CRA issued fundraising expense guidelines for comment in early July 2008, with a deadline of August 31 for responses. As they had significant implications for small and mid-size agencies, ONN hastily pulled together a group of interested individuals to assist in drafting a response. We interviewed many individuals about their own agency's situation and by early August the constellation's analysis and comments were circulated to the field to assist interested organizations in responding to CRA. Concurrently, three individuals from ONN's constellation participated in Imagine Canada's efforts, which included the Health Charities and the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and we contributed the perspective of the mid and small sized charity. ONN also worked collaboratively with CCVO in Calgary who distributed our brief in Alberta.
Subsequently, the committee met to discuss future activities and the group identified a need to work on regulatory barriers frustrating charities from undertaking their work. The CRA Fundraising constellation has been renamed the Charities constellation. Some, but not all, of the members will continue to be active on the new issues. Other specific individuals will volunteer or be recruited with the needed skills and interests. The Law Foundation of Ontario has been approached to provide funding for research into the barriers to earning revenues facing nonprofits and charities in Ontario (Ontario has the most difficult regulatory environment for charities in all of Canada). The fundraising guidelines will be issued by CRA in January and the committee will likely prepare a briefing note to the field on those guidelines, and depending what they contain, may be active in helping charities comply.
Update: The guidelines that were to be issued in January have not yet been posted.
This constellation includes:
Matthew Thompson - Canadian CED Network
Yael Pressman and Mark Anshan - United Jewish Federation
Bill Sinclair and Sheila Reis - St Stephens House
Marguerite Pyron - Newcomers Women's Services
Jini Stolk - Creative Trust
Maureen Fair - St. Christopher House
Susan Main- Canadian Hearing Society
Terry Guerrio- Sistering
Diane Gibbs- Youth link
Heather - MAGMA
Cathy Barr- Imagine Canada
Kim Mustard -CCVO, Alberta
Lynn Eakin (Chair) - Metcalf Foundation Fellow
Update on CRA Fundraising Guidelines and Ideas On How We Can Collaborate
By now you have probably heard that CRA has issued their fundraising guidelines. The good news is they are quite changed as a result of the consultation process both in tone and detail. We made a difference. The bad news is that many underlying issues with regard to CRA's approach to charities raising funds to pursue their charitable mission have not been addressed (disbursement quota, definition of what's charitable etc. ) but let us leave those policy issues for later. This is a practical advisory on the guidelines. Note the following: read more »
New Consultation Process for CRA Guidelines
Posted July 17th, 2009 by ConstanceCRA recently released proposed guidance on activities outside of Canada for Canadian registered charities, and they invite feedback by September 30th. For more information, visit CRA's website.
CRA Releases Revised Fundraising Guidelines
Posted June 16th, 2009 by ConstanceCRA just released the final version of its Guidance on Fundraising by Registered Charities (http://tinyurl.com/mesbxn). ONN will review the document and share our analysis with the sector soon.
What is a social mission and who gets to decide?
Posted May 5th, 2009 by Tonya SurmanThis is a repost from my blog at the Centre for Social Innovation
Today I learned that wikimedia has been denied charitable status in the UK. Andrew Turvey explains here. I have also recently learned that the CRA Charities Dept has anulled the charitable status of Phoenix Community Foundation. They 'anulled' it claiming that the objects granted to Phoenix should never have been granted after being in operation for 30 years. I have also learned that several charities that are undertaking more entrepreneurial ventures have had their charitable status 'under review' here in Canada read more »
Seven new projects announced under CRA's Charities Partnership and Outreach Program
Posted April 8th, 2009 by ConstanceThe government of Canada is investing $3.1 million in small and rural registered charities for innovative education and training projects to support charities with their responsibilities under the Income Tax Act. One of the seven organizations to receive funding is Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development (Carleton University) and they have asked ONN to coordinate the education session in the Greater Toronto area. More details to come.
Influencing Public Policy: Rules for Charities Engaging in Advocacy
Posted February 23rd, 2009The Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (CCVO) has released a new publication to help charities better understand the Canada Revenue Agency's rules for advocacy by charities. Influencing Public Policy: Rules for Charities Engaging in Advocacy provides an overview of what charities can and can't do under the Canada Revenue Agency's rules for Political Activities and includes a checklist to help your organization get started and resources for more information.
New Charity Information Return packages
Posted January 22nd, 2009 by ConstanceThe Canada Revenue Agency has just introduced a new Registered Charity Information Return package (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/chrts/whtsnw/crrc-eng.html), which
includes form T3010B (09) "Registered Charity Information Return", form
T1235 (09) "Directors/Trustees and Like Officials Worksheet", and form
T1236 (09) "Qualified Donees Worksheet/ Amounts Provided to Other
Organizations". read more »
CRA Fundraising Guidelines
Posted August 7th, 2008ONN prepared a brief for the sector in response to CRA's Fundraising Guidelines. To read our recommendations and concerns, click here.
