You want some of your dollars to make a difference, and you’ve found a charity that you want to support; the next step is to do some homework to ensure that it makes the most of your money
By Olev Edur
According to the 2026 edition of Individual Income Tax Return Statistics from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Canadian seniors (those of us aged 65 or older) donated almost $6.7 billion to charities during the 2024 taxation year. That’s more than half of all the donations ($13.28 billion) made by individual tax filers that year. And that doesn’t include the money (and time) given to as many as an estimated 100,000 unregistered non-profits such as libraries, community groups, and kid’s sports teams or the countless small sums handed to needy people or groups but unclaimed on tax returns.
That’s a heck of a lot of money no matter how you slice it, but do you really know how much good all those donations are doing? How do you find out? This is important, especially when it comes to considering any new recipients for your generosity. It may be easier locally—you can see what you’re getting—but beyond that, verification can take some effort.
You may have your own favourite charities, local or otherwise, and be familiar and happy with their efforts. That’s fine, but when looking for new names, you must first ensure that they have some legitimacy and aren’t just another of the proliferating and increasingly sophisticated scams that have been plaguing us all for so many years now. You also probably want to know that a charity is reasonably effective at what it professes to be doing.
CRA Listings
The first step in any search should be to visit the Canadian government’s list of some 86,000 registered charities and other qualified donees. Registration here bestows credibility and, of course, eligibility for some generous CRA tax credits.
If you already have some names to check, the government list provides a “quick view” of general information, as well as more detailed financial and other information, for each listing. This information is taken from T3010 Registered Charity Information Returns (a requirement for registration) going back as far as five fiscal years.
If you’re still looking for names, you can do a broader search for all charities in a wide variety of parameters such as field of operation (e.g., “food banks” or “environment”) or geography, including Canadian cities or towns.
Separate CRA listings are provided for those “other qualified donees”. These can include amateur athletic associations, journalism organizations, municipal or public bodies, and even certain foreign universities.
Delving Deeper
While the CRA listings provide a lot of info, it’s not necessarily in a readily digestible format. And as far as the information itself goes, Mark Blumberg, a charity lawyer at the Toronto-based Blumbergs Professional Corporation, urges a degree of caution: “This is self-reported information, and it’s not always totally accurate. There may be a lot of truth in it, but it may not tell the whole story.”
Blumberg cites examples in which a charity may understate its expenses to make them seem more efficient that more of their donated dollars go to the cause rather than to operating costs. Other charities may exaggerate their impact—after all, who’s to know? And as noted above, there are undoubtedly some scams, even in those (again, self-reported) CRA listings.
Blumbergs Professional Corporation has its own listings website: Charitydata.ca. Blumberg says that it contains almost all the charities listed on the CRA website and is somewhat easier to navigate. While it contains more information in a more palatable format, Blumberg acknowledges that it, too, is dependent on those T3010 forms for much of its content. “You still need to use the CRA site,” he says, adding that you should also get more information from other sources.
One such source is the Toronto-based Charity Intelligence, which does its own research of charities and presents the findings in a straightforward way, with star ratings and Top Ten lists. “We see ourselves as research analysts who help Canadian donors give better,” says Greg Thomson, director of research at Charity Intelligence (CI), in one of its website articles.
“Some charities create a lot of change with the donations given to them,” Thomson adds. “Others have almost nothing to show for the money coming from donors. Our Top Ten have the highest measurable demonstrated impact… [and] deliver average returns of roughly seven dollars for every dollar donated, compared with overall average charity returns of only about 1.5 dollars.”
The drawback with CI, however, is that although it provides very useful information in a highly readable format, it covers only 800-plus charities at present, so CI’s universe is much more limited than that provided by the CRA or Charitydata. “You can look elsewhere, too,” Blumberg says. “Google is a great resource, providing a lot of information. Look on social media; most charities have a presence there. Look at their websites if they have one. Does what they say make sense?”
A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)
Blumberg’s suggestions are echoed on the website of the registered charity Givewise (givewise.ca): “Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn often provide insights into the activities of charities. Are they consistently posting authentic content?” The site adds, however, that smaller charities may lack the budget for a full-time social media team.
“Therefore, it’s recommended that you reach out to the organization to see how you can stay informed
and connected.”
Givewise is a provider of DAFS, which are charitable-giving accounts into which you can put cash or other assets such as stocks and mutual funds. We’ll cover these in more detail in a future issue, but in a nutshell, DAF providers, and there are many, are themselves registered charities, managing a single fund for you and helping you choose whichever charities you want within it. They provide reports and financial statements, and you need deal with just a single entity and issue just a single cheque to cover all your donations.
There may be a relatively small fee (perhaps a fraction of a per cent of total funds), or it may in some cases be free. CanadaHelps is another DAF provider; its website promises: “No more hunting down your tax receipts, or trying to remember how you donated! Easily—all for free in your CanadaHelps account. Plus, with eight-plus ways to give to your favourite charities, you can give how you want, all in one place.”
Closer to Home
One good way you can give without concern is by going local, where you can actually see the impact of your largesse. Generally, these are smaller organizations and may not even appear in any listings. As noted on the Givewise website: “If you cannot find the charity you are looking for… it does not necessarily mean the charity is not doing good work, as not all charities are included, especially smaller ones.”
Givewise adds: “Reaching out to smaller charities allows you to connect with the founder, employees, or volunteers first-hand. It’s a wonderful opportunity to make connections and witness the impact your donations can make.”
“If you give to your local church, you may or may not get a tax credit, but you know what they’re doing,” Blumberg says. “Small can be good or bad, but if it’s local, you can tell. There are probably lots of good groups in your community, so volunteer—that’s one of the best things you can do. That way you can meet all the people and see first-hand what they’re doing.”
