Protecting the money given to charity

The Canada Revenue Agency has provided a news releases assuring Canadians that they can be confident in their charitable giving. The CRA encourages donors to become more informed about charitable organizations by accessing resources on the CRA website to research registered charities before you donate.

“The Canada Revenue Agency works to support charitable giving in Canada by helping donors make informed choices about the charities they support, and warning Canadians about organizations that are not playing by the rules,” says Minister O'Connor.

Most of the approximately 83,000 charities registered in Canada abide by the tax laws. When non-compliance is suspected based on public complaints or the information provided on annual information returns, the CRA undertakes an audit. Last year, 847 charities were selected for audit and as a result the CRA revoked the charitable status of 27 organizations for serious infractions of the law. Many additional charities also lost their charitable status for failure to file their annual return.

The CRA Charities Listings is available at www.cra.gc.ca/donors. The site allows you to search for any charity to view its annual information returns and verify that the charity you wish to donate to is registered.