Curtis Towns
Head of Finance and Accreditation
What's Inside:
As the year comes to a close and a new one begins, it’s a natural time for reflection and planning in ministry. This season offers a chance to celebrate accomplishments, assess challenges, and refocus on serving our communities with renewed purpose. Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV) reminds us, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” This issue of the CCCC Bulletin centers on Year-End Evaluation and Reflection, introducing resources designed to strengthen your ministry's effectiveness and stewardship.
Brent Davis's new article, Evaluation: Ensuring Program Effectiveness, provides valuable strategies for measuring impact and aligning programs with your mission. Whether you’re navigating CRA guidelines, reviewing donor contributions, or assessing ministry outcomes, this resource equips you with tools to enhance transparency, accountability, and mission alignment.
We’ve also included the Records Retention Reference Table, to remind members of this practical guide to document retention for Canadian charities, and newly revised Gifting and Receipting Resources. These resources simplify complex regulations, providing actionable guidance to help you steward gifts and maintain compliance with confidence.
The charitable sector updates include the opening of Canada Summer Jobs applications for 2025. To help you navigate this funding opportunity, we’ve summarized key changes and requirements in this year’s Applicant Guide. Additionally, our Quick Picks this month highlight the socio-economic contributions of religious congregations, a victory for employers regarding termination clauses, and proposed updates to Alberta's public-sector privacy laws.
Meanwhile, conversations in The Green explore topics such as donor confidentiality, managing donation platform fees, and tips for handling pre-authorized debit and credit card updates. These discussions offer practical insights from fellow ministry leaders navigating similar challenges.
As you reflect on 2024 and prepare for the opportunities and challenges of 2025, we hope these resources and conversations inspire and equip you for faithful service in the year ahead. Thank you for being a valued part of the CCCC community.
Evaluation: Ensuring Program Effectiveness
Evaluation: Ensuring Program Effectiveness by Brent Davis outlines key principles for Canadian charities to measure and enhance program impact. It explores defining objectives, establishing baselines, fostering relationships, and engaging external evaluators to ensure programs align with organizational missions. Davis shares examples, including how evaluation insights from disaster recovery programs transformed strategies to better serve communities. By adopting these evaluation strategies, your charity can improve transparency, accountability, and mission alignment.
Read moreRecords Retention Reference Table
The Records Retention Reference Table offers a concise and practical guide to document retention for charities. It outlines required retention periods for various records—such as seven years for payroll documents and permanent storage for governance records—ensuring compliance with Canada Revenue Agency guidelines. The table also includes helpful links to HR regulations for each province, making it a valuable resource for navigating employment standards. With practical tips, like retaining duplicate receipts longer to accommodate donor needs, this tool supports effective record-keeping and operational clarity. Navigate to this resource to refresh your understanding of documentation guidelines.
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Gifting and Receipting Resources (2024)
CCCC’s newly revised Gifting and Receipting resources provide practical, comprehensive guidance for Canadian charities navigating the complexities of charitable giving under the Income Tax Act. Designed for Christian charity leaders, financial officers, and administrators, these resources, developed by Curtis Towns and Nick Lall, offer step-by-step instructions and detailed examples to ensure gifts are managed and receipts are issued with confidence and compliance.
This collection includes guidance on determining fair market value, applying split receipting principles, and managing restricted gifts. It also addresses common scenarios such as receipting for year-end gifts, love offerings, and gifts of benevolence. With templates, FAQs, and real-world examples, these resources simplify complex issues while ensuring alignment with CRA requirements through legal references.
What's New in the Knowledge Base?
Keep up to date with the evolving features and content of the CCCC Knowledge Base. Here, we highlight the most significant changes and new resources we've introduced. This page also serves as a record of our ongoing enhancements in technology, remote work, collaboration, and information sharing. Not sure if you've missed something? Click through CCCC Knowledge Base Development History to view a chronological history of the newest information and tools.
