1. Thanks for pointing this out! I agree and I think that there is a large market of Canadians wanting to donate effectively that have not yet been reached, or have not yet heard about high-impact giving. We are working on ways to take over more of the Canadian donor market share in 2019 and this would be impossible without tax incentives like the ones we have provided.
2. I don’t believe there is an easy way to give to EA Funds at the moment, but we are constantly adding more options for effective giving. Since CEA is a registered 501(c)(3) in the United States we could see this option being added to the platform in 2019, provided our setup would work with the way CEA administrates EA Funds.
3. We are currently using CHIMP’s software for direct donations made via credit card and are unable to change the functions pre-set in their provided donation buttons, so adding a ‘tip’ option for credit card donations is unlikely but worth exploring. However many of our donations are made through either Interac E-transfers or cheques, which are administered without the use of a donor-filled form for now. Once RC Forward receives tax-exempt status we will be working on ways to automate tax-receipting, and adding a tip option for donors to opt-in to during information collection is a great idea!
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”.