philanthropic.ca

Rich Seek Guidance on How To Give Away Cash- From The Financial Times

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:01:04 +0000

My friend Mo Lidsky of Prime Quadrant sent me the attached link from The Financial Times about philanthropic advisors for donors: http://on.ft.com/IRbGv4.
It is true, more wealthy donors are seeking advice and assistance with their philanthropic giving and some are wisely checking out philanthropic advisors before engaging their services.
A philanthropic advisor is one who provides support and services to donors with their philanthropic giving. Such advisors provide a donor with the confidence that they are supporting the right charities and that their support is making the right impact. While some of us have been in business for quite some time, the concept of a philanthropic advisor is just beginning to gain ground in Canadian donor circles. (They are well known in Great Britain and the USA). Such advisors are not regulated nor is there a basic standard they must adhere to so it is very important for you to be diligent in checking out any potential philanthropic advisors.
What should you look for in a good philanthropic advisor? There are a range of services that philanthropic advisors provide to donors. These may include: helping donors find their passions, assisting in setting up a charitable trust or foundation, investment support, identifying appropriate charities for each donor, monitoring and evaluating the impact of a donor’s gifts and even helping with administrative functions or managing foundations/trusts.
Choosing the right philanthropic advisor is much the same as choosing your wealth manager, your investment advisor or even your banker. Think about what your specific needs are for your giving and what type of services you are really looking for.
Do you need help figuring out just how to get started with your giving or are you already involved with giving and are in need of someone to monitor your gifts and prepare impact reports for you? Perhaps you have inherited a family foundation and need help with its administration. It is good to think about what your specific philanthropic needs are then look for a philanthropic advisor who can best help you in those areas.
When looking for a good philanthropic advisor first and foremost you want someone you can trust and who shares the same values as you. You will also want to make sure the advisor does indeed have some knowledge and expertise in philanthropic giving. What is their background? What do they know about the charitable sector? Are they familiar with the rules and regulations of the Canada Revenue Agency? What knowledge or background does the philanthropic advisor have on understanding, assessing and monitoring charities? What donors has the advisor worked with in the past and can they provide you references?
Now that you know philanthropic advisors exist and can actually help you with your giving, your next question will probably be, where does one find a philanthropic advisor?
You can always ask your banker, investment advisor or wealth manager, however, my best answer is right here: Philanthropic.ca. We specialize in providing a wide range of services to donors. We work with you to determine just what your particular needs are and the best way we can help you increase the impact of your giving. We provide a professional approach to philanthropy based on years of grant making, monitoring, evaluating and assessing philanthropic impact. We help donors find their particular passions and then we assess the right charities for each donor’s particular philanthropic needs. We also provide donors with peace of mind knowing their philanthropic giving is being well managed. We are happy to meet with you to describe our services, what might work best for you and discuss a strategy that will best meet your needs. Give us a call at 416-357-1231 or send us an email at:info@philanthropic.ca.

At Last – A Standards Program for Charities and Non Profits

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:27:21 +0000

Imagine Canada has just launched its new Standards Program. This is a voluntary accreditation program for charities & nonprofits that demonstrate excellence in: board governance, financial accountability & transparency, ethical fund raising, staff management and volunteer involvement. Applications are assessed by a peer review panel. Organizations that receive accreditation will sign a licence of agreement that allows them to use the official trademark for 5 years.
This is great news. While it is just getting underway, it will give donors and the public confidence in charities they wish to support.

For more info, go to Imagine Canada, Standards Program: http://www.imaginecanada.ca/standards

McGill-Leaks: How Safe is Your Private Information When You Give to a Charity?

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:20:01 +0000

The recent posting of confidential information on donors from McGill’s Development and Alumni Department is very unfortunate. http://bit.ly/yI8QtZ
Ardent supporters of McGill will know the University would never willingly release such information so it should not affect their future gifts to the University but it does cause one to think about the privacy of such information.
As a donor, how can you ensure your information is being managed in the most confidential manner?
Most large charitable institutions will use sophisticated database systems to manage their charitable gifts and donor information that are usually well protected. Smaller charities however, may not have such controls and may simply keep their donors’ information on a spread sheet or in a simple database. With the advent of Wiki Leaks, obviously even the most secure systems can be hacked into.
.If you are concerned about privacy of your information, you may wish to ask the charity you are donating to explain their process of managing your private information-what information do they keep about you on their system, is it protected and who has access? You should be comfortable that the charity is taking measures to keep your information confidential.
You can give anonymously, which will protect you on public listings of donors but ultimately your name and information will occur somewhere in the charity’s systems for record keeping and tax receipting purposes so even anonymous giving does not totally guarantee your privacy.
You can give via a donor advised fund or through your local community foundation. This way, the recipient charity never even receives your information. However, be aware that donor advised funds and community foundations will keep your information so it is just as important to know how they will handle your private information as they will be just as vulnerable as McGill depending on the security of their systems.
You can be very selective in the personal information you provide to charities. You may have a business address/phone/email you can use instead of your own personal information. You may be able to use a staff contact instead of your own family name or you may have a foundation associated with your giving and that could be used as the principal contact information.
If none of the above work for you, you might ask the charity to keep your information separate from their computerized lists with secure controls and with very limited access. What an old fashioned idea! While this may be more work for the charity, if they are keen to accept your donation, they may well accommodate your privacy needs in such a manner.
Giving seems to be getting more complicated than ever but it is very important to protect your privacy and make sure those receiving your gifts follow suit.
Need some help with your philanthropic giving? Contact us at: info@philanthropic.ca

It’s Tax Time- Remember to Claim Your Charitable Donations!

