Overview
The role of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is to register qualifying organizations as charities under the Income Tax Act, to give technical advice on operating as a charity, and to handle audit and compliance activities.
The Charities Partnership and Outreach Program is designed to provide funding to registered charities and non-profit organizations serving the charitable sector in Canada to assist in developing and delivering innovative compliance-related education and training projects to charities.
Funding under this program is limited to $500,000 per project, per year (April 1 to March 31), with multi-year projects being limited to a maximum of three years. Due to program budget limitations, not all eligible projects may be funded.
Charities Partnership and Outreach Program objectives
The overall objective of the program is to increase compliance in the charitable sector with relevant parts of the Income Tax Act. The main objectives of the program are:
- to raise awareness within the charitable sector of regulatory obligations under the Income Tax Act;
- to increase the capacity of the charitable sector to meet regulatory compliance requirements in an ongoing fashion; and
- to improve the capacity of the charitable sector to develop and deliver manageable compliance-based education and training solutions.
Funding priorities
The funding priority for the initial call for proposals launched in 2005 was the Registered Charity Information Return (Form T3010A). Projects that educated and informed registered charities about Form T3010A, including the requirement to file a return, how to properly complete a return, and when to submit a completed return, were considered for funding.
For the second call for proposals launched in October 2006, two funding priorities were identified, namely:
- conducting foreign activities in compliance with a charity's obligations under the Income Tax Act; and
- fundraising, receipting, and maintaining books and records in compliance with a charity's obligations under the Income Tax Act.
For more information about selected organizations and their projects, as well as general information about the Charities Outreach and Partnership Program, visit the CRA's Charities and Giving Web site at www.cra.gc.ca/charities, or call 1-800-267-2384.