Charitable purposes
To be registered as a charity, an organization must have purposes that are exclusively charitable and conduct activities that further those purposes. An organization’s purposes are found in its governing documents, and outline its goals and objectives. Activities are the ways the organization furthers its purposes. The Canada Revenue Agency looks at both of these when deciding if it can register a charity.
For more information, see Guidance CG-019, How to draft purposes for charitable registration.
There are four broad categories of charitable purposes, as listed below.
Services and information
Relief of poverty
Description of the relief of poverty category with examples of purposes
Advancement of education
Description of the advancement of education category and examples of purposes
Advancement of religion
Description of the advancement of religion category with examples of purposes
Other purposes beneficial to the community
Description of the category with examples of purposes