Tee, thanks for this useful writeup of RC forward and am very glad to see the success of the project so far. I’ve been impressed with rethink charity’s evolution over time and am happy to continue to support it. A couple of follow up questions
1) Have you looked into working with these effective charities to help them get canadian tax deductible status- I know Stan van Wingerden of effective giving is doing this for the netherlands.
2) Some of these charities do seem to have CAD tax deductible status (AMF, SCI)- so is your value add for these charities limited to reducing processing fees for cryptocurrency donations?
Allan, thanks for your support! Canada has a very complicated system when it comes to registering charities. Not only can it easily take over a year working with the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) to get registered, but the annual upkeep needed by professional accountants and lawyers will likely not make it worth while for many high-impact charities as it would cost more than our platform. It is likely, however, that in other countries with different tax structures that the reverse would be true.
As for our value add for Canadian-registered charities, our primary reason for setting up RC Forward this way was the ease and consistency of donor experience. If donors create an account with CHIMP (they don’t have to), they are able to put money into their account and distribute it easily as they see fit among any number of charities. Since a large number of donors come in from GiveWell or other EA hubs, we would essentially be making it “one-stop shopping”.
Tee, thanks for this useful writeup of RC forward and am very glad to see the success of the project so far. I’ve been impressed with rethink charity’s evolution over time and am happy to continue to support it. A couple of follow up questions
1) Have you looked into working with these effective charities to help them get canadian tax deductible status- I know Stan van Wingerden of effective giving is doing this for the netherlands.
2) Some of these charities do seem to have CAD tax deductible status (AMF, SCI)- so is your value add for these charities limited to reducing processing fees for cryptocurrency donations?
Allan, thanks for your support! Canada has a very complicated system when it comes to registering charities. Not only can it easily take over a year working with the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) to get registered, but the annual upkeep needed by professional accountants and lawyers will likely not make it worth while for many high-impact charities as it would cost more than our platform. It is likely, however, that in other countries with different tax structures that the reverse would be true.
As for our value add for Canadian-registered charities, our primary reason for setting up RC Forward this way was the ease and consistency of donor experience. If donors create an account with CHIMP (they don’t have to), they are able to put money into their account and distribute it easily as they see fit among any number of charities. Since a large number of donors come in from GiveWell or other EA hubs, we would essentially be making it “one-stop shopping”.