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CCCC Community Trust Fund
Keep the Community Trust Fund (CTF) top of mind during your year-end donor conversations! The CCCC CTF is a streamlined solution for donors looking to support their favorite Canadian charities through gifts of publicly traded securities or Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs). Designed with simplicity and efficiency in mind, the CTF makes it easy for individuals to make impactful contributions while enjoying significant tax advantages.
Donors benefit from full tax receipts, reduced administrative burdens, and flexible options to manage their generosity. For charities, the CTF simplifies the receipt of securities, even for those with a brokerage account. All you have to do is receive the funds! Most importantly, if something gets stuck, we'll walk alongside your donor's team to ensure that the donation navigates the financial systems.
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Exploring Volunteer Rights – Wrongful Termination of Volunteer Status
Volunteers are essential to the charitable sector and play a large role in accomplishing many charities’ missions. Yet, while we maintain a high view of volunteerism, we don’t often think of what rights volunteers have under the law. A recent Ontario court case examined a concept we typically see in the employment context: wrongful termination of volunteer status and when it may arise in a charitable organization.
Canada Summer Jobs 2025 Overview
Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) applications for 2025 are open. Applications are due December 19, 2024. As always, charity leaders will need to make up their own minds as to whether they are comfortable with the terms and conditions attached to CSJ funding. To help you decide, we've read the requirements for 2025 as set out in the Applicant Guide and the Articles of Agreement and have summarized what's the same and what's new.
Quick Picks
CCCC staff are constantly reading news, reports, and other resources to stay on top of developments in the charitable sector. We think you'll find these picks helpful!
- Canadian religious congregations make more than $16B net-positive socio-economic contribution.
- Proposed changes to Alberta public-sector privacy and access to information laws.
- At last! Employers score a much-needed victory in the ongoing battle over termination clauses.
Events
Gifting and Receipting for Charities Webinar
December 11, 2024 | 2:00 pm ET
Join our Gifting and Receipting for Charities Webinar on December 11, 2024, at 2:00 PM ET. Refresh with insights from Nick Lall and Curtis Towns, on both the basics of gifting and receipting and more complex gifting scenarios. Register early to secure your spot and bring your questions for the Q&A session!
Other Notable Upcoming Events
January 15, 2025, 2:00 pm ET | Benevolence Information Session
Are you responsible for the benevolence ministry within your ministry? Or are you responsible for some of your organization's bookkeeping and receipting practices and wonder how benevolence-related gifts and expenses should be handled? We warmly invite you to join us in our upcoming webinar, “Benevolence.” Be sure to register and reserve your spot.
Congratulations to Our Accredited Members!
Congratulations to the following Accredited Members who have recently participated in an Accreditation Review and demonstrated their ongoing commitment to CCCC Accreditation standards: Galcom International Inc.! We are proud to have you as part of our Accredited Member community!
To find out more about CCCC Accreditation and our Accredited members, visit giveconfidently.ca.
Lead Pastor & Donation Information
Review a thoughtful discussion that explores how much information a lead pastor should know about church donors. Green members discuss the pros and cons of limiting information, and share their own boundaries with information sharing. While legislative considerations play a role, ministry priorities are equally important. Take some time to join the conversation and share your own insights on this topic.
Read moreOnline Donation Processing Fees
Most online donation platforms charge processing fees for donations. Green members share their standard operating procedures for managing these fees and compare the benefits offered by different platforms. If you have insights or strategies to contribute, join the discussion and share your ideas.
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PAD & Credit Card Payment Security
This discussion focuses on managing pre-authorized debit payments, which have become a routine administrative process for many charities. It includes tips on separating authorization forms and handling void cheques or banking information as part of record-keeping. Additionally, the discussion touches on managing credit card information and how organizations handle updates to credit cards for regular donations. If you have a system that works well or ideas to share, feel free to join the conversation and contribute your insights.
Read moreServices
A Pro When You Need One
The professionals listed in our Professional Associates Directory provide services to charities and practice in four general areas: law, accounting, insurance, and consulting.
Contact Details
Canadian Centre for Christian Charities
PO Box 335 STN Waterloo
Waterloo, ON N2J 4A4
(519) 669-5137
