The 26th Annual Church & Charity Law Seminar™

by Dev User | Nov 23, 2019 | Uncategorized

November 2019 Charity & NFP Law Update

The 26th Annual Church & Charity Law Seminar™ hosted by Carters Professional Corporation in Mississauga, Ontario, on November 7, 2019, had 928 registered from the charitable and not-for-profit sector, including leaders of charities and churches, as well as accountants and lawyers. Designed to assist churches and charities in understanding developing trends in the law in order to reduce unnecessary exposure to legal liability, the Church & Charity Law™ Seminar has been held annually since 1994. The date for the 27th Annual Church and Charity Law Seminar has been set for Thursday, November 5, 2020, so save the date.

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Imagine Canada Publishes Report on Corporate Community Contributions

by Dev User | Nov 22, 2019 | Uncategorized

November 2019  Charity & NFP Law Update

In November 2019, Imagine Canada published Profit, Purpose, and Talent: Trends and Motivations in Corporate Giving & Volunteering (the “Report”), a report on corporate community investment. The Report will be of interest to charities and not-for-profits in understanding trends and motivations in corporate giving and volunteering in Canada. The Report summarizes findings from two Imagine Canada surveys of Canadian companies and of the national workforce about corporate community contributions, and discusses the role that prominent corporations and their employees play in philanthropy in Canada.

Of note in the Report, approximately 50% of the surveyed employees indicated that their employers’ charitable reputation was a factor in their decision to join the company. They also expressed that they were willing to forego, on average, 12% of their salary to work at a company that was more committed to providing community support. Additionally, employees at companies with payroll giving programs, workplace giving campaigns, and matching gifts expressed a much higher likelihood of donating to charities.

With regard to the companies surveyed, despite a decline in donations from individuals, 43% of companies indicated that they planned to increase their budgets for community investment. Further, companies that were “highly effective at community investment” believed they had innovative community investment teams, and were much more likely to incorporate their social objectives into their mission or purpose statements, as well as into their broader company strategies. These companies also showed a propensity to focus on optimizing the benefits of their investment, both for their business, as well as for the community, while setting up infrastructure to support community investment. In reviewing the findings from both employers and employees, the Report states that “companies do not have to sacrifice profits to give back to their communities.”

Charities and not-for-profits will be interested in reviewing the Report, which provides a compelling overview of the advantages to corporate community contributions. As indicated in the Report, employees value their employers’ community contributions, which can lead to long-term business advantages for corporations and “inspire generosity” amongst employees. 

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Ontario Nonprofit Network Publishes Report on Sector Survey

by Dev User | Nov 21, 2019 | Uncategorized

November 2019 Charity & NFP Law Update

On November 11, 2019, the Ontario Nonprofit Network published Sector 360° Survey: Taking the pulse of Ontario’s Nonprofit Sector (the “Report”), outlining its findings from a survey of 447 non-profits, charities, and non-profit co-operatives examining the impact of the 2019 Ontario Budget and related government policy changes on Ontario’s not-for-profit sector. The 2019 Ontario Budget proposed, among other matters, a material reduction in government funding to the not-for-profit sector, the implications of which were earlier discussed in Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No. 448.

The Report indicates that survey respondents were concerned with the impact of budget cuts on their funding streams. Further, organizations raised concerns about the speed at which provincial decisions are made, along with a lack of information and engagement provided by the provincial government to the sector. In this regard, 30% of respondents had decreased their budgets directly as a result of the 2019 Ontario Budget and related policy changes, while a further 11% were unsure of the impact due to a lack of information available to them from the provincial government. Respondents also indicated that fluctuating budgets impacted not-for-profits’ abilities to plan and give consistent service, leaving them in a state of uncertainty. Additionally, 27.6% of respondents indicated that their sector was subject to restructuring, with “major changes” coming to the childcare, employment and training, and healthcare sectors, and expected changes to the community housing, arts, and sports sectors. These changes also left not-for-profits in a state of uncertainty.

The Report also indicates that different sub-sectors were impacted differently by budget cuts. While not-for-profits in the arts, cultural and tourism sub-sector, social services sub-sector, and education and research sub-sector generally saw decreases in their budgets as a result of the 2019 Ontario Budget and related government policy changes, 46% of the respondents in the healthcare sector indicated that their budgets remained the same, and a further 26.7% reported an increase in their budget.

Not-for-profits also indicated long-term challenges resulting from the ripple effect of budget cuts. The Report indicates that 50% of respondents did not have three months’ reserve funds, suggesting that sustainability for not-for-profits may be challenging, particularly in a volatile environment where government funding has been coming late. Regarding the volatility of the sector, the Report also notes an increase in barriers to developing social enterprises in Ontario “in the wake of the provincial government’s decision to walk away from the 2016-2021 Social Enterprise Strategy last spring.” However, not-for-profits raised the greatest concern about systems transformations and the impact of these budget cuts on the communities that they serve. Over one third of the respondents indicated that their ability to meet the demands of their communities would decrease in 2020.

Despite the findings, the Report indicates that not-for-profits were “still holding on to their optimism.” In this regard, more than half of the respondents indicated that they were “confident about making progress towards their missions.” The Report also found that not-for-profits are continuing to become more engaged in advocacy. As a result, the Report recommends better engagement and enhanced partnerships with the government for not-for-profits in relation to delivering programs and services on their behalf. The Report concludes that, despite the obstacles, not-for-profits are resilient and can be flexible, finding creative ways in uncertain times to solve the problems that they face.

