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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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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
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
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
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)
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)
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. However, the court also said "it may be desirable" for Parliament to change the Income Tax Act through legislation, so that sports associations can become charities. (CanWest) JUDGMENT: AYSA v. Canada, 2007 SCC 42
MIAMI - Created to fight poverty, the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust squandered millions of dollars on insider deals, pet projects and bad loans. (Miami Herald) |
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)
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. And the groups running the Dasmesh Darbar 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. (Vancouver Sun) PREVIOUS: Sikh Terrorists
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)
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)
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
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
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) |
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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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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) |
Tigers use pressure to raise funds, police say MONTREAL - The Tamil Tigers terrorist group has been aggressively fundraising in Montreal using a sophisticated pre-authorized payment scheme and other methods to collect money from the city's 25,000-strong Tamil community, according to the RCMP. (National Post) 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. (AP) |
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 along. She knew that Hector Marroquin, veteran of the 18th Street Gang and a self-proclaimed anti-gang activist, was still in the life. (LA Weekly) PREVIOUS: Did City Hall fund a gun runner? Broken bridges |
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VANCOUVER - The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on the provincial government to immediately conduct an audit into the activities, procedures and management of the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation (GVHC). (CTF) |
VANCOUVER - According to the federal and provincial governments, in the past five years alone, Cook Studio received nearly $2 million to provide culinary and catering training to at-risk youth and people on income assistance. (Vancouver Sun) |
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TORONTO - A Toronto mega church whose spending practices were questioned in a recent Star investigation has hired a public relations firm specializing in "crisis communication" and launched an internal financial probe, a spokesman said yesterday. (Toronto Star) |
REGINA - Department of Community Resources officials first became aware of problems at the Oyate Safe House in July 2003 - just over two months after the ill-fated Regina facility opened its doors. (Regina Leader-Post) PREVIOUS: Oyate Safe House anything but safe Oyate House for teens riddled with problems |
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Fontaine downplays substance abuse report WINNIPEG - Phil Fontaine, Canada’s top First Nations leader may suggest it's racist to question how residential school survivors spend their compensation cheques, but the national agency created to help the victims has raised the very same worries. A recent report by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, based on interviews with more than 100 people who had received cheques under earlier compensation agreements, says recipients saw many negative impacts. (CP) Cheques in mail, huckster on phone Residential school payouts a magnet for fraud, drug dealers Cabinet approves $2B residential school deal |
Three families, three ways to heal No going home for kids sent to foster homes Defending the biggest legal pay day in Canadian history Regina lawyer's fee: up to $40M Dispute delays payments to victimized natives Lawyers set to be paid $80M in school abuse deal Cabinet approves $2B residential school deal Woodlands survivor calls cheque an insult BC Institutional Legacy Trust Fund |
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HAMILTON - The Morgan Firestone Foundation, which dispenses millions of dollars a year to Canadian charities, has launched an investigation into its own financial affairs. (Hamilton Spectator) MORE: Dowhaniuk's sudden resignation shocks his friends |
OTTAWA - Institutional conflicts of interest at Canadian universities are becoming such a concern with the growing commercialization of research that Ottawa's granting councils are bringing in rules to deal with the new possibility. (CanWest) |
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MADD disputes donations charge TORONTO - Top MADD Canada officials publicly challenged the results of a Toronto Star investigation into the charity's fundraising practices yesterday, saying the national group had federal clearance to blend fundraising and good works on its balance sheet. (Toronto Star) When failure to police yourself against crimes you haven't committed becomes a crime |
Fundraising furor sparks audit at MADD MADD's outspoken founder punished MADD's costs' anger charity's volunteers |
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EDMONTON - Alberta's biggest charity walk, which raises millions of dollars from thousands of participants each year, spends about 40 cents of every dollar on costs, according to information on its website. "One hundred per cent of all donations go directly to Alberta Cancer Foundation," according to the website. The foundation contracts the organization of the walk to a company called CauseForce Inc., but Linda Mickelson, CEO of the foundation, wouldn't say how much the firm charges, citing confidentiality. MORE: CauseForce CEO Brian Pendleton |
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Aid not reaching Afghan hospital OTTAWA - Armed with video clips taken just three weeks ago showing desperate hospital conditions and starving children, an international research group disputes Ottawa's claims that progress is being made in rebuilding southern Afghanistan. (Toronto Star) |
CIDA criticized for lack of accountability |
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Charities admit fundraising mess TORONTO - Two prominent Canadian charities – Sick Kids Foundation and World Vision Canada – have admitted to using a discredited fundraising technique and are moving swiftly to clean up their act. Each has been using commission-based techniques frowned upon in the charity world because they can lead to aggressive tactics. When canvassers get paid only if you donate, there's a tendency to embellish or even lie – anything to close the deal and sign up a donor to a monthly giving plan. (Toronto Star) |
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Great charities can be found, but it takes legwork Charity tax dodge entangles parish | |
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