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Straight answers on giving in Canada.
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Before the money moves
What to check about a charity before a grant goes out, and what the filings can and cannot tell you.
Does Canada have a charity watchdog?
No. The CRA regulates registration. Nobody rates quality officially.
How do you check if a charity is registered with the CRA?
Search the CRA's list of charities by name or business number.
How do you complain about a Canadian charity?
Ask the charity first. Then the CRA, knowing you will not hear back.
How do you know if a Canadian charity is legitimate?
Almost certainly. The real question is whether it is right for you.
How much should a Canadian charity spend on overhead?
There's no legal limit on overhead for Canadian charities.
What can a T3010 tell you about a charity?
The T3010 is the annual return every registered Canadian charity files with the CRA, and most of it is public.
What is a qualified donee?
An organization that can issue official donation receipts in Canada.
What is charity due diligence?
Charity due diligence is the work of confirming a charity is registered, financially sound, properly governed and actually doing what it says, before any money moves.
What is the disbursement quota?
The minimum a charity must spend on charitable work each year.
What should you ask a charity before you fund it?
Six questions to open a partnership, and what good answers sound like.
The giving conversation
How advisors open, hold and deepen the philanthropy conversation with a client.
How do you build a successful partnership with a charity?
Name the power gap, set simple terms, fund for years, know why.
How do you start a philanthropy conversation with a client?
Ask one question. The awkwardness is yours, not your client's.
What should you ask yourself before you fund a charity?
Five questions about you, before any question about them.
Vehicles and mechanics
How donor advised funds, foundations, bequests and gifts of securities actually work in Canada.
Finding a charity
Judge the program on what it controls, cause by cause, then check the organization behind it.
How do you evaluate a charity's impact?
Evaluating a charity comes down to three things: whether it can explain why its approach should work, whether it can show what changed rather than what it did, and whether it's honest about how it knows.
What is a theory of change?
A charity's explanation of why what it does should cause change.
By cause
Evaluating a water charity is not the same job as evaluating a shelter. One guide per cause, each with the questions that change.
How to evaluate a children and youth charity
Ask what they are trying to change, then who the adults are.
How to evaluate a food bank
Start with accreditation under Food Banks Canada's standards, because it's the one question that needs no expertise to ask or check.
How to evaluate a housing and homelessness charity
A charity that helps people who are homeless controls less than donors assume.
How to evaluate a mental health charity
You don't need a clinical framework to evaluate a mental health charity in Canada.
How to evaluate a water charity
Judge a water charity on whether the water is still running in five years, and on whether the program covers sanitation and hygiene rather than water alone.
How to evaluate an animal welfare charity
Animal welfare has better numbers than almost any cause.