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Canada’s Environmental Charities Audited for Advocacy

 

Environmental Charity Analyst Canada’s Environmental Charities Audited for Advocacy

According to recent media reports, the Canada Revenue Agency has been auditing several Canadian environmental charities. The focus of these audits is apparently on advocacy activities.
What is advocacy and why can it be a problem? There is no reason why charities should not work to promote causes that their donors believe are important. However, Canada’s tax laws prohibit charities from spending more than 10% of their “total resources” on “political activities”.
Some of us might think that this policy simply means that charities aren’t supposed to spend large amounts of money promoting a political party. But in fact the definition of “political activity” is much broader. According to the Income Tax Act, if a charity recommends “to retain, oppose, or change” any “law, policy, or decision of any level of government in Canada or a foreign country” that will be considered a political activity. So, for example, if an environmental charity publishes a recommendation that the government should do more to protect the habitat of the woodland caribou, that can be considered a “political activity”. Similarly, a recommendation to the City of Toronto to increase the number of homeless shelters could be considered a “political activity”.
Of the face of it, it may seem unreasonable that any public action by a charity in favour or against any government policy is “political”. Nonetheless, this is how the legislation is worded.
Donors to Canadian environmental charities should have no concerns about giving to charities they support, provided that the charity keeps its CRA registration in good standing. Charity Intelligence’s recent comprehensive  http://www.charityintelligence.ca/environment-charities report on Environmental Charities identifies those charities that include advocacy as a significant portion of their activities. Donors might want to discuss this issue with charity management if they have concerns about the CRA actions.
The forthcoming Federal Budget may include further restrictions on activities by Canadian charities. Charity Intelligence will be following these issues closely and will provide an update following release of the Budget if required.
 

 
If you find Charity Intelligence’s research useful in your giving, please consider donating to support our work. Being entirely funded by donors like you maintains our independence and objectivity to help Canadians be informed in their giving. Canadians donate over $17 billion each year. This giving could achieve tremendous results. We hope Charity Intelligence’s research helps Canadians give better.
Legal disclaimer:
The information in this report was prepared by Charity Intelligence Canada and its independent analysts from publicly-available information. Charity Intelligence and its analysts have made endeavours to ensure that the data in this report is accurate and complete but accepts no liability.
The views and opinions expressed are to inform donors in matters of public interest. Views and opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, organization, individual or anyone or anything. Any dispute arising from your use of this website or viewing the material hereon shall be governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario, without regard to any conflict of law provisions. 

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So Much Choice: Charity Gift Catalogues

Deworming medication
font-weight: 400; If you want to help kids attend school, deworming medication has proven to be 20 to 700 times more cost effective than scholarships, uniforms and direct cash transfers in increasing school attendance in southern Africa.
font-weight: 400; https://shop.unicef.ca/anti-infection-tablets Best Buy: UNICEF’s “anti-infection” tablets, $20 for 450, $0.04 per pill. The tablets protect children from worms and potentially deadly intestinal infections. 

Chlorine dispensers for safe water
font-weight: 400; The evidence-based research also highlights the impact of chlorine dispensers. Free access to chlorine dispensers at local water sources was found to significantly increase access to safe water and reduce diarrhea in children, saving lives and reducing early child mortality.
font-weight: 400; Some gift catalogues offer water purification tablets. The research states that these are frequently used improperly and only a third as effective as chlorine dispensers at the well.

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font-weight: 400; Previously posted in December 2014 – interesting to see some price changes
font-weight: 400; Below is a listing of Canada’s major international aid charities that publish gift catalogues offering bed nets at various prices and 2 offer an item that includes deworming pills. While a number contain water provision and sanitation, none specifically notes the use of chlorine dispensers. Hopefully, as more donors ask more questions about these gifts and their effectiveness, the charities will provide more details.


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If you find Charity Intelligence’s research useful in your giving, please consider donating to support our work. Being entirely funded by donors like you maintains our independence and objectivity to help Canadians be informed in their giving. Canadians donate over $17 billion each year. This giving could achieve tremendous results. We hope Charity Intelligence’s research helps Canadians give better.
Legal disclaimer:
The information in this report was prepared by Charity Intelligence Canada and its independent analysts from publicly-available information. Charity Intelligence and its analysts have made endeavours to ensure that the data in this report is accurate and complete but accepts no liability.
The views and opinions expressed are to inform donors in matters of public interest. Views and opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, organization, individual or anyone or anything. Any dispute arising from your use of this website or viewing the material hereon shall be governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario, without regard to any conflict of law provisions. 
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Charity Intelligence researches Canadian charities for donors to be informed and give intelligently. Our website posts free reports on more than 800 Canadian charities, as well as in-depth primers on philanthropic sectors like Canada’s environment, cancer, and homelessness. Today over 500,000 Canadians use our website as a go-to source for information on Canadian charities reading over 1.6 million charity reports. Through rigorous and independent research, Charity Intelligence aims to assist Canada’s dynamic charitable sector in being more transparent, accountable and focused on results.

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