Ever wondered what happens to your charitable donations? Do you know what percentage of your charity dollars actually ends up benefitting that charity?
It would be normal to expect that charities have administrative costs that must come out of the dollars collected. But do you know what these costs are? What percentage of money collected goes to the charity? Did you know for example that according to a report prepared by the CBC some charities hire external fund raisers who are paid for their services out of the money collected? And that where charities use external fundraisers in many cases the costs for these services can be anywhere between 35% and 70% of the money raised
There are over 85,000 charities registered with the Canada Revenue Agency. All registered charities are listed in the CRA database along with their recent tax returns. Information contained in the database is a good source of information on what happens to the money collected.
If you want to know more about the charity you support, the CBC report could be a good starting point. You can access this report by clicking the link below You will find a lot of useful information on how to select a charity along with links to other useful websites including a link to the CRA’s database.
