We are a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). This allows us to issue income tax receipts for eligible donations. It’s important to know that not all donations are eligible for income tax receipts and that the CRA sets the guidelines for charity tax receipts. Charities are not required to give a receipt for donations, but if the gift is eligible, we make every effort to do so.

Anyone who has requested an annual receipt or is a member of create12: our monthly giving program can expect to receive their tax receipt near the beginning of February of the following year. Exceptions to this would be any in-kind tax receipts, which cannot be included with the annual receipt due to special requirements set by the CRA. All other receipts are sent soon after the donation is made, most often within two weeks. During extremely busy periods such as Christmas, delays can sometimes happen.

At this time, electronic tax receipts are only available if you make a donation through our website. Those receipts will be issued by CanadaHelps directly to the email address you provide at the time of the donation. For all other donations, tax receipts will be sent by regular mail to the address you provide. The option to issue any tax receipt by email is an option we’re working toward offering in the future.

This is up to you! By default, an income tax receipt would be issued shortly after receiving your donation. However, if you tell us that you’d prefer to receive a single receipt that includes the total of all your donations in a calendar year, we will typically issue that in the first week of February of the following year. Most of our donation appeals include a checkbox that allows you to choose to have an annual receipt. You may also contact us and make the request. An exception to this are donations made by members of our create12 monthly giving program. They always receive an annual receipt for their scheduled giving and any eligible donations made during the period they are a monthly donor.

For any eligible gift, the following information about the true donor and donation is required by the CRA to be on an official income tax receipt issued by the charity:

Full name of the donor (first and last name of an individual or registered business name)

Full address of the donor (home address of an individual, work address for businesses, organizations, etc.)

Date of the donation

The eligible amount of the donation — this may be calculated based on other conditions, such as whether the donor received anything in return for the donation.

Some examples of gifts that may be eligible are:

- Money (including gift cards not donated by the issuer)
- Securities
- Certified cultural property, capital property, or personal property
- Inventory
- Ecologically sensitive land

Some examples of gifts that are not usually eligible are:

- Contributions of services (time, skills, effort)
- Fees for events or programs
- Purchase of lottery tickets or merchandise
- Gift cards and certificates donated by the issuer
- Money collected from others
- Cause-related marketing

To be eligible for an official income tax receipt, the donation must be given freely to the charity. This means that contractual or court-ordered donations, for example, are not considered gifts, and an official income tax receipt will not be issued. There must also be a transfer of property to the charity. Additional conditions may affect whether the donation can be considered a gift eligible for an official tax receipt — so each transaction is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Unsure if your donation qualifies as a gift eligible for an official income tax receipt? Don't hesitate to get in touch with us, and we’ll let you know if your donation qualifies.

The CRA requires all receipts to be issued in the name of the true donor. Gifting of receipts is not allowed. In these circumstances, we would be pleased to issue an acknowledgement card to the recipient to notify them that a donation was made on their behalf. The tax receipt would be issued in your name.

Contact us and give us details about the donation you made. If the donation was eligible for a tax receipt, we can issue a replacement receipt. Please note that a replacement tax receipt cancels the receipt number of the one it’s replacing, so if the old receipt is located, it will no longer be valid for income tax purposes. We don’t issue duplicate receipts (i.e. receipts that have the same tax receipt number as a previous receipt). If you made your donation online via CanadaHelps, you can request a new receipt on CanadaHelps.org.

A non-monetary donation may be eligible for what is called an ‘in-kind’ tax receipt. There are several rules set by the CRA to guide when and how a tax receipt can be issued for in-kind donations, so they must be handled on a case-by-case basis. We encourage you to contact us to review your donation details before it is made. In-kind receipts require additional information to be issued, like the fair market value of the item(s), a description of the item(s) and an appraiser’s name and address, if applicable.

No. Sometimes workplaces hold raffles with a prize being a donation to the charity of the winner’s choice. In those cases, the winner is not the ‘true donor.’ If, however, the winner of the raffle prize is given the prize, the winner may voluntarily choose to give that prize to a charity.

Generally, no, an official income tax receipt cannot be issued in this scenario. The benefit received by the business is to their reputation, and their sales may have increased because of the promotion (collectively called an ‘advantage’). Since the CRA requires any advantage to be subtracted from an eligible donation, and the value of the advantage cannot be made clear, it’s not possible to issue a receipt. Often, the business chooses to claim the donation as an advertising expense instead of a charitable gift. The CRA webpage for cause-related marketing offers more guidance.

Any misuse of the right to issue official income tax receipts can lead to a variety of monetary penalties up to and including losing our charitable registration status. We always follow the rules for charities set by the CRA. Please get in touch with us before donating if you are concerned that an official income tax receipt may not be issued or will not be issued as you expect.

Yes. Someone at the workplace will need to collect the information required for an income tax receipt (full names, home addresses, and amount donated) and provide that information when the donation is made. It is important to ensure that the total of the funds collected match or exceed the total amount requested in tax receipts. The information collected would include a declaration that those listed are the true donors of the funds and request tax receipts.

We are usually not allowed to return a donor’s gift as outlined by the CRA rules for charities. Once the gift has been made, we must use the gift for our charitable purpose. There are exceptions. For instance, if we mistakenly charge a credit card twice for a single gift, we would refund the second transaction. In some circumstances where a request for a refund was made without cause, we can offer to transfer funds to another registered charity instead of refunding the gift.