The Charity Capacity Gap
Canada’s 85,896 registered charities have wide-ranging capacity, but these variations are often underappreciated. Estate donors – and their professional advisors – often focus on cause and tax status, but ignore organizational health indicators like history, funding, staffing, and governance. What should estate donors look for in a charity?
Charitable Gifts with Benefits
The common law of charity defines a gift as property that is “freely given without consideration”. That is, a transfer without any expectation of getting something back. It’s an ideal for giving, which often gets tattered and torn in the real world. It has always been so.
Too Many Charities?
Does Canada have too many registered charities chasing too few dollars? This is a complaint that is often heard. There is simply too much competition and not enough entities with scale that are effective. Or so goes the narrative.
A Tech Response to Crisis
There has been a lot of handwringing about the coming charity apocalypse. Canadian charities are facing the most challenging operating environment in at least 80 years. But in any crisis there is opportunity and help. The greatest opportunity for fundraising charities lies, not surprisingly, in online technology.
Charity Armageddon
Chicken Little thought the sky was falling. From the beginning of the pandemic last winter, the doomsayers predicted that the charitable sector would be hit especially hard. We’d see mass closures and bankruptcies. But when and how? Is COVID-19 an acorn or a harbinger of charity armageddon?