Observations and Findings
Since the original bibliography was published in 2004, there have been a number of improvements to the online resources available. Ten observations can be made about the electronic resources related to charity law and regulation that are available to the public and sector participants.
1. Electronic resources remain difficult to locate.
Although in some instances the resources were easier to find, electronic resources still remain difficult for the average user to find on the internet. The search for web resources was once again conducted by trained library technicians under the direction of, and assisted by, a professional librarian. All are highly proficient in web searching. Despite their expertise, they found it difficult to locate some web resources.
Initial searches were conducted using common search strategies and terminology that might be used by members of the public on popular search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, or using government sites). This type of search was not highly productive. Although some key resources could be found this way, many were missed. Provincial and federal government site search tools were usually unresponsive to standard search techniques, provided no “search tips” and were found to be inefficient, yielding too many irrelevant results while at the same time often missing key resources..
Follow-up searches were done using advanced search strategies such as those that might be used by librarians and other professionals. There were still difficulties in finding materials, and in feeling comfortable that all relevant sources had been located. Specifically, it was determined that jurisdiction was a critical component in a search as most of the first search results were actually from the United Kingdom or Australia instead of Canada.
Key materials are scattered and sometimes difficult to find. Logical search techniques did not produce quality results. While there has been no single source where Canadians might start their search, this bibliography and its corresponding online database acts as a good starting point for access to suitable web resources about charity law in Canada.
2. There are still wide variations in the approach that is taken to organizing information about charity law.
The lack of consistency in the approach to organizing information from province to province, both in how websites are used to convey information and in how charities are handled within the administrative structure poses a significant challenge for members of the public and the sector in locating information. Just because an organization uses the word “charitable” to describe itself and what it does, does not necessarily mean that the organization is a Registered Charity as defined under the Income Tax Act.
It is very difficult to know where to look for information about charities on a particular provincial government website. For example, in Ontario some information is found on the Attorney General website in the section related to the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee; in Alberta, similar information is found under Service Alberta; in British Columbia, under Corporate Registry; and in Québec, under Revenu Québec. Even within a particular government website, inconsistencies appeared in the organization of information related to charity law. For example in Prince Edward Island, the Charitable Act applies to non-profits other than organizations that are Registered Charities under the Income Tax Act (ITA).
Every province has a different manner of naming the legislation applicable to charities. For example, Alberta has the Charitable Fund-raising Act while Ontario has the Charities Accounting Act covering the same information. Although this is understandable in a federal system, it creates barriers for people searching for the legislation relevant to their particular province. Most provincial legislation uses the terms “charity” and “charitable” to refer to non-profit work in general and charitable works at an informal level. This does not mean that an organization is a Registered Charity for the purposes of the ITA and the CRA.
No province has succeeded in drawing together all relevant information in one location. For example, in Ontario there is information concerning charity regulation within the following provincial and federal acts2:
While some good quality resources related to provincial laws and regulation are available on the web and while there have been improvements since the first edition of the bibliography, many provincial resources are still scarce and not easily located. Where available, most of the provincial resources about charity law and regulation come directly from provincial governments and are often integrated with more general non-profit information pages. Although each province has relevant legislation online, it is difficult to determine how to find the appropriate acts and regulations or to know what name to search under. Many provincial government pages for charity information refer directly back to the federal CRA charities page. Where information is available, it is often scattered through a variety of locations on the site.
Resources providing “how-to” information or online forms and instructions are somewhat more available from provincial government sites since the 2004 edition. British Columbia provides an online information package for registering non-profit entities, but it is buried within a larger corporate registry package, and does not show up on a search for “charities” or “charity”. Ontario provides a useful and quite complete online handbook for non-profit incorporation. In 2004, it was found under “Other Services” of the Public Guardian and Trustee, which is found under Family Justice section of the Attorney General’s webpage. Today, the handbook is easily found in the “Charities” section directly from the Attorney General’s home page.
Québec has extensive resources but they are situated in a variety of locations and are somewhat difficult to find. Saskatchewan Justice has a number of worthwhile web pages related to charities found under the section on corporations and business regulation. Alberta has wide variety and quality of resources specifically related to charity law and regulation and organized in a user-friendly manner on the Service Alberta webpage. Greatly improved from 2004 is the Corporate Affairs Registry for Service New Brunswick. This redesigned website provides helpful tabs of information for the user on a variety of items including guides & kits, and FAQs.
4. Electronic resources on applicable federal law and regulation have improved.
The Canada Revenue Agency registers qualifying organizations as charities, provides technical advice to the sector about operating a charity, and handles audit and compliance activities. These activities all benefit from the agency’s greatly improved “Charities and Giving” website with easy-to-access topic sections, checklists for charities, information for donors, and a glossary of terms.
