foundation”) asked the court to delay CRA publishing a notice of intention to revoke the registered charity status until the Foundation’s other legal claims have been dealt with. The FCA ruled against the Foundation because the Court determined that “there is no substantive evidence that the Foundation or its clients will be forced to shut down or be significantly affected prior to its notice of objection being considered.” The Court also did not think that losing its charitable status caused irreparable harm as “It is clear from the evidence that the reputation of the Foundation has already been subject to intense public scrutiny for reasons distinct from the notice of intention to revoke. As such, I see no basis upon which to conclude that any possible further harm to the Foundation’s reputation will be such as to amount to irreparable harm.” The judge does not mention the London Free Press coverage but presumably that is what is being referred to. The conclusion of the FCA decision is important “Given my conclusions with respect to irreparable harm, I need not consider the balance of convenience element of the test. However, it is clear that serious allegations have been raised in the context of the proposed revocation. It is clear from the Foundation’s own evidence that it has been engaged in fundraising activities using tax shelter arrangements, which have been an activity of legitimate concern generally to the Minister. As such, in my view the public interest in the Minister protecting the integrity of the charitable sector outweighs the Foundation’s interest in staying revocation and I see no reason for the Court to grant an equitable remedy to the Foundation.”
March 2013
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/21/2013 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving |
CIDA
The Federal Government has announced in the 2013 Federal Budget that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) will be amalgamated with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) to form the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. It will be interesting to see how this change will affect the Canadian governments international development work and its relationship with Canadian charities.
The Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency has announced the revocation of Marketplace Ministries International as a registered charity for its involvement in the “Insured Giving Donation Program tax shelter gifting arrangement”.
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/10/2013 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving |
Ethics and Canadian Charities
Almost $15 billion is sent by people in Canada to developing world countries as remittances. Over the years I have written quite a bit about remittances, how important they are; how they dwarf charitable funds in Canadian charities used for international disaster relief and development; and the prohibitive rates of Western Union and others. Here is some good news. Vancity in Vancouver has set up a much more affordable way for their customers to send funds to the Philippines. Thank you Vancity for taking the lead in this important area.
January 2013
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/22/2013 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving |
Ethics and Canadian Charities |
Avoiding 'Charity' Scams
The Charity Commission notes that the Guidance “explains trustees’ duty to prevent their charity being used to promote extremist views or terrorist ideology. The toolkit also suggests steps trustees can take to minimise risks associated with particular activities, such as organising public events and debates and circulating information. It is aimed in particular at charities that host regular events involving external speakers, and those with educational purposes that distribute material and information. Examples include charitable think tanks and debating societies, students’ unions, schools, colleges and universities and religious charities.”
The CRA recently wrote a letter in French on whether charitable foundations are allowed to make gifts to section 501(c)(3) US charities, because of paragraph 7 of article XXI of the U.S. Tax Convention? The CRA answered no. Their reason is that American charities are not deemed to be qualified donees under paragraph 7 of article XXI of the Canada-U.S. Tax Convention.
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/14/2013 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving |
Ethics and Canadian Charities
The Hudson Institute has published its 2012 report on remittances. It shows that Canadian remittances to developing countries were $14.7 billion in 2010. CIDA gave $5.2 billion and Canadian charities gave about $1.95 billion.
December 2012
The Toronto Star recently covered a conference in which Justin Trudeau was speaking. One of the sponsors of the conference was IRFAN, a group that has lost its charitable status due to allegations that it was involved with directly or indirectly providing support to HAMAS, which is a listed terrorist organization I think that it is important to read the almost 200 pages of CRA letters and documentation before coming to any quick conclusions.
On December 14th, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada delivered its ruling in the case of R. v. Khawaja, 2012 SCC 69. Much of this case centered on whether the Criminal Code of Canada definition of “terrorist activity” was constitutional. According to s. 83.01(1) of the Criminal Code, a “terrorist activity” is an act or omission committed in whole or in part “for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause”. Some in the legal community had suggested that this definition of terrorism was unconstitutional. Nevertheless, all seven Supreme Court justices who heard R. v. Khawaja held that the Criminal Code definition of terrorism was constitutional.
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/11/2012 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving
Doug Donovan and Caroline Preston in the Chronicle of Philanthropy have written another article on inflated gift in kind valuations. Here is an interesting quote “Accounting principles may be applied differently by different groups to similar facts, but at some point this matter of how in-kind contributions are valued becomes much more significant than mere reasonable differences of interpretation among nonprofit accountants,” Mr. Tighe said in an e-mail. “It goes to the matter of public trust.”
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/11/2012 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
What's New from the Charities Directorate of CRA |
Global Giving
We recently reviewed the T3010 information for 2011 relating to foreign activities. The database was prepared by the Charities Directorate of CRA in September 2012 and covers about 81,000 charities (94% of Canadian registered charities) and their 2011 T3010 returns. We reviewed the Canadian charities that identified they did foreign activities through funding projects abroad (approximately 5200 charities identified spending funds abroad and only about 3550 spent over $10,000. We also list which identified they received CIDA funding and how much was spent on those arrangements. Finally, we list the amount of gift in kinds that charities issued receipts for which they may or may not have shipped abroad
October 2012
I will be presenting in Vancouver a full day presentation on charity law and compliance for registered charities on November 6, 2012. It is being put on by CoDevelopment Canada & BCCIC and it is entitled “Charity Law 101”. Just completed a similar session at Carleton University in Ottawa and it went really well.
I took a look at the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return statistics on foreign activities by Canadian charities for 2010. The total 2010 amount identified by all charities including gifts-in-kind (GIK) is almost $2.7 billion. 299 charities spent more than $1 million outside of Canada. 5355 charities identified spending some amount outside of Canada. Some of the top GIK numbers are scams and will reduce the total. On the other hand the total will rise as a result of funds spents outside of Canada but as gifts to qualified donees which are not counted in these numbers.
