July 04, 2009

Searching the CRA Charity Directorate’s website - a workaround

Have you ever had trouble finding information on the CRA’s website relating to charities?  Well the site has really improved over the last couple of years and is a lot more user friendly.  However, here is a suggestion if you are looking for a document on the CRA website.  Go to google and if you are are looking for information on disbursement quota type in the following:
disbursement quota site:http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/

That will search the charity directorate website in English for documents that have the words disbursement and quota - if you want the phrase “disbursement quota” try putting it all in quotation marks “disbursement quota”.  Now I must admit that finding documents on disbursement quota is not going to help you actually understand anything about it - for that you need to speak to Elena Hoffstein!  Unfortunately there is only so much that CRA and its webmaster can do - the rest is in the hands of Finance. 

CRA publishes warning on issuing official donation receipts for gifts of services by Charities

CRA has just published a reminder to charities that “Issuing receipts Caution: Gifts of services.  A registered charity is not permitted to issue an official donation receipt for a gift of service. At law, a gift is a voluntary transfer of property. Gifts of services (donated time, skills, or efforts) provided to a charity are not property, and therefore do not qualify as gifts for the purposes of issuing official donation receipts.”

READ MORE »

July 01, 2009

Is transfer of proceeds to Canadian registered charity a gift? CRA discusses one situation

READ MORE »

David Baines article on fundraising telemarketing firm Xentel DM Inc.

David Baines, a reporter with the Vancouver Sun, recently wrote an article on a telemarketing firm Xentel DM Inc..  It is entitled “Charity fundraisers not so charitable”.  The article is at http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Charity+fundraisers+charitable/1450998/story.html or http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:nNTR88K0xPUJ:www.vancouversun.com/story_print.html%3Fid%3D1450998%26sponsor%3D+xentel+vancouver+sun&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

Paper on “Regulating Self-Regulation in the Charitable Sector:” is very thought provoking

I recently read a draft paper entitled Regulating Self-Regulation in the Charitable Sector: Innovation or Contradiction? by Susan D. Phillips, Professor and Director of the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carlton University.  It is very well written and thought provoking discussion of self-regulation of the non-profit and charitable sectors in Canada and the limitations and opportunities for self-regulation.

The article is at: http://www.anser-ares.ca/files/conf09/Phillips_ANSER2009.pdf