Whew it’s been a while since we did a blog post but we’ve been doing incredibly important things. The biggest “thing” we’ve done is become a charity.
Why does being a Charity matter? The biggest reason is that we are now able to issue Charitable Donation receipts – so you, as a Canadian taxpayer, can get a deduction on your taxes when you donate to us. It also opens up a new set of donation opportunities that weren’t previously available.
Charities in Canada are very highly regulated – so becoming one wasn’t an easy process. We worked closely with a legal firm who specializes in registering charities. Approximately 60% of applications are declined every year by CRA, and we didn’t want to be one of those applications! Your bylaws need to be just right, the description of the charity and the purpose needs to make sense to CRA and a few more intricate details that that the lawyers took care of for us. There are also a specific set of governance requirements that we now must follow (and are happy to do so!).
We sent in our application in mid-January, and on March 31 we got amazing news – we were approved! We thought it would take 4-5 months to be approved, so we were thrilled when it came so fast.
Now that we were registered, we needed to figure out some of the rules around issuing those important receipts. Here’s where we’ve landed:
- Donation receipts will be issued for donations over $25
- We will issue donation receipts in January
- Donation receipts cannot be issued for additional shirt purchases (this is a CRA rule)*
- Donation receipts will not be issued for shirt donations**
* if you donate $15 to purchase a shirt, we are not allowed to issue a tax receipt. If you issue $15 for a shirt + $25 or more as a donation, we’ll issue a tax receipt for the additional $25+. This has the potential to be complicated, so we’re looking into some alternate options (ie updating our web store).
** We’ve thought long and hard about issuing receipts for shirt donations, but honestly it’s so complicated. We’d need a receipt for the shirts, need to ensure that the shirt on the receipt was actually what was donated…and we’re a small team. Think about it like this: if you donate food to a food bank, you don’t receive a receipt – but if you donate cash, you can get one. We’re modelling our methodology after that.
So how can you get a receipt? You have some options!
- Donate via our website – we’ve set up an online donation portal via Zeffy, where you can donate via credit card. We’ll review donations at the end of the year, and issue receipts for donations >$25 (that are not for shirt purchases) and send you a receipt. We love this method the most because we get 100% of your donation!
- Donate via Canada Helps – we’ve created a profile with CanadaHelps – you can get an instant tax receipt here. BUT, if you are looking to buy a shirt, your donation can’t buy a shirt…it’s for donations only. Note that Canada Helps deducts ~3%, which is ok…but Zeffy is cheaper for us.
- Donate via Benevity – Benevity is a great tool for employer donation matching programs. If your employer is connected with Benevity, check it out!
- Etransfer/Cash/Cheque – we don’t prefer these ways of donating, because it’s suuuuper hard to track donor information. But we do love donations! Etransfers don’t provide us with the required contact information to create a receipt. If this is your preferred way to donate, please send us an email (info@zippaport.ca) with your name/email/donation amount, and we’ll match it up.
Any donations received on January 19, 2023 or later are eligible for a tax receipt. We are super excited to offer this option and are thrilled to be able to do so!
Questions? Let us know!
~Julie