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Stretch Tax Credit for Charitable Giving

Imagine Canada has proposed the Stretch Tax Credit to encourage Canadians to give more and support their communities through charitable contributions. The Stretch Tax Credit would provide a tax incentive by increasing the federal charitable tax credit from 29% to 39% on all new giving over $200. This initiative is certainly well timed, as Canadian charities face significant challenges generated by the current economic environment. The sector needs innovative approaches, such as this, to renew and stimulate sector growth and donor interest. This proposal has received some interest. On December 9th the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance released their report that included a recommendation to implement the proposed Stretch Tax Credit.

Survey of Non-Profit Websites

The Open Web Group recently conducted a survey of 81 Canadian non-profit websites. These included small organizations, as well as large national organizations. They learned that the majority of websites are mature, with 88% having a web presence for more than 2 years and 60% for more than 5 years. However, over 50% of the organizations surveyed spend less than .5 percent of their budget on their site. The web content most commonly includes news updates, staff directories and donations capabilities. The least commonly found items were online calendars, membership capabilities and publicly generated content. The majority of sites (89%) are professionally hosted elsewhere. However, those who host their site internally consistently rate the highest on all metrics. While 42% of the organizations have done major upgrades to their site in the last year, 33% have not done an upgrade in over 2 years. The sites of agencies using professional designers were more likely to be rated excellent across all ratings than agencies that use in-house teams. Access full survey.

by Val Green, Executive Director
Volunteer Victoria

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