CharityFocus is a tool provided by Imagine Canada to promote transparency and accountability among Canada's 85,000 charities. It allows charities to share key information from their T3010 tax forms filed with the CRA, as well as additional details about their mission and impact. The presentation highlighted features like the T3010 QuickPrep tool, which helps charities accurately complete the form; and the ability to tell each charity's unique story through uploaded documents and impact reports. CharityFocus aims to increase public trust in the sector by providing easy access to financial and organizational information for all Canadian charities.

1. Passion and Transparency - yes
they do go together!
Imagine Canada’s Charity Focus
Program

2. WEBINAR REMINDERS
• You can hear us, but we can’t
hear you
• Turn up your computer’s volume
• For the best webinar
experience, close all other
applications
• Have questions? Type questions
in the Questions Log
• Webinar slides will be shared

3. TODAY’S PRESENTER
Diane M. Ellison
Special Advisor to the President and CEO
Imagine Canada

4. Telling Your Story:
How to use CharityFocus
Discussion with Partners of Canadahelps
October 16th, 2013
Presentation by Diane M. Ellison
Special Advisor to the President and CEO
www.charityfocus.ca

5. Today’s Agenda
o
o
o
o
Introduction and Objective
Background and History
About the Data
Key Features:
o The T3010 QuickPrep
o Side-by-Side View
o Telling your Organization’s Story
o Summary
o Some FAQs, and your Questions

6. Introduction and Objectives
• CharityFocus was designed as a one-stop source of information about
Canada’s 85,000 charities
• a tool provided by Imagine Canada to promote the transparency and
accountability of charities
• to increase public confidence in the sector as a whole
• not a “ranking system”
• charities can participate at no cost!

7. Background and History
• priority of CRA that charities voluntarily demonstrate their accountability
• Bill C-470
• Imagine Canada’s commitment to providing an “accountability portal” and
avoiding external regulation of sector
• similar to Guidestar portals in other countries
• original proposal submitted in 2009, CharityFocus launched in February
2012
• initial seed money provided by RBC Foundation, project funding from CRA
and additional sponsorship from TELUS, RBC Foundation and Cenovus
Energy

8. About the Data
• all data come from what your organization provided to the CRA
• publicly available
• Imagine Canada’s revenues as displayed on CharityFocus:

10. About the Data cont’d
• research identifies that in 2007 a substantial number of charities made
errors in their T3010 forms
• failing to allocate fundraising expenses, arithmetic errors, not fully
completing the form, incorrectly calculating their expenditures
• errors are a barrier to transparency:
– Out of compliancy
– Erode public confidence
•
so what can we do about it?

11. Key Features: T3010 QuickPrep
• improves quality of data submitted to CRA, and therefore improves
compliance
• sophisticated and secure
• same username and password as CharityFocus
• Judy Newman from Seeds of Diversity, after using the QuickPrep:
"Charity treasurers, say goodbye to your pencil and eraser! Now you can fill in
a charity T3010 return on your computer, just like you do for your personal
income tax, with the T3010 QuickPrep. It's safe, secure, and features
numerous prompts and reminders on each page to help you save time and
frustration."

13. Key Features: Side-by-Side View

14. Key Features: Telling your Story
• numbers alone don’t provide enough information
• enhance your organization’s profile with documents such as financial
statements, program brochures, impact reports and annual reports
• tell your story your way and keep supporters engaged in your work
• no self-proclaimed charity evaluator allows for this kind of context or
transparency

19. Summary
• your CharityFocus profiles provides important details about the value,
reach and impact of your organization
• a tool provided by Imagine Canada to promote the transparency and
accountability of charities
• the T3010 QuickPrep will save you time and prevent errors

20. Frequently Asked Questions
•
•
•
•
•
How often is CharityFocus updated?
Can I update multiple charities?
I see a mistake in my profile. How did that happen?
I’m trying to update my profile page but it’s not working. What’s wrong?
What’s the benefit of looking at multiple charities side by side?

21. Your Questions
Chat Pod: Use the pod to the right of the slides to type in
your question.
We’ll do our best to answer as many questions as we can at
the end of the presentation.

22. Thank you!
Charity Focus Program Manager:
Ms. Lisa Hartford
lhartford@imaginecanada.ca
www.charityfocus.ca

23. More Charity
Training

24. MYCHARITYCONNECTS
Educational and training opportunities
through MyCharityConnects
www.mycharityconnects.org

25. UPCOMING WEBINARS
Tuesday, October 29 @ 2pm
#GivingTuesday Ideas For Your Charity
Kirstin Beardsley, Director of Marketing & Community Engagement, CanadaHelps
Tuesday, November 5 @ 2pm
Team Up for Tuesday: 5 Steps to Awesome Corporate-Cause
Partnerships
Kate Olsen, VP of Strategic Partnerships, Network for Good
Tuesday, November 12 @ 2pm
Building a successful online campaign for #GivingTuesday
Simren Deogun, Senior Account Manager, Stephen Thomas
www.mycharityconnects.org/webinars

26. STAY IN TOUCH
communications@canadahelps.org
1-877-755-1595
@canadahelps
youtube.com/canadahelps
facebook.com/canadahelps