While the librarians in 2004 could find no attempts to address accessibility issues, CRA now offers many of their pages and resources in a variety of accessible formats including, large print, Braille, e-text and audio.
5. There have been some improvements to the available public sources of electronic information about charity law and regulation.
The primary sources of information for both the public and the sector remain the federal government, the sector itself, and private law firms. There still appears to be very little work done with respect to charity law by the major public legal education organizations in Canada. Aside from the Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd., only three other Canadian public legal education organizations have been included in this bibliography. The Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia (LISNS) has developed an annotated version of the “T3010A: Charitable Information Return” and associated forms. They worked with the Public Legal Information Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (PLIAN) to create a presentation package introducing this to Registered Charities and together with PLIAN, the Public Legal Education and Information Society of New Brunswick (PLIESNB) and the Community Legal Information Association of Prince Edward Island (CLIA), held a series of information sessions throughout the Atlantic Region.
Another new online resource is The Charities File: Training and Resources to Complete the T3010A. This joint project of the Canadian Federation of Voluntary Sector Networks and the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development was developed to enhance knowledge among the sector participants, and help them meet the current requirements for filing, and also prepare for any future changes in the way returns are submitted to the Government of Canada.
6. Searching for electronic information is complex because a wide variety of terminology continues to be used to describe the charitable sector.
The minimal quality of the search functions found in 2004 on several sites meant that any inconsistency in terminology created unreliable search results. This problem has not lessened in the second edition of the bibliography. For instance, a search using “charities” instead of “charity” or “record-keeping” instead of “recordkeeping” produces quite different results. Even greater inconsistencies appear if the user chooses to search for charity law by using the terms “non-profit”, “nonprofit”, or “not-for-profit”.
With the new focus areas of the second edition, this problem with terminology intensified. In fact, the library professionals working on the bibliography sometimes had to go to various professional institutes (accounting, law) in order to determine what terminology to use when searching especially for resources about fundraising or books and records.
7. Standards for website URLs would alleviate issues with broken and inconsistent links (link rot) as well as unwieldy website addresses.
The challenge of “link rot” (hypertexted links that connect to web pages that have been removed or had their URLs changed) is a growing and frustrating problem on the internet. With the half-life of web pages now averaging two years, the public’s access to legal and government information is compromised.3
While updating the second edition of this bibliography, it became apparent that link rot is alive and well on almost every government website. If and when websites are re-organized, governments and organizations need to ensure that the old web address is redirected to the same information or at the very least to a relevant and stable “root” page. A re-direction to the home page of the agency or department is usually not sufficient to locate information buried within a site.
It would also greatly improve the public’s access to information if URLs were simplified and less unwieldy in length and complicated. For instance, avoiding spaces in the URL address or inserting an underscore would eliminate the “%20” symbols that clutter many URLs. For some sites, care taken during the design process could reduce the need for long strings of numbers and symbols in URL structure.
8. Provincial associations of volunteer organizations are reaching to the charity and non-profit sector with information and workshops.
Provincial volunteer associations, such as Volunteer B.C. and ECVO / CCVO in Edmonton and Calgary, are more actively connecting charity and non-profit organizations with resources, information and workshops, particularly on such topics as governance issues and the filing of T3010A returns.
9. There are an increasing number of high quality resources being designed for the public.
Quality resources designed for the public do exist, depending on the definition of “public”. There are an increasing number of resources created for the sector. And there are also a growing number of brochures and tipsheets written in plain language for the general public (primarily around donor awareness and consumer protection.)
Some of these quality resources include the Canada Revenue Agency Newsletters, the Not-for-Profit law column in LawNow magazine, the Not-for-Profit and Charity Law website, Imagine Canada, The Charities File and Charity Village. Our searchers found no navigational guides or aids for users who want to search charity law online.
While it was difficult to find resources in the 2004 bibliography about the law as it relates to fundraising, a number of resources from organizations (like Imagine Canada, and the Volunteer Sector Initiative) have been included in the 2008 edition as they now provide significant information about fundraising law.
There is a lack of resources in languages other than English and French.
10. An increased use of Web 2.0 technologies (i.e. podcasts, RSS feeds) is improving access to information for the public.
The second edition of the bibliography reflects the growing number of new technologies in use for the provision of legal information for the public and for the charity and non-profit sector.
These technologies include the use of new formats like audio and podcasts. Increasingly, organization and government websites are using RSS feeds (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication), a tool which easily posts updates to website users. Sector organizations often use a weekly email
2Hoffstein, M. E., Carter, T. S., & Parachin, A. (Eds.) (2003). Charities law, 2003/2004 Edition. Butterworths Canada Ltd.
