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Non-profit Industry NOTE: There were an estimated 161,000 non-profit and voluntary organizations operated in Canada in 2003, posting $112 billion in revenues. |
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The International Charity Association Network (ICAN) embellished the amount of donations it received over a three-year period as well as the amount of good work it did in the community, says the federal charity regulator. It was part of a tax shelter scheme that saw donors get high tax receipts for low donations. (Toronto Star)
Charity loses appeal against tax police OTTAWA - A Supreme Court decision reaffirms that tax cops can snoop through a charity's records to audit its donors. In a 4-3 ruling, the court dismissed Redeemer Foundation’s appeal in its case against the Minister of National Revenue (Canada Revenue Agency). (Hamilton Spectator) JUDGMENT: 2008 SCC 46
Charities being held to account TORONTO - A total of 120 charities have signed a new code of ethics that promises donors honesty and more bang for their buck. "These charities are aspiring to be the best in the way they conduct fundraising. They want to be ethical and they want to be known to be ethical," said Georgina Steinsky-Schwartz, president of Imagine Canada. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: Watchdog sets charity rules List of 'ethical' charities
An Islamic charity with ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban is now collaborating with an unlikely new partner: UNICEF, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund. UNICEF has signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a Saudi charity of massive scope that keeps branches in more than 20 countries and has over 100 offices worldwide. (FOX)
Overseer of Rama profits eats up millions OTTAWA - Millions of Casino Rama dollars meant to help lift First Nations out of poverty have been swallowed by legal fees, unexplained expenses and payments to at least one band that doesn't officially exist, suggest newly released audits. (Toronto Star) MORE: Probe urged in Rama payouts
BBC sorry for keeping charity cash LONDON - The BBC today apologized for keeping £106,000 made from premium-rate phone calls on about two dozen shows that should have been given to charity. The issue involved the BBC Worldwide subsidiary Audiocall, which provides premium-rate phone lines to many BBC shows. (Guardian UK)
Fundraiser dogged by controversy TORONTO - Red Fridays Foundation is a registered business founded by Brian Muntz, but it accepts - and, indeed, solicits - donations. Muntz has not applied to the Canada Revenue Agency to be a registered charity, but says he intends to. (Toronto Star) MORE: 'Red Rally' rolls down Highway of Heroes
Non-profit’s lottery distributes school funds VICTORIA - The BC Government came under fire for allowing a parent organization to distribute $1 million in provincial grants for playground equipment using a random lottery. (Vancouver Sun) PREVIOUS: Poorest 30% of schools ineligible Political hopscotch over playgrounds Playground politics West side parents not allowed to give away playground grant
Orphans' Fund sale harpooned by red tape VANCOUVER - CKNW planned to hold its annual Orphans' Fund herring sale in New Westminster on Sunday. But last week Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials canned the event because of a 2006 ruling in the federal Court of Appeal. (Vancouver Province) MORE: Noah's Ark Retold: 2007 Canadian version |
NEW YORK - Two prominent national non-profit groups are reeling from public disclosures that large sums of money were misappropriated in unrelated incidents by an employee and a former employee. The groups, Acorn, one of the country’s largest community organizing groups, and the Points of Light Institute, which works to encourage civic activism and volunteering, have dealt with the problems in very different ways. (New York Times)
VANCOUVER - Rocky Mountain Return Center Ltd., which runs a recycling depot in New Westminster, was found to have been paid excessive fees by Encorp Pacific, a non-profit corporation that oversees the recycling of most beverage containers in BC. (Vancouver Province)
CALGARY - In his statement of claim, filed with the Court of Queen's Bench, Kenneth Robertson argues he helped found the Light Up the World Foundation in 2001 and was terminated without sufficient notice or compensation in March 2007. The six-page document names the foundation and the University of Calgary, where the non-profit organization is based, as defendants. (Calgary Herald)
Banyan Tree charitable foundation OTTAWA - Revenue Minister Gordon O'Connor said Tuesday his department will consider delisting the Banyan Tree charitable foundation after the Canada Revenue Agency called it a sham. (CBC) PREVIOUS: Foundation still registered as charity Donors owe millions
Some $10B in aid promised to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taleban has still to be delivered, a group of 94 aid agencies has said. The Agency Coordinating Body For Afghan Relief (ACBAR) says that two-thirds of aid bypasses the Afghan government. 40% of aid goes back to donor countries in consultant fees and expatriate pay, the group says. (BBC) REPORT: ACBAR on aid effectiveness .pdf Billions in aid wasted Integrity Watch Afghanistan BC aid worker one of the victims CIDA to reduce liability for aid workers Relief staff deliberate targets
