Charitable Planning

So you already have a charity but you are ready to take the next step.  Typically, smaller charities are focused on casinos and one-off gifts from donors.  Once legitimized, charities will generally want to set up more innovative or predictable methods of generating annual donations. Maybe you have donors that want to set up a donor advised fund. Perhaps you want to start accepting gifts of stocks or options, or you have questions around receipting. Maybe you want to set up a social impact loan to help achieve your charitable objectives. Any way you cut it, these are complicated concepts and you need a lawyer that understands the tax rules that govern charities in the Income Tax Act (Canada), the corporate laws that govern your specific type of not-for-profit entity (i.e. the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act or the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act), and, depending on the circumstances, you may also need a lawyer that understands corporate law. Also, as an Ontario based organization, you'll need someone that is aware of the rules in the Public Guardian and Trustee Act (Ontario) that govern your charity or NPO.

​

​

Unfortunately, this combination of skills is not are easy to find as you may think.  Most corporate and commercial lawyers will assist you with a simple incorporation (with varying qualities of bylaws), but will be unable to help you with many of the other elements of your organization.

​

​

If you are an Ontario based organization, we can help. Our lawyers have extensive experience structuring and advising on all of these concepts.  If you have questions that nobody else seems to be able to answer, we've probably seen it before and we'd love to help.

 

Contact us to speak to an experience charity and not-for-profit lawyer in Ontario if you think you might be ready to start you journey.