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Charities Regulatory Reform: Increasing Public Awareness and Sector Outreach

April 2004

The 2004 federal budget allocated $12 million annually to improve the regulation of charities. Some of this funding will go towards increasing public awareness and communications with the charitable sector about the regulation of charities. These activities are part of a larger 5-year charities regulatory reform initiative.

Public Education

Few Canadians know that there is formal monitoring of charities, and even fewer know who is responsible for this monitoring. The fact that charities are regulated by two levels of government confuses them even further.

As determined constitutionally, provinces have jurisdiction to regulate all Canadian charities. However, when a charity becomes registered, it must meet the requirements of the Income Tax Act, which is enforced by the federal government. There are a number of benefits of becoming a registered charity including becoming tax-exempt and gaining the ability to issue official donation receipts. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will soon be launching a campaign to clarify these roles and to inform Canadians that charities are being monitored federally and that the majority of them play by the rules.

As part of this awareness campaign, the CRA will:

• raise the public profile of the CRA as a reliable source of information about charities;
• educate donors about what to be aware of when giving to charity, how to confirm the status of a charity, and how to make a complaint about a charity;
• improve public access to information about registered charities; and
• Report annually on regulatory activities related to registered charities.

The goal of these activities is to increase public awareness about the role of the CRA in regulating charities, give greater confidence to donors that there is formal monitoring of charities, and encourage Canadians to give to the charitable causes they believe in.

Outreach to Charities

Registered charities have told the CRA that they need assistance in understanding the rules related to their charitable status, the criteria and process for attaining federally registered status, and how to complete their annual tax returns. As part of an outreach campaign, the CRA will expand its communication and educational activities to assist charities in following all of the rules and obligations associated with being a registered charity. In addition, the CRA will develop a Strategic Funding Program that will provide funds for education on charities regulations in the voluntary sector, delivered by those in the voluntary sector.

This program will help volunteers and employees who work for charities know and understand the rules associated with being a registered charity. This outreach initiative will take into account the small size of most registered charities and the goodwill of the volunteers who operate them.

Charities Advisory Committee

A Charities Advisory Committee has recently been created to:

• provide charities with a stronger voice in shaping the regulation of charities;
• provide a vehicle to identify and discuss emerging issues and trends concerning regulatory oversight of the charitable sector;
• provide advice on developments and trends that may impact on the CRA policies and programs; and
• review the administration of the new sanctions program, updated monitoring function, and revised appeals process as they are rolled out.

Additional Information

For further information about the Charities Advisory Committee or charities regulatory reform, please see www.cra.gc.ca/charities.

This document is also available for download in PDF format.

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Date modified:

2014-12-03