OTTAWA - Canadian tax experts warn taxpayers to steer clear of charity donation programs that earn a profit for the donor. So-called tax shelter gifting arrangements undermine federal and provincial charitable tax credit provisions and hurt the charities they are supposed to be aiding, tax experts say. (Edmonton Journal) REPORT: Kicking a gift horse in the teeth .pdf
Red Cross yet to spend $200M of tsunami cash OTTAWA - More than three years after the Asian tsunami devastated several countries, $200 million of the $360 million donated to the Canadian Red Cross has still not been spent. (Toronto Star)
Activists reach pact with police VANCOUVER - A five-year struggle by the Pivot Legal Society to investigate the Vancouver Police Department has "come to a peaceful end" with an agreement between the two sides, the VPD announced yesterday. (Vancouver Province) Complaint filed with Human Rights Tribunal |
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EDMONTON - A local anti-abortion group may soon be forced to remove a series of posters hanging in the city's LRT stations, after a national standards agency ruled the campaign's message is misleading. Similar billboards distributed by LifeCanada, a national organization, were recently declared "deceptive" by Advertising Standards Canada - a self-regulating body of the advertising industry. (Edmonton Journal) |
Studies fault charities for veterans WASHINGTON - Eight veterans charities, including some of the nation's largest, gave less than a third of the money raised to the causes they champion, far below the recommended standard, the American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) says in a report.(Washington Post) RELATED: As mistrust grows, loyalty goes National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) Outcome indicators project |
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OTTAWA - New value-for-money audits to better track how Indian Affairs spends billions of dollars will catch misappropriation, lax reporting and - in rare cases - fraud, says the minister in charge. (CTV) |
ICAN suspended by Federal regulator TORONTO - The federal charity regulator has taken the rare step of suspending a Toronto charity that claims to have given $244 million in aid to the poor – but hasn't provided the proof to back that up. (Toronto Star) |
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Sikh Temple terror links alleged VANCOUVER - More than five years after a Surrey Sikh temple was denied charitable status for alleged terrorist links, it is still raising funds, holding weekly prayer services and hosting community events like last April's controversial Vaisakhi parade. The groups running the temple are both registered non-profit societies in BC, despite a secret Canada Revenue Agency report that said they "may be functioning as part of a support network" for the terrorist International Sikh Youth Federation. (Sun) PREVIOUS: Sikh Terrorists |
Charitable empire has high costs The pleas for cash are delivered by charities whose names alone could soften even the most callous into making a donation. Cancer Recovery Foundation. Childhood Asthma Foundation. Children's Emergency Foundation. Starting from addresses around Toronto and now from his new, three-storey lakefront house in Muskoka, 57-year-old fundraising consultant Craig Copland has helped create an empire of health charities that has taken tens of millions of dollars from Canadians. (Toronto Star) MORE: Xentel DM board of directors Xentel DM |
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TORONTO - The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario says putting 12,000 life-saving defibrillators in community centres across the province is a priority – but not a big enough priority to part with a slice of the charity's burgeoning $130 million war chest. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: Heart-stroke charity builds war chest |
Tax bill shocks housing society EDMONTON - Changes to provincial rules made in 1998 treat certain non-profit housing projects, such as those that charge rent, as taxable. City assessors have just recently started checking local non-profit housing projects to see if they meet the rule change. (Edmonton Journal) RELATED: Airport grounded by tax assessment |
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SCC says kids sports leagues aren't charities OTTAWA - Groups that promote and organize youth sports do not qualify for charitable status under the Income Tax Act, the Supreme Court of Canada said Friday in a ruling with consequences for volunteer and community sporting bodies across the country. (CanWest) JUDGMENT: AYSA v. Canada, 2007 SCC 42 |
Native group misspent $6.4M, audit reveals WINNIPEG - A Manitoba native group misspent more than $6 million in federal health-care funds on exotic trips and unjustified payments to the organization's CEO, a federal audit has revealed. MORE: Audit of Anishinaabe Mino-Ayaawin Inc. (AMA) 1998-2005 Funding irregularities referred to RCMP $7M misspent, health-care audit finds |
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OTTAWA - The North American Missing Children's Association, a national organization that solicits donations door to door, has had its registered charity status revoked after an investigation by the Citizen into the group's finances. (Ottawa Citizen) |
