Articles

So much is written about legal issues relating to charities in Canada. I thought I would try and note the ten most important things you need to know about charity law in Canada.

Increased media, donor and regulatory scrutiny has resulted in more charities conducting informal legal audits to prevent problems, rather than reacting to them.

Canadian non-profits that do NOT have charitable status have their own legal requirements, which are different from those of registered charities.  Such non-profits generally have greater flexibility in terms of activities, however, they do not have some of the advantages of registered charity status, such as the ability to issue tax receipts. 

This excellent slide presentation by Terry de March of the Canada Revenue Agency, Charities Directorate, highlights the most important compliance problems for registered Canadian face. Many charities could avoid problems by reading this article and ensuring compliance with the issues raised.

Here is the full text of certain recent Canadian cases decided in the last few years that should be of particular interest to Canadian charities that operate outside of Canada.  The 3 Federal Court of Appeal cases, namely the Tel-Aviv Foundation case, The Magen David Adom case and the Bayit Leplitot case, all deal with Canadian charities conducting foreign activities.

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 article discusses certain ‘charitable’ gifting schemes which threaten to undermine the public and regulators confidence in the charitable sector. This article also discusses a plan to deal with this problem.

There are many options for foreign universities who are interested in fundraising in Canada and I have discussed 6 different options. It is time to think of your alma mater or your parent’s alma mater and how Canadians can support these universities.

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.]