Credit Proofing Charity Assets Most charities and not for profit organizations are incorporated as non share capital corporations. These corporations are considered separate legal entities from their members or directors. This ‘separateness’ protects the members (and to a large extent directors) from being personally liable in the event the organization finds itself liable for damages […]
Stay of Execution: New Precedent for Charities Facing Immediate Revocation
STAY OF EXECUTION: A PRECEDENTIAL WIN FOR A CHARITY AT THE FEDERAL COURT OF APPEAL by Adam Aptowitzer The charities community is well aware that the Canada Revenue Agency works to shut down charities it feels are deserving of such a punishment. In some circumstances, notably, but not exclusively, with respect to charities involved in […]
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How Not to Choose a Charity
How Not to Choose a Charity: The Folly of Overhead Ratios To the ongoing despair of the non-profit sector, the number one criterion that potential donors use in selecting a charity continues to be the ominous “overhead ratio”. In the face of all the information available to them about their options, donors tend to zero […]
Dealing With Fraudulent Donations
Dealing with Fraudulent Donations There is a great deal of information available for individuals on how to avoid donating to a fraudulent or otherwise problematic charity. But the donor-donee relationship goes two ways: what happens when a charity receives a donation that turns out to be fraudulent in some way? You may have heard of […]
If They Were So Prescient, How Did They Not See That Coming?
If They Were So Prescient, How Come They Did Not See That Coming? By Adam Aptowitzer On May 1st, 2013 the Federal Court of Appeal issued its judgment in the Prescient Foundation[1]. The case itself was notable not simply because of the decisions rendered by the Court on the questions in issue, but also (and […]
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The Impact of Business Activities
The Impact of Business Activities on Your Organization by Brent Randall If you operate an organization that engages in business activities (which CRA defines as deriving revenues from the provision of goods and/or services), the nature and goals of this business can help determine whether charitable registration is suitable for your group. Charities are able […]
Employee Directed Gift to A Charity
Employee Directed Gift to a Charity by Arthur Drache Making a charitable donation in honour of or in memory of a third party is of course a common event. In such a case, the donor will normally get a receipt for tax purposes and the charity will arrange for the fact of the donation to […]
Calling a Plumber
Quick Our Basement is Flooding – Call a Lawyer By: Adam Aptowitzer There are times being a lawyer is a bit like being a plumber. Like a plumber, a lawyer is called when an organization is being built, and like a plumber we are called in an emergency. But that is where the similarity ends, […]
Why Every Charity Should Consider Incorporation
Why Every Charity Should Consider Incorporation Before a group can be registered as a charity, there has to actually be some legal thing to register. This means that every charity faces the choice of which legal structure to use. A charity can be constituted as a trust, an unincorporated association, or a corporation. People generally […]
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No Obligation for Charity to Issue a Receipt for a Gift
No Obligation for Charity to issue a Receipt for a Gift By Arthur Drache We have made the point in articles gone by that there is no obligation on a charity to issue a receipt for a gift though of course a refusal to do so would raise serious questions in the minds of donors […]
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