Welcome first-time donor!
We are glad you are considering making a gift of eligible securities to the CCCC Community Trust Fund (CTF) to direct the proceeds to go the charity or charities of your choice who cannot receive your gift currently as they do not have a brokerage account.
The most popular program is for donors to donate their securities to the CTF and then immediately have the CTF disburse the sale proceeds to the Canadian registered charity, or charities, of their choice. If you would like to make this type of gift, please select "Register to Give Donations for Immediate Disbursal".
If you would like information regarding the option to give a gift now and disburse the funds over an extended period of time, please select "Learn More About Setting up a Donor Advised Fund"
The option to give anonymously, if desired, can be arranged using either of the above services.
Register to Give Donations for Immediate Disbursal Learn More About Setting up a Donor Advised FundBelow are answers to the most popular questions raised by donors showing how our system works to benefit both donors and the charities donors wish to support.
- Q: Why should I give my securities as an in-kind gift and not just sell them and send the cash to a charity?
A: The Canadian Income Tax Act has a provision that provides enhanced tax relief (i.e., no tax on the capital gain) when eligible securities are sent as an in-kind gift from the donor’s broker account to a charity’s brokerage account. Cashing out the securities, instead, triggers the regular provision that 50% of the capital gain will be taxed. This chart shows an example of the tax advantage to making an in-kind gift of securities:
Cash Gift Gift-in-kind of Shares Sell the shares and donate the cash $8,000 Gift of shares instead $8,000 Less your original cost ($5,000) ($5,000) Capital gain $3,000 $3,000 Capital gain rate 50% 0% Reportable capital gain for tax purposes $1,500 $0 Assumed tax rate 45% 45% Tax on reportable capital gain $675 $0 Net cost of gift to you: Original cost $5,000 $5,000 plus Tax on capital gain $675 $0 minus Tax Credit ( $8,000 x 45% ) ($3,600) ($3,600) Net cost of your $8,000 gift $2,075 $1,400 - Q: What is the process of making my gift of securities?
A: These are the steps:
- To start, you will need to do a one-time account setup. You will be asked to provide some basic information, a valid email address, and set up your own personally chosen username and password.
- A confirmation email will be sent to you, and you will activate your account by following its instructions.
- After a successful account setup, you can log into your account here and fill in the details about your gift. At the end, an instruction sheet and two forms will be automatically generated that you can print out for your signature:
- The instruction sheet will let you know how to get your broker involved in making your gift happen, along with the other needed steps involving these two forms.
- Authorization to Transfer Publicly Traded Securities to CCCC, and
- Request for Charity Beneficiary.
- Should you or your broker need any assistance or clarifications, we are always happy to help. Email ctf@cccc.org or call us at 519-669-5137 and ask to speak to the Community Trust Fund representative.
- Q: Which securities are eligible for the favourable tax treatment?
A: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) provides a detailed answer to this here: Gifts of publicly traded shares and stock options. CRA also explains how to report your gift in your tax filing, so you get the favourable tax treatment.
- Q: How is the tax receipt amount determined?
A: In accordance with the Income Tax Act requirements, the CTF uses the fair market value of the securities based on the closing market price on the date they are received in the CCCC brokerage account.
- Q: What charities can I assign as beneficiaries of my gift of securities?
A: The Income Tax Act requires they must be a “qualified donee”. The most common are Canadian registered charities such as churches, missions, relief and development ministries, and so on. CRA provides the full listing here: List of charities and other qualified donees. The Income Tax Act prohibits the CTF to distribute money to non-qualified donees.
- Q: Where can I go to determine if the charity I want to support is a qualified donee and to get their Business Number (BN) required for the Authorization to Transfer Publicly Traded Securities to CCCC form?
A: CRA provides this resource to answer this question here: List of Charities. Also, our online system allows you to look this up when entering information for the transfer form.
- Q: How do the charities I want to support get their money from this gift of securities?
A: The CTF sells the securities, pays the brokerage fees, and assesses an administration fee. The net cash gets disbursed to the charities you have listed on the Request for Charity Beneficiary form.
- Q: What is CCCC’s facilitation fee?
A: Our fee structure is set up based on historical patterns to provide sufficient funding to maintain our service to donors, CCCC Members, and other qualified donees and is the greater of:
- The Minimum Fee ($275 if at least one charity beneficiary is a CCCC Member, $500 if not.*)
- Or a 1% facilitation fee plus $25 per cheque issued to the donor designated charity beneficiaries.
* Should the Minimum Fee represent a significant portion of the securities’ value, the CTF has the discretion to reduce it on a case-by-case basis.
The facilitation fee is deducted from the sale’s net settlement amount, after brokerage fees have been paid, and before the funds are sent to the charity beneficiaries.
The facilitation fee is subject to change at the discretion of the CTF Trustees.
- Q: It is getting close to year-end, and I’d like to get a donation receipt for the current year for my gift of securities. How can I ensure this happens?
A: A gift of securities is called a “push” transaction, where your broker needs to push your gift of securities into the CTF’s brokerage account. This takes a certain amount of time and possibly up to a month for certain mutual funds. So, it’s important to talk to your broker about when the transfer form needs to be provided to them so they can have your gift reach the CTF account on, or before, December 31. Under the Income Tax Act receipting rules, there can be no exceptions. Securities received after December 31 will have the receipt issued for the following year.
- Q: I’d like to know a bit more about…?
A: We’re happy to answer. Contact us at ctf@cccc.org or 519-669-5137.
