Charities

Client Profile: Jean Tweed Centre

February 15th, 2019 by Iler Campbell

Jean Tweed was a woman who saw the need for a safe and supportive environment for women to address their substance use issues. She was a pioneer in advancing the cause of women-specific programming. In 1983, the Jean Tweed Centre was established in her honour.

Jean Tweed Centre has evolved and grown to become a leading community-based substance abuse, mental health and problem gambling agency for women in Ontario, offering a wide range of services including:

  • residential and day programming
  • out-patient programming including family and trauma counselling
  • individual counselling and continuing care
  • outreach services for women who are pregnant and parenting women, have concurrent mental health and substance use challenges or involved in the criminal justice system.
  • transition and supportive housing

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Client Profile: Tangled Art + Disability

January 22nd, 2019 by Iler Campbell
Cripping the Arts. January 24-26, 2019 at Harbourfront Centre. Cripping the Arts is co-hosted by British Counciel, Creative Users Projects, Tangled Art + Disability, Ryerson University and Harbourfront Centre.

Poster for Cripping the Arts: a three day festival of panel discussions, co-creative workshops, exhibitions and performances animating how Deaf and Disability arts and activism changes how we experience art and culture as well as the ways the sector contributes, and leads to, the achievements of disability rights and justice movements.

Tangled Art + Disability occupies an important space in  Toronto’s arts landscape, dedicated to enhancing opportunities for Deaf, Mad, and Disability-identified artists. Since 2003, it has produced annual festivals, gallery exhibitions, performances, and more, employing hundreds of artists and attracting audiences in the thousands from all parts of the community.

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Notice to Charities: Updated CRA Address for T3010 Registered Charity Information Returns

September 20th, 2018 by Iler Campbell

To our registered charity clients and other registered charities following our blog, please note that, as of October 8, 2018, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will have a new mailing address for filing Registered Charity Information Returns (T3010). Registered charities are required to submit these returns annually.

This updated address is only for filing T3010 returns. All other correspondence should continue to be submitted to the CRA at its Ottawa address.

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Charities now free to engage in non-partisan political activities

July 20th, 2018 by Brian Iler

This article was first published on rabble.ca

Charities are now free to engage in non-partisan political activities.

That’s the explicit message of the Ontario Superior Court in its decision this week.

What a huge relief to those many charities that suffered through Stephen Harper’s politically motivated Canada Revenue Agency audits!

While Justin Trudeau promised reform, and suspended action on those audits, he has yet to deliver reform.

But the court did.

The application to the court was brought by a small charity, Canada Without Poverty, after Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) threatened to take away its charitable registration, alleging that virtually all of its activities involved political engagement.

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Think your waiver has you covered? It might not.

May 18th, 2018 by Elliot Fonarev

Chances are your organization has dealt with waivers if your services have the potential to create injury or liability to your clients or customers – for example, if you operate sports facilities or provide access to a physical space with potential hazards. If so, a recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on the topic of waivers may interest you. It highlights that documents that release liability should be drafted very specifically to make it clear which legal rights are being waived.

Continue reading “Think your waiver has you covered? It might not.”

Impact investing: What are charities able to do?

April 3rd, 2018 by Ted Hyland

This article was first published on rabble.ca

Are charities legally permitted to make impact investments with their funds? Yes, but, getting to “yes” is not straightforward, and depends on the circumstances.

Impact investing is the use (mainly, but not exclusively) of money to simultaneously realize a financial return and a public or social good. A 2016 survey published by the Responsible Investment Association in Canada reports that in 2015 more than $9.2 billion in assets under management were identified by the survey respondents as being impact investments. A 2017 report by the Global Impact Investing Network  reveals US$114 billion in impact investments worldwide in 2016. These investments are in sectors ranging from housing and energy to microfinance, education, and arts and culture. The investment instruments include debt (e.g., loans, bonds), equity (both private and public shareholdings or units in partnerships), and real assets (in other words, tangible assets such as real estate or commodities, rather than financial capital).

Increasingly, charities are looking at using their funds and other resources to contribute to positive social, economic, cultural and environmental change (“social impact”), as well as to obtain a financial return. But does the law permit them to do so? Continue reading “Impact investing: What are charities able to do?”