United Way chair fined for Livent misconduct TORONTO - The head of the United Way in Canada and two other auditors face fines and legal costs totalling $1.55 million for professional misconduct in the Livent Inc. accounting scandal. (Toronto Star) |
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Breast cancer fundraising walk axed WINNIPEG - The CancerCare Manitoba Foundation is halting the Weekend to End Breast Cancer - one of its largest annual fundraisers that garners about a third of all donations that fund cancer research, equipment and programs. In two years, the event raised $5.7 million. However, 43 per cent of the event's total went toward things like administration, food and shelter for participants. (Winnipeg Free Press) |
The presidency of the national Metis organization remains in limbo after an Ontario judge suspended the operations of its elected body. The presidency has been in dispute since July 31, when the Metis National Council board of governors ousted Clem Chartier, of Buffalo Narrows, and replaced him with the president of the British Columbia Metis, Bruce Dumont. (Saskatoon Star Phoenix) |
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UN turns blind eye to million dollar aid fraud UN - Tsunami reconstruction funds worth $500 million (US) are being lost to fraud and corruption because of the failure by the United Nations to implement its own anti-fraud measures. (SMH) |
Canada's coffers have been cheated of more than $1.4 billion by scams that provided taxpayers with inflated charitable receipts they used to reduce their income tax. (Toronto Star) |
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VANCOUVER - A nasty war of words broke out about an unusually large $170,000 donation made during the 2005 campaign to Vision mayoral candidate Jim Green from John Lefebvre, who made a fortune on an Internet money-transfer service for gamblers and gave much of it away to social causes, including the Dalai Lama's Vancouver Centre for Peace and Education and the David Suzuki Foundation. (Vancouver Province) |
TORONTO - Give $150 to save the life of a Canadian needing an organ transplant. That's the message being aggressively telemarketed to millions of homes nationwide by a Toronto-based charity called the Organ Donation and Transplant Association of Canada. Of the roughly $4 million the charity has told the federal Charities Directorate it raised in the last three years, the majority was spent on telemarketing, office expenses and other unknown items. (Toronto Star) |
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Good deeds no longer protection LONDON - Caught in the crossfire, executed in cold blood or simply hounded out of violent regions, aid workers seem more under fire than ever before, and their killers are rarely, if ever, brought to justice. (Reuters) |
Americans donated $295B in 2006 NEW YORK - Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year, setting a new record and besting the 2005 total that had been boosted by a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the Asian tsunami. (AP) |
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MIAMI - Created to fight poverty, the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust squandered millions of dollars on insider deals, pet projects and bad loans. (Miami Herald) |
Disaster charities breaking the rules OTTAWA - Most Canadian charities that provide disaster relief at home and abroad are breaking the rules, suggests a new probe by the Canada Revenue Agency. (CP) |
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TORONTO - A Toronto non-profit group wired more than $3-million to overseas bank accounts, some of them linked to the Tamil Tigers, before it was shut down by the government in June for alleged terrorist financing, says an RCMP report released yesterday. The report, marked "Secret" but unsealed by order of a Federal Court judge, provides the first detailed look at the banking activities of the World Tamil Movement (WTM), a Toronto-based group accused of bankrolling Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers guerrillas. (National Post) Tamils angry to see group on list Canada brands Tamil group as terrorist front Non-profit group added to terrorism list |
Tamil terror group's manual revealed Tamil Tigers operations manual Tamil movement held to account Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE Alleged terrorist financier once headed Vancouver non-profit Tigers use pressure to raise funds, police say Tamil alleged to have funnelled cash |
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For years, Canadian Khalid Awan boasted about his close relationship with one of the most powerful Sikh terrorists operating today. Last week, Awan was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a New York judge for financing a terrorist organization that might "murder, kidnap or maim a person outside of the United States." (Vancouver Sun) |
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Few Canadian charities audited OTTAWA - Fewer than 1% of charities are audited in Canada, despite a post-9/11 crackdown on terrorist financing, the Air India inquiry heard Thursday. University of Toronto law professor David Duff testified that the Canada Revenue Agency was auditing more charities in the mid-1990s when concerns arose because the terrorist Babbar Khalsa had been given tax-exempt status. (CanWest) |