September 2012
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 09/24/2012 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving |
Ethics and Canadian Charities |
Avoiding 'Charity' Scams
I will be delivering a presentation to the Canada Southern Africa Chamber of Business 2012 8th Risk Mitigation Program in Toronto on October 16, 2012 on the subject of “CSR with Canadian Charities – Opportunities and Pitfalls”.
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 09/10/2012 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving |
Ethics and Canadian Charities
Here are two workshops organized by the OCIC entitled “Personal Security: to build an individual’s security capacity when working in risk prone environments”
I will be delivering for the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation a full day workshop entitled “Charity Law Boot Camp: compliance and standards issues for Canadian Charities”. It will be on October 12 at Carleton University.
Recently the Department of Finance requested submissions on “Strengthening Canada’s AML and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regime”. I sent in a submission that focussed specifically on the vulnerabilities of charities.
August 2012
In July 2011 the CRA imposed a penalty of $174,228.08 on the Reimer Express Foundation Inc, which is a Canadian private foundation based in Winnipeg. The penalties related to certain payments that CRA characterizes as gifts to non-qualified donees. Paul Waldie covered the Foundation in an article in the Globe and Mail entitled “Improper giving prompts tax trouble for trucking magnate’s Christian charity”. Here are the letters from the Charities Directorate of CRA to Reimer Express Foundation Inc. re: penalties for gifts to non-qualified donees.
The Charities Directorate of the CRA has posted a page on CIDA’s Sahel Crisis Matching Fund.
The Canadian government is launching a matching program for donations made by Canadians to organizations from August 7 - September 30, 2012. CIDA notes: “An estimated 18.7 million people in the Sahel region in West Africa are affected by a food and nutrition crisis due to drought, sporadic rains, poor harvests, soaring food prices and widespread displacement. As a result, more than 1 million children under the age of five are at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition. Canada, through CIDA, is helping to meet vital humanitarian needs in the Sahel, and as part of its efforts, has created the Sahel Crisis Matching Fund. For every eligible dollar donated by individual Canadians to registered Canadian charities, Canada will set aside one dollar for the Sahel Crisis Matching Fund. CIDA will allocate these funds to established Canadian and international humanitarian organizations for humanitarian assistance efforts that benefit the people most affected by the crisis.” Organizations that receive a donation will not receive directly a matching amount but those organizations will advise CIDA of the funds collected and then CIDA will have a process to determine which organizations receive the funds. Organizations that are interested in potentially applying for those funds should review CIDA’s “Guidelines for Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Project Proposals and Reports”.
July 2012
Here is a copy of a letter from the Charities Directorate to the Hindu Temple Society of Canada. It is interesting for a number of reasons in that it discusses penalties for making gifts to non-qualified donees and the imposition of both a compliance agreement and a penalty. Furthermore, the letters discuss funding by the Hindu Temple Society of Canada of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) and the issue of the involvement of Canadian charities in political activities such as Tamil independence in Sri Lanka.
With the recent release of two Canadian aid workers who were working for the Norwegian Refugee Council there has been discussion about whether Canadian charities or aid workers should work in places that are in the midst of conflict. Humanitarian workers help save many lives every year - it would be unfortunate if they stopped doing this important work because of terrorists, bandits, pirates and criminals. That being said, charities need to be aware of the risks, provide training to their employees and volunteers, plan for various contingencies, have necessary equipment and personnel in the field and in some cases, unfortunately it may be necessary for a charity to temporarily or permanently cease operations in a certain area.
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/02/2012 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Canadian Charity Law |
Global Giving |
Ethics and Canadian Charities
Canada has sanctions against a number of countries. These countries include: Burma / Myanmar, Belarus, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Liberia, North Korea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Egypt and Zimbabwe. Canadian charities operating abroad or dealing with people in these countries should review the sanctions to ensure that their activities are not violating the sanctions.
June 2012
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/23/2012 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving |
CIDA
On the heels of an OECD report on CIDA, CIDA has published the 4th annual CIDA’s Development for Results 2010–2011 report.
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/21/2012 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving |
CIDA
A recent OECD report discusses CIDA and Canada’s aid effort. Canada receive some praise for certain initiatives but recommendations were made for improvements in other areas. The report notes: “Canada’s aid programme stood at USD 5.3 billion in 2011 (0.31% of its national income), making it the eighth largest DAC member. Since 2007 Canada has achieved the challenging targets it set itself for its international assistance volumes; in the decade between 2001 and 2010 it managed to double its aid in nominal terms (i.e., the money of the day). The DAC commends Canada for this achievement. However, some of these gains are likely to be reversed, given that Canada’s ODA volume shrank by more than 5% in real terms (i.e., after removal of the effect of inflation) between 2010 and 2011 and is set to fall further in 2012. Canada still needs to draw up a timetable for achieving the international commitment of giving 0.7% of its gross national income (GNI) as ODA.”
Posted by
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/08/2012 |
comments (0) |
permalink |
forward to a friend
Posted under
News |
Global Giving
The Ontario Council for International Cooperation will be having its 2012 AGM and Conference. There will be a number of interesting discussions on international development and humanitarian assistance.
Here is the Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Law List - June 2012
The CBC just ran a story entitled “Hindu temple faces fine over tsunami donations”. It discusses a recent fine imposed by CRA on the charity. According to the lawyer for the charity the matter will be appealed so it will be interesting to see the result.
Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf of CharityVillage recently wrote an article “Don’t be a nonprofit party to terror” which discusses regulatory and risk management issues for charities in the area of preventing terrorism.
