[Anonymous]

Interesting reading this week. I didn’t know that you couldn’t be both a non-profit and a charity. Does that mean that the common phrase “non-profit charity organization” should be phased out of usage?

Second question I had was whether or not a society’s constitution and/or bylaws need to explicit state whether they are a charity or not.

Hope everyone’s enjoying the course so far, I know I am.

Kent

[volvicadmin]

Thanks Kent, believe it or not, only Revenue Canada explicitly states that an organization is either a non profit or a Charity – and they explain the difference. I used the terms non profit and charity interchangeably for decades and only when forced to think about it through a governance lens was it useful to know the difference. Yet, I do think funders and donors need to know so that they can make decisions about where to give.

Your Constitution should not include your non profit or Charitable status – primarily because charitable status can be lost or not renewed voluntarily, and then a Charity defaults to being a non profit.

I love these nerdy details!

Cheers, Lisa

[Author]

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