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Accessibility Compliance Reporting and Accessible Websites Deadlines Approaching

by Dev User | Nov 20, 2019 | Uncategorized

November 2019 Charity & NFP Law Update

In order to meet the current accessibility requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (“AODA”), charities and not-for-profits with 20 or more employees, as well as public-sector organizations, are required to submit accessibility compliance reports pursuant to subsection 14(1) of the AODA. The requirements and deadlines vary depending on the type and size of the organization, with the deadlines for reporting cycles provided in Ontario Regulation 191/11, Integrated Accessibility Standards.

All designated public sector organizations under the AODA are required to file an accessibility compliance report showing compliance with accessibility standards by December 31, 2019. For charities and not-for-profits with 20 or more employees, the deadline to meet this requirement is December 31, 2020.

Further, charities and not-for-profits with 50 or more employees, as well as all public sector organizations, will have until January 1, 2021 to meet the accessibility requirements for all public website and web content posted after January 1, 2012. In order to do so, the website and web content must meet the WCAG 2.0 Level AA standard (with some exceptions) that has been internationally accepted. Where online content cannot comply with this standard because of its nature, it may still be posted online, but organizations must be able to provide it in an accessible format when requested.

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Privacy Law Update

by Dev User | Nov 18, 2019 | Uncategorized

November 2019  Charity & NFP Law Update

One Year Anniversary – OPC Reviews the First Full Year of Mandatory Data Breach Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements

November 1, 2019 marked the one-year anniversary of the coming into force of mandatory data breach reporting and recordkeeping requirements under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and accompanying regulations (previously reported in Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No. 429). In appropriate recognition of this milestone, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (“OPC”) released a blog post (the “OPC Report”) outlining its findings from the first full year of mandatory data breach reporting and providing an alarming snapshot of the privacy challenges faced by organizations in Canada.

The OPC Report revealed that, in a single one-year period, a shocking 28 million Canadians were impacted by a data breach. While some of 680 breach reports received by the OPC during the year arose from large organizations and headline-grabbing breaches, the OPC Report pointed out that a significant number of reports came from small- and medium-sized businesses, which are also impacted by data breaches. The bulk of the reported breaches – 58% – involved unauthorized access to personal information. Some unauthorized access incidents resulted from employee snooping, while others (one in four reported breaches), involved external attackers using social engineering techniques such as phishing and impersonation to gain access to personal information. 12% of reported breaches were due to the loss of a computer, other devices or paper documents while 8% involved the theft of documents, computers or computer components. 5% of reported breaches were due to accidental disclosure of personal information, such as situations in which personal information was mailed or emailed to the wrong person. The OPC Report statistics indicate that, while privacy breaches can result from cyber-attack incidents, such as phishing, social engineering and data theft, a significant percentage of breaches arise from internal organizational causes such as human error or employee snooping.

The OPC Report advised organizations to take steps to reduce privacy breaches including: (1) understanding their data so they can protect it – this means knowing what personal information they have and what they do with it; (2) assessing their vulnerabilities – testing their technical safeguards as well as looking at other risk exposures, such as contracts with third party service providers and their employees’ training and understanding of their responsibilities; and (3) staying on top of current trends and breaches in their industry, as attackers often use the same attacks against multiple organizations. The OPC Report also provided some tips to organizations that are responding to a breach, including to start with containment, designate someone to lead the response and investigation, and ensure that evidence is preserved.

Although the OPC Report deals exclusively with organizations subject to PIPEDA, it provides a snapshot of the privacy risks and exposures facing all organizations in Canada. Privacy breaches can result in legal liability, including class action litigation, regulatory investigations and enforcement, business interruption, financial loss and, perhaps most important in the charity and not for profit sector, reputational damage. Charities and not for profits should be proactively taking steps to reduce their risk of a privacy breach as well as putting in place incident response plans to guide their response to a privacy breach if and when it occurs.

Canadian Bar Association Submissions on Privacy Act Modernization

In response to discussion papers issued by Justice Canada in June 2019, the Canadian Bar Association’s (“CBA”) Privacy and Access Law Section, with comments from the CBA Aboriginal Law Section, made a submission on the modernization of the Privacy Act. The CBA submission makes clear that the Privacy Act, which was enacted in 1982, “has not kept pace with societal and technological developments, or with parallel legislation for the private sector, most notably the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).” As such, in order to modernize the Privacy Act, the CBA highlights the importance of ensuring that Canadians’ expectation of privacy is treated as paramount, for example, through adopting an explicit “necessity” test when collecting, using or disclosing personal information in the public sector. The CBA also recommends that openness and transparency of government institutions in their personal information protection practices be “buttressed by minimum legislative requirements.” Data should be collected, used, shared and secured responsibly, with the government institutions having a general duty under the Act to protect personal information with safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of information.

The CBA also reinforces that the Act should provide greater certainty for Canadians and an easy and comprehensive way for finding out when their personal information is collected, used, shared and disclosed across government institutions by, among other things, imposing a requirement on the government to notify individuals of any such collection, use and disclosure of their personal information.

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