General/About CanadaHelps

What is CanadaHelps?

CanadaHelps is a not-for-profit charity portal and a registered public foundation (BN 896568417RR0001) that seeks to promote and facilitate philanthropy through online giving. We operate this website (www.canadahelps.org) that allows donors to make online credit card donations to the approximately 80,000 registered charities in Canada. It also allows charities to receive online credit card donations without the expense of setting up their own secure donations site.

My charity is listed on the site! How did we get on there?

We list all of the approximately 80,000 registered charities in Canada. CanadaHelps uses the public list of registered Canadian charities provided by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to provide the basic details on all of the charities listed. Once you are registered with us you will be issued a username and password allowing you to update and add to your profile information, download donor details, and add the "Donate Now" button to your own website.

How long has CanadaHelps been around?

CanadaHelps was founded in 2000. Together with a diverse group of volunteers, a committed Board of Advisors and Directors, and an outstanding staff, CanadaHelps has gained the support of individuals and organizations in the charitable and corporate sectors and established CanadaHelps as a leader in Canadian e-philanthropy.

How much does it cost?

All donations received through CanadaHelps are assessed a 3% transaction charge. This flat 3% will be deducted from the donation before being disbursed to your charity, and covers all aspects of the transaction, including the credit card merchant rate, credit card transaction charge, reconciliation and disbursement-related costs. There are no monthly charges or set-up/registration costs; only the amount assessed from a donation. The 3% is a modest charge for the service that CanadaHelps provides to Canadian donors and the charities they support. Any donation made by a Workplace Campaign will not have fees assessed.

Who supports CanadaHelps?

CanadaHelps appreciates the financial support of a number of Canada's most respected companies and foundations including Bell Canada, Bank of Montreal, CIBC, The Muttart Foundation, Ernst & Young, and Hewlett Packard. CanadaHelps receives in-kind support from Brookfield, Q9 Networks, Microsoft and others. Individual donors also support our work.

Does CanadaHelps.org screen the charities it lists?

CanadaHelps lists every charity approved by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the charity regulator in Canada.

Does CanadaHelps make any money from donations or other services?

The fees assessed from donation go towards credit card merchant fees, transaction charges, and disbursement costs. CanadaHelps gains no material revenue from any donation made to a charity.

Can my charity be removed from the CanadaHelps website?

Yes. All that is required to be de-listed from the site is written notice (by hardcopy or email), stating BN, asking to be removed. We require one business day to remove a charity from the site. We also remove charities that misuse our services. Please note that there is a $25 re-listing administration fee should you wish to be added back on.

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Registering with CanadaHelps

How do I register with you?

The CanadaHelps charity registration process involves the following steps:

1. Complete the online agreement: http://www.CanadaHelps.org/RegisterCharity/RCRegister.aspx .
2. Submit your banking details.

Once you have completed the online agreement, you will be asked to download a Banking Information Form to fill out and send to us along with a copy of a void cheque.

Before you start, please ensure that you have read the Charity Information Package: http://www.CanadaHelps/CharityInfoPack.aspx , and understand the terms of the CanadaHelps website. Please check to make sure your charity isn't already registered with CanadaHelps.

Can I register if my organization is not a Canadian charity - If we are based in a different country?

No. CanadaHelps lists only the organizations registered with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Some of these organizations may use their funds abroad, depending on the nature of their activities.

Can I register my non-profit organization if we're not a registered charity?

No. CanadaHelps lists only the organizations registered with the Canada Revenue Agency and have a charitable business number (BN).

How much does it cost?

There are no monthly charges or set-up/registration costs; only the amount assessed from a donation. All donations received through CanadaHelps are assessed a 3% transaction charge. This flat 3% will be deducted from the donation before being disbursed to your charity, and covers all aspects of the transaction, including the credit card merchant rate, credit card transaction charge, reconciliation and disbursement-related costs. Any donation made by a Workplace Campaign will not have fees assessed.

