On May 5, 2026, the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) released a new Short guide: How to write a charitable purpose (“Short Guide”), in addition to a revised version of the more detailed and technical guidance CG-019, Charitable purposes of a registered charity (“Revised Guidance”). In coordination with these two publications, the CRA also released an “extensive” list of examples charitable of purposes, which it indicates are to be used as a drafting resource by organizations writing their purposes.
On May 6, 2026, the CRA published an update to their News and events for charities page (“CRA May 2026 Announcement”) announcing its release of these two CRA publications.
In our February 2026 Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No. 535, we explained that the CRA made a significant change of its policy by discontinuing its long-standing practice of providing pre-approval or automatic reviews of proposed amendments to a charity’s purposes or activities. Coupled with this policy change, the CRA announced in its Quarterly Update on January 15, 2025, that it would provide “a whole new suite of resources” to help charities “navigate this process”, including a refreshed guidance on charitable purposes, expanded model purposes, and a short guidance on how to draft appropriate charitable purposes. These resources are now released to the sector. This Bulletin provides a summary of these resources, as well as a commentary on the practical aspects of these resources for the charitable sector.
To read the balance of Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No. 536, please click here.