Governance for Canadian Charities and Non-Profits and their Boards of Directors
This 3-hour course, Governance for Canadian Charities and Non-Profits and their Boards of Directors, will provide participants with a better understanding of Canadian non-profit and registered charity governance.
Enroll in Course
After almost three decades of dealing with governance for Canadian registered charities and non-profits and their directors, Mark Blumberg has now created a course to help non-profits and charities understand governance. We hope that you find it helpful.
Governance for Canadian Charities and Non-Profits and their Boards of Directors
Non-profits and registered charities in Canada are very important for Canadian society on many levels. Registered charities have revenue of over $393 billion and non-profits have revenue of over $100 billion per year. These large amounts of revenue don’t give you a full appreciation of the importance of the non-profit and charity sector in dealing with some of the most important areas in Canadian society, including social assistance, education, environment, religion, health care, arts, etc..
Governance is not easy for registered charities and non-profits for many reasons, including that each non-profit or charity is different, and the governance approach has to meet the needs of the organization and the organization's regulatory requirements. Governance involves people, and people don’t always have a correct understanding of governance that is needed for a particular organization. Often, there is confusion over the difference between governance and management. As well, governance is not just about legal compliance but also having a culture of compliance that takes into account legal, ethical, practical, reputational issues and has good financial management and internal controls.
Increasingly, organizations are receiving a lot of stakeholder scrutiny. Funders, the media and public are going beyond legal compliance and criticizing charities and non-profits for questionable governance practices and even voluntary standards that the charity has agreed to but is not abiding by.
With the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA), the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA), and other significant corporate changes in other provinces over the last 15 years, most non-profits and charities will have or will need to make governance changes. What might have worked in the 1980s may not work today.
This course, Governance for Canadian Charities and Non-Profits and their Boards of Directors, will provide participants with a better understanding of non-profit and registered charity governance, including information on:
• Key documents
• What is Governance?
• Members, Directors and Officers
• Board Responsibilities – 7 Key Tasks
• Governance Gremlins
• Board Orientation
• Every organization is different when it comes to governance
• One-size-fits-all all governance is a disaster in the making
• Distinguishing between Governance and Management
• Distinguishing between Registered Charity and Non-Profits that are not charities
• What is a Non-Profit that is not a Registered Charity?
• What is a Registered Charity?
• Distinguishing Law / Ethics / Risk Management and Governance
• Ethics/Standards
• Trying to establish a culture of compliance
• Risk Management
• Misuse of Charity and NPO Resources
• Internal Controls
• Corporate Law and Compliance
• Conclusion
This course will be of interest to those involved with non-profits and charities in Canada, including Directors/Board Members, Fundraisers, Financial staff, Program staff, volunteers, Members, Funders and government regulators.
Your Instructor
Mark Blumberg is a lawyer at the law firm Blumbergs Professional Corporation (Blumbergs) in Toronto and works almost exclusively advising non-profits and registered charities on their work in Canada and abroad. Mark has written numerous articles, is a frequent speaker on legal issues involving charity and not-for-profit law. He is the editor of a blog, www.CanadianCharityLaw.ca, and created the largest portal of data on the Canadian charity sector, www.CharityData.ca Mark also edits www.SmartGiving.ca, which provides information on due diligence when selecting charities.
Mark is particularly interested in the regulation of non-profits and charities in Canada, philanthropy, transparency requirements for the voluntary sector, providing accessible information on regulatory issues, and the use of data to make more informed decisions on the charity sector.
Mark is quoted regularly in print media and frequently appears on radio and television on topics relating to philanthropy and the regulation of charities in Canada. Mark has also appeared on a number of occasions in front of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on topics such as charity regulation, transparency, accountability and tax incentives for philanthropy. Mark has testified at the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector, the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance and the House Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.
Mark has also made presentations to the Charities Directorate Annual All Staff Meeting as well the Annual Divisional Staff Meeting of the Determinations Section of Charities Directorate. Mark presented to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) when the FATF conducted an evaluation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism in Canada in 2015.
Mark sat for 4 years on the Charities Directorate Technical Issues Working Group, which is a bi-annual meeting between the Charities Directorate, the Department of Finance and the charity sector to discuss technical and policy issues pertaining to registered charities and the Income Tax Act (Canada). Mark is a member of the Exempt Organizations Committee of the American Bar Association. Mark spent 6 years on the Advisory Committee for the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (MPNL) at Carleton University. Mark is on the Board of the Canadian Charity Law Association.
Mark has co-authored 20 Questions Directors of Not-for-Profit Organizations Should Ask About Mergers (Published by CPA Canada) and co-wrote a chapter on International Trends in Government-Nonprofit Relations: Constancy, Change, and Contradictions in Non-profits and Government: Collaboration and Conflict in Non-profits and government: collaboration and conflict (Edited by Elizabeth T Boris and C Eugene Steuerle)
Mark frequently lectures to various industry and professional groups on charity compliance issues including the Chartered Professional Accountants Canada (CPA Canada), as well as CPA Ontario, BC and Alberta, the Canadian Bar Association, Ontario Bar Association, Canadian Association of Gift Planners, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Ontario Hospital Association, Ontario Non-profit Network, and many other organizations.
Mark has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto, an LLB from the University of British Columbia and an LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School in Tax Law.