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Donation Questions

How will I know a donation has come in for my charity?

Once you are registered, the CanadaHelps system sends automatic emails to you at every step of the donation process. The minute a donation has been made on the site for you, we'll send you an email advising of the donation, and will suggest you log into the site to access the donor information. Once we've sent the money to your bank account by Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), we'll send you another email letting you know you should expect to see a deposit from CanadaHelps. The CanadaHelps website is available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so you can access detailed donation records any time that is convenient to you.

Can a donor make a monthly donation to my charity?

Yes, but your charity must be registered with CanadaHelps. Each donor that wishes to schedule a monthly gift to your charity will log into their MyCanadaHelps account, and set up a schedule for their monthly gifts. Your charity will be notified when the first donation pledge has been fulfilled, and will be able to recognize this gift as a recurring pledge, via the emails and reports we send you.

Can donors make an anonymous donation?

Yes. All that is required is that the donor checks the appropriate box when prompted and anonymity is guaranteed. This means that you will not receive any personal information about the donor, but will have a record of a donation being made. You will see ANON in the donor information fields rather than contact information. We choose to respect donors' requests to remain anonymous and will not send you this donor's contact information.

I see no contact information, not even ANON in the donor information fields - why?

This happens when someone spends a Give the Gift of Giving™ Charity Gift Card and chooses your organization to send their gift card funds to.

How do donors find my charity on CanadaHelps?

Donors are able to search for charities using our search engine, or through the placement of a 'Donate Now!' button on your own website. Once registered, you can add keywords to your profile to make your organization easier to find for donors, and include your organization under different search categories.

Who issues the donor a tax receipt, and how is it sent?

CanadaHelps issues the tax receipt - all you have to do is donor recognition and thanks. CanadaHelps uses it's own charitable business number for receipting purposes. The receipt clearly indicates the charity the donation was designated for and the amount donated. Within minutes of making the donation, the donor will receive the electronic tax receipt emailed to them. The donor can then save and print this receipt at any time to use for income tax purposes. As per Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) regulations, the official receipt is in an unalterable PDF format. Your charity cannot issue a receipt to the donor.

What donor information does CanadaHelps collect and how is it used?

The CanadaHelps donation system collects the donor's name, e-mail address, mailing address, and credit card information. Once a donation is made, the donor information (except for credit card information) is available to your charity and only to your charity, unless the donor chooses to remain anonymous. We keep this same donor information on file only to satisfy our own auditing requirements. CanadaHelps does not sell or trade donor information. For more information about donor privacy, please read our privacy statement here: http://www.canadahelps.org/InfoPages/PrivacyHome.aspx .

A donor contacted me because they lost their receipt - what should I do?

Let us know the donor's name and date of the donation - we'll forward you the receipt to send on to your donor.

How do I obtain the information on the donors that use CanadaHelps?

When you register with us, we'll issue you a unique username and password that you will use to log into the CanadaHelps website and download a file of donation information. While this file is in CSV format (a format easily read by any data software package), it is best opened in Microsoft Excel. From there, you can manipulate the data to meet your needs. You also have access to web-based reports that you can print and save.

How do we account for the donations made through CanadaHelps to our charity?

Donations made to your charity through CanadaHelps should be marked as donations from another charity. Treat these donations as you would funds from another funding body, such as the United Way or a grantmaking foundation. CanadaHelps does not require tax receipts for these donations. Many fundraising software packages allow you to designate "hard" credits and "soft" credits. If you must receipt for the donations made to you through CanadaHelps, the "soft" credit (or acknowledgement) would go to the donor (including donation amount), and the "hard" credit (or receipt) would be issued to CanadaHelps (using the "disbursed amount" figure). Our data download files can be imported into any software package.

What are workplace donations, I see this section in my MyCharity account?

CanadaHelps is partnered with U.S.-based company CreateHope to create and manage Canadian workplace giving programs. Corporations wishing to create online corporate giving solutions should contact them at http://www.CreateHope.com.