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:50:22 +0000

It is that time to start collecting all those pieces of paper you need to properly file your income tax. Remember to collect all your charitable receipts to ensure you get the most tax benefit from your charitable giving. These days you will often receive your charitable receipts via email so make sure you have saved those emails or printed off the receipts, in addition to those you may have received via traditional mail. Every year I create an envelope for my tax receipts. When I receive a charitable receipt, via email or Canada Post, I put a copy in the envelope so when it comes to preparing my income tax, I have all my charitable receipts in one place. Can’t find a receipt? Sometimes in our hurry to clean out our emails, you may have erased a receipt or two from the charities you support- not to worry, you can ask the charity to send you a copy so don’t hesitate to contact them- every donation counts!

$174,000 Fine for Doing Good- Be Careful with your Giving!

Terry Smith — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:32:17 +0000

You will see in today’s Globe and Mail http://bit.ly/t9S9UB; the CRA has fined the Reimer Express Foundation this enormous penalty for payments made to non-qualified individuals and charities.
Reimer Express Foundation has supported Christian charities to the tune of $2M annually. The problem is in 2003-2004, the Foundation provided $250,000 of improper donations to individuals and organizations outside Canada that are not approved by the CRA. The CRA audited the Reimer Express Foundation in that year and the Foundation signed a “compliance agreement” saying it would abide by CRA rules and guidelines. This is all well and good, but as revealed in a subsequent audit in 2009, Reimer Express Foundation continued supporting some of the non-qualified charities and continued to provide support to individuals- both which do not comply with CRA regulations, thus they have been fined.
While these gifts may have been made with the utmost of good intentions, Canadian donors and foundations need to adhere to the CRA’s guidelines in providing donations to charities.
As a donor, before you write the cheque, you need to make sure the organization you are about to support is indeed a legitimate CRA registered charity or qualified donee. It is simple to find out this information. Go online to the CRA’s Charity Directorate: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/menu and click on the Charities Listing link to look up the name of the charity you are about to support. If it is a charity or university outside Canada, give the Charities Directorate a call and they will be able to advise you if the organization is a qualified donee. The Charities Directorate toll free number is: 1-800-267-2384; they are open 8:00am-8:00pm. You have no excuse to say you did not know! Still need help? Contact us at: info@philanthropic.ca

Welcome to Philanthropic.ca

Terry Smith — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:47:12 +0000

We provide wealthy families, foundations and corporations with a full range of philanthropic services that help achieve the greatest results.

With the celebration of our fifth year of operation, we are proud of our solid expertise and assistance provided to many donors and foundations. We help donors determine their philanthropic passions, set up and operate foundations, create new philanthropic partnerships, conduct due diligence and research on thousands of charities and evaluate the impact of our clients’ giving.

Want to increase the impact of your philanthropic giving? Contact us.

Social Finance

Terry Smith — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:47:05 +0000

Have you heard about this?

It is also known as social impact investing or mission related investing or social innovation. Basically, instead of investing your capital into the usual markets, you make an investment, not a grant or a gift, but a real investment in a company that is doing good. Now isn’t that a great idea- you can take some of your investment funds, and put them to work helping social entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

A “social” entrepreneur is one whose business is focused on addressing a social or environmental issue. The end result of the business does some social good. Not only do you hopefully reap a positive economic return, but you will also be contributing to improving social and environmental issues as well. This is great for donors and charitable foundations as they can put their investment funds to work – doing good – while still keeping their capital invested. Some social finance investors have indicated that they have received greater returns on these investments than traditional investment markets- even better! Want to learn more? Visit: www.socialfinance.ca or contact us at: info@philanthropic.ca

Is Your Charitable Giving a “Gift” or an “Investment”?

admin — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:46:48 +0000

Recently I was speaking with some donors who said they had dropped the word “gift” when referring to the money they give to charities and now only speak about their philanthropy as “investments”. This made me question: “Is all charitable giving really an investment?”

With an investment, you expect a return, and you usually expect that return to be better than what you initially invested. Sometimes the investment does not deliver as well as you expected. When that happens, we sometimes withdraw from that particular investment or we stay the course and hope it corrects itself over time. We watch our investments, we take corrective action, and hopefully we also reap positive returns.

A gift is something you give someone that you do not expect any return on. You do it out of the sheer joy of giving something to someone else to make them happy, to wish them well, to congratulate them. We do not worry about a gift. Once you have given the gift, you do not watch what happens with it, you do not take any corrective action and you certainly do not expect to see it again.