Canada Revenue officials doing what they can Information on suspicious charities stalled for years, inquiry told Agency unclear how terror information used Millions in terrorist assets flowing free Tracking the funding of terror |
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Funding scandal claims minister TORONTO A scandal over $32 million in grants to multicultural groups has cost Ontario Immigration and Citizenship Minister Michael Colle his job and jolted Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government with an election just 11 weeks away. (Toronto Star) |
Ontario scraps troubled grant process Fundraiser for Colle links group that got 'slush fund' grants Colle aide's group tied to 'slush funds' |
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TORONTO - The wall of secrecy surrounding abuses in daycares has tumbled less than 24 hours after a Star investigation documented troubling problems in centres across Ontario. (Toronto Star) |
Website exposes dodgy daycares |
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TORONTO - The former campaign chair for two Toronto mayors faces fraud and bribery charges in connection with the misappropriation of federal government grants. (Toronto Star) |
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Mistrial declared in Muslim charity case DALLAS - The biggest terror-financing trial since Sept. 11 ended in confusion Monday, with no one convicted and many acquittals thrown out after three jurors took the rare step of disputing the verdict. |
Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development Islamic Association of Palestine Shutting down terrorist financial networks USA v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development documents |
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EDMONTON - A former senior bureaucrat in Alberta's addictions treatment agency has been formally charged for allegedly defrauding the province of more than $630,000. Police began a criminal investigation after Alberta's auditor general, Fred Dunn, found evidence suggesting Lloyd Carr diverted almost $635,000 over two years by setting up five fake contracts. (CBC) |
Alta. agency director probed for theft Public donations list would put rumours to rest Auditor reveals massive fraud at AADAC |
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America’s 25,000 cotton farmers receive subsidies totalling some $4B, allowing them to undercut their developing competitors. The subsidies were ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation three years ago, yet only 10 per cent have been dropped so far, and Washington still pays many times more in subsidies to these farmers than it gives in aid to Africa each year. As a result, world cotton prices are now at the lowest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. (Times online) |
Non-profit is lucrative for founder When he launched the first National Night Out in 1984, Matt A. Peskin envisioned an event in which people across America would turn on their lights and sit on their porches in a symbolic gesture to fight crime. His organization, the National Association of Town Watch, devoted about a third of its budget in 2005 to pay Peskin a $255,000 salary and $42,000 in benefits, according to the group's most recent tax filings. (Philadelphia Inquirer) RELATED: The NonProfit Times |
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The conclusions of the Canadian Federation of Students recently released report on Muslim students were dutifully reported by the CBC, the Toronto Star and a dozen other media outlets. Less attention was paid to how the report reached these conclusions, and who comprised this task force. (Sun Media) |
Missing: $2B in child-care funding OTTAWA - More than $2 billion in federal child-care funding has flowed into a virtual accountability void in the last three years. Officials in Ottawa have few clues as to how well the cash was spent by most provinces since 2004. Provincial reports are months or even years overdue - when they’re provided at all (CP) |
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WASHINGTON - The quarterly report by US auditors also warns that corruption abounds in the country, and that billions of dollars budgeted to the Iraqi government remains unspent. (CTV)MORE: 5 names in alleged Iraq contracting scam Auditors say billions wasted in Iraq |
Exotic dancers' 'stigma' too much for charity The Breast Cancer Society of Canada has rejected the offer of thousands of dollars from a fundraising group of exotic dancers in Vancouver. Exotic Dancers for Cancer holds an annual charity event in memory of a former dancer who lost her life to the disease. (CBC) |
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Toronto man faces charges in charity scam TORONTO - Toronto police say officers observed the man going door-to-door in the upscale Rosedale community on Monday, collecting money for a charity he called "Violence Against Kids." Detectives learned no such charity exists. (CTV) |
LOS ANGELES - Connie Rice knew it all al |
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