How your charity can work with others

Your charity can work with other individuals, organizations, or entities in Canada or abroad, to further its charitable purposes. Under the Income Tax Act, this can be done in the following ways:

Working with qualified donees

Your charity can further its charitable purposes by making gifts or otherwise making resources available to a qualified donee.

Before doing so, confirm the recipient is a qualified donee:

• List of charities
• Find another type of qualified donee

Working with non-qualified donees

Your charity can also further its purposes by working with a non-qualified donee. A non-qualified donee is any individual, organization, or entity that is not a qualified donee.

There are two ways of working with a non-qualified donee:

Carrying on your charity's own charitable activities through intermediaries

Your charity can carry on its own charitable activities through an intermediary. An intermediary is a non-qualified donee that carries out activities on your charity’s behalf.

When working with the intermediary, your charity must meet the “own activities” requirement. This means exercising direction and control over the use of any resources transferred to the intermediary. In other words, your charity must be responsible for making key decisions, setting clear guidelines, and monitoring the activity and the use of its resources.

For more information on meeting the “own activities” requirement, see:

• Guidance CG-002, Canadian registered charities carrying on activities outside Canada
• Guidance CG-004, Using an intermediary to carry out a charity's activities within Canada

Making grants to grantees

Your charity can also further its charitable purposes by making grants that are qualifying disbursements to non-qualified donees (grantees).

For a grant to be a qualifying disbursement, your charity must meet the following accountability requirements:

• ensure that the grantee uses the resources only for activities that further your charity’s charitable purposes
• maintain documentation that demonstrates this requirement has been met

For more information on the accountability requirements, see Guidance CG-032, Registered charities making grants to non-qualified donees.