When you give a donation to a charity, no matter how small your donation, you always expect a charity to make good use of your funds. Yes, you may give your donation for the sheer joy of giving; however, you probably do think about it from time to time, and in fact may follow up with the charity to see how they actually spent your money and what impact it had. Sometimes you will find that the charity did not produce the results you had anticipated. Sometimes corrective action needs to be taken by the charity to get back on course and sometimes, as a donor, you need to know when to stop giving to a particular charity if indeed they are not fulfilling their mandate, or your expectations. It is very similar to how you make and monitor your investments. You do expect something in return for your charitable giving, and it can indeed can be called an “investment”. I think I will join the converted and replace the word “gift” with” investment” when I refer to my charitable giving. How about you? Share your thoughts with us: info@philanthropic.ca

Charity Tax Scams

Terry Smith — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:59:40 +0000

Here we go again..

Would you give $2,500 to a charity if you were promised a tax receipt for $10,000? Sounds too good to be true? Read on!

We first wrote about this in November, 2010 but it bears noting again given recent law suits on the topic.

In Jeff Gray’s Globe&Mail article (http://t.co/XbqXQIl), he indicates tens of thousands of Canadians have participated in such programs over the past decade, based on the advice of their financial advisors. Now donors who thought they were getting a good deal are finding the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) knocking on their doors asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes and interest. Charities who participate in such schemes are losing their charitable status. Now there are several law suits against the tax promoters and their lawyers.

Why would anyone think such a deal could possibly be legitimate?

Clever marketing for sure, uninformed advisors are also to blame – and toss into the mix some individuals wanting to take advantage of anything to reduce their tax bills. The problem is, not everyone knows the ‘ins and outs’ of charity law, not even your most trusted advisor (and even they can be duped into thinking the process makes sense). It might seem believable if you are not all that familiar with the CRA or with charitable giving and are only concerned with getting a tax credit. Through a complicated process the charity would indeed receive $10,000. With $2,500 from the donor and the rest coming from a trust company–so that’s good right? Well, here is where it gets shady: Charities may provide a tax receipt for donations received, however, the tax receipt must be given to the actual person or organization who actually made the donation. Charities know this and they take a big risk at giving out inaccurate tax receipts – so the receiving charity knows it is in the wrong to give the donor a tax receipt for $10,000 when indeed that individual has only given $2,500. In reality they should have issued two receipts, one to the donor for $2,500 and one to the trust company for $7,500. Then the charity has agreed to return almost all of these funds only keeping a very tiny amount for real charitable purposes. Again, the charity knows this is not legitimate. A charity cannot just hand over their funds to anyone they like. They either must run their own programs or transfer funds to another charity. So why would a charity take such a risk? Well, in some of these cases, these charities were only set up to be a part of this scheme, so the intent was only to provide a very small amount to charity. In other cases, many charities scrape for every dollar. So, when someone approaches a small charity with a proposal on a way they can increase their revenue very easily, some can be convinced it is a quick and easy source of funds, regardless of the small return. In either case, with over 85,000 registered charities in Canada, both the tax promoter and the legitimate charity knows it may be years if ever before the CRA gets around to auditing them.

So, what should a donor do? Stay away from any tax schemes that seem too good to be true and know who you are giving your money to. Make sure any charity you are giving your money to is indeed a legitimate charity, registered with the CRA. You can search all registered charities at: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng. But even then you are not safe if you do not know the charity. Google to see if they have a website, see what programs they run or organizations they support. Learn all you can about the charity, and if they promise you a tax receipt for more than what you gave them, take your money and run very quickly! If you need help selecting a charity, contact us.

Is your philanthropic giving making a difference?

Terry Smith — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:12:48 +0000

After carefully examining all your philanthropic options, finally determining your chosen charity, the size and scope of your gift and then actually transferring your money to the charity, how do you know if your gift will actually make a difference?

As a donor, you have a right to know that your gift is being used for the purposes intended.

You can use any number of methods, from a simple question such as “What did you do with my gift and is it making a difference?” to sophisticated grants monitoring, analysis and reporting systems.

Ideally, the best way to know the impact of your gift is to be directly involved with the organization yourself so you can see first-hand what the results of your giving has accomplished. Realistically, most donors do not have the time to devote directly to all the causes and charities they support. Here are some tips on making sure the charity knows why you are supporting them and what your expectations are as a donor.

When you make a gift to a charity, send a letter along with the cheque indicating why you are supporting this organization and what you intended the money to be used for. Be clear in your intentions so the charity knows how you had intended your gift to help the organization.
If you are able, go and visit the charity, program or activity you have supported. You will be able to see how the organization functions and how your particular gift is being used.
If you would like the organization to report to you on how the funds were actually used, add that to your letter. If your gift is over multi years, then ask for a report at the end of each year.
If you need more sophisticated reporting, you might want to devise an evaluation report form that outlines the type of information you would like to receive or if you have a multitude of grants each year, you may wish to invest in a computerized grants management system.

Whatever the mechanism, it is important as a donor to know the benefits of your giving. Need some help determining impact? Call us at 416-357-1231.