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Give the Gift of Giving™ Charity Gift Cards

What are Charity Gift Cards?

The CanadaHelps Give the Gift of Giving™ Charity Gift Card program is a gift card service that allows donors to give a charitable donation to friends and family. Donors purchase a gift card of a certain amount, and the gift recipient chooses which charity receives the donation amount. Gift cards are emailed out to recipients or printed out to be given directly.

Can I pre-fill gift cards so they are spent on our charity?

No - the fun of receiving a Charity Gift Card is choosing which charity the gift goes to. Donors who would like to direct their gift to a particular charity are always able to make regular donations in honour of someone through CanadaHelps.

Will I be able to view donor information when someone redeems their Charity Gift Card at our organization?

Gift Cards are redeemed by the recipient, not the donor (the person who bought the Gift Card), and we do not collect information about the recipient, so no information will be visible.

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Receipts/Acknowledging Donations

Who issues the donor a tax receipt, and how is it sent?

CanadaHelps issues the tax receipt - all you have to do is donor recognition and thanks. CanadaHelps uses its own charitable business number for receipting purposes. The receipt clearly indicates the charity the donation was designated for and the amount donated. Within minutes of making the donation, the donor will receive the electronic tax receipt emailed to them. The donor can then save and print this receipt at any time to use for income tax purposes. As per Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) regulations, the official receipt is in an unalterable PDF format. Your charity cannot issue a receipt to the donor.

Does CanadaHelps send a thank you to donors, or should we?

You should. CanadaHelps sends a tax receipt to all donors, but it is up to your organization to recognize the gift. By accessing the donor information online in your MyCharity account, you can add your CanadaHelps donors to your existing donor database and recognize them the way you would every other donor.

There's an In Memory/ In Honour Of card request for a donation - do you send out these cards or should we?

You should. As part of your donor recognition, you should fulfill any requests for recognition cards to be sent out. You will see all of the contact information you need to send out these cards.

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Processing Donations/ EFTs

How quickly do the donations get processed?

CanadaHelps processes donations electronically using a weekly EFT for charitable organization that have signed-up with us. We have a weekly settlement process (Sunday midnight through Sunday midnight) and funds are disbursed the next Friday or following Monday. Charities who have not yet provided CanadaHelps with their banking information require manual processing of their donations, and will be sent a cheque in the mail the middle of the following month, as cheques are batched per month.

What is Electronic Fund Transfer or EFT?

Electronic Fund Transfer allows us to electronically transmit donations directly to a charity's bank account weekly. Our settlement period runs from Sunday midnight to Sunday midnight. You will be notified by email of the date range of the EFT being processed. The fastest, most efficient method of payment is EFT, and works just like a bank-to-bank direct deposit. In order to become enabled for EFT direct deposits your charity will need to complete the online registration process. All charities registered with us receive funds by EFT.

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MyCharity account information

I don't know how to login to our MyCharity account - what do I do?

Please use the password reminder feature with the administrative email we have on file. Your username and password will be sent to you.

We need to change our administrative email on file with you, how?

Send us an email at info@canadahelps.org to make this request. Provide us with your charity name, business number (BN) and the email address you would like our emails directed to. We can only include one email address as the MyCharity admin email address.

Our bank account information has changed - how do we notify you?

Please fill out and send in the Change of Banking Information Form along with a void cheque or bank statement to verify the information. Use this link to download the form: https://www.canadahelps.org/downloads/change_CHO_banking_information_form.pdf .

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Security/Privacy

Is the site secure?

Yes. All information, including financials, personal identification and any other records, are securely protected behind multiple security measures. CanadaHelps has worked extensively with a number of major technology companies and online security experts to ensure that the site not only meets security requirements, but far exceeds them. Secure Socket Layers (SSL) are used to encrypt all information before sending it to our servers, using a 128-bit encryption level. Your information remains encrypted until it reaches our servers and, once there, it is protected by firewalls and the most effective security measures available.

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