3 Tjaden, Ted. Linkrot and Legal Research. Retrieved March 20, 2008 from the Slaw.ca website: Link Rot and Legal Research.
2Hoffstein, M. E., Carter, T. S., & Parachin, A. (éd.) (2003). Charities law, 2003/2004 Edition. Butterworths Canada Ltd.
3 Tjaden, Ted. Linkrot and Legal Research. Consulté le 20 mars 2008 sur le site Web Slaw.ca: Link Rot and Legal Research
1. Electronic resources remain difficult to locate.
Although in some instances the resources were easier to find, electronic resources still remain difficult for the average user to find on the internet. The search for web resources was once again conducted by trained library technicians under the direction of, and assisted by, a professional librarian. All are highly proficient in web searching. Despite their expertise, they found it difficult to locate some web resources.
Initial searches were conducted using common search strategies and terminology that might be used by members of the public on popular search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, or using government sites). This type of search was not highly productive. Although some key resources could be found this way, many were missed. Provincial and federal government site search tools were usually unresponsive to standard search techniques, provided no “search tips” and were found to be inefficient, yielding too many irrelevant results while at the same time often missing key resources..
Follow-up searches were done using advanced search strategies such as those that might be used by librarians and other professionals. There were still difficulties in finding materials, and in feeling comfortable that all relevant sources had been located. Specifically, it was determined that jurisdiction was a critical component in a search as most of the first search results were actually from the United Kingdom or Australia instead of Canada.
Key materials are scattered and sometimes difficult to find. Logical search techniques did not produce quality results. While there has been no single source where Canadians might start their search, this bibliography and its corresponding online database acts as a good starting point for access to suitable web resources about charity law in Canada.
2. There are still wide variations in the approach that is taken to organizing information about charity law.
The lack of consistency in the approach to organizing information from province to province, both in how websites are used to convey information and in how charities are handled within the administrative structure poses a significant challenge for members of the public and the sector in locating information. Just because an organization uses the word “charitable” to describe itself and what it does, does not necessarily mean that the organization is a Registered Charity as defined under the Income Tax Act.
It is very difficult to know where to look for information about charities on a particular provincial government website. For example, in Ontario some information is found on the Attorney General website in the section related to the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee; in Alberta, similar information is found under Service Alberta; in British Columbia, under Corporate Registry; and in Québec, under Revenu Québec. Even within a particular government website, inconsistencies appeared in the organization of information related to charity law. For example in Prince Edward Island, the Charitable Act applies to non-profits other than organizations that are Registered Charities under the Income Tax Act (ITA).
Every province has a different manner of naming the legislation applicable to charities. For example, Alberta has the Charitable Fund-raising Act while Ontario has the Charities Accounting Act covering the same information. Although this is understandable in a federal system, it creates barriers for people searching for the legislation relevant to their particular province. Most provincial legislation uses the terms “charity” and “charitable” to refer to non-profit work in general and charitable works at an informal level. This does not mean that an organization is a Registered Charity for the purposes of the ITA and the CRA.
No province has succeeded in drawing together all relevant information in one location. For example, in Ontario there is information concerning charity regulation within the following provincial and federal acts2:
- Charitable Gifts Act
- Charities Accounting Act
- Trustee Act
- Corporations Act of Ontario
- Donation of Food Act
- Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Inquiries Act
- Religious Organizations’ Lands Act
- University Foundations Act
- Canada Corporations Act
- Cultural Property Export and Import Act
- Charities Registration (Security Information) Act
- Canada-United States Tax Convention Act, 1984
- Income Tax Act (Canada)
3. While somewhat improved, electronic resources on applicable provincial law and regulation remain scarce and inconsistent.
While some good quality resources related to provincial laws and regulation are available on the web and while there have been improvements since the first edition of the bibliography, many provincial resources are still scarce and not easily located. Where available, most of the provincial resources about charity law and regulation come directly from provincial governments and are often integrated with more general non-profit information pages. Although each province has relevant legislation online, it is difficult to determine how to find the appropriate acts and regulations or to know what name to search under. Many provincial government pages for charity information refer directly back to the federal CRA charities page. Where information is available, it is often scattered through a variety of locations on the site.
Resources providing “how-to” information or online forms and instructions are somewhat more available from provincial government sites since the 2004 edition. British Columbia provides an online information package for registering non-profit entities, but it is buried within a larger corporate registry package, and does not show up on a search for “charities” or “charity”. Ontario provides a useful and quite complete online handbook for non-profit incorporation. In 2004, it was found under “Other Services” of the Public Guardian and Trustee, which is found under Family Justice section of the Attorney General’s webpage. Today, the handbook is easily found in the “Charities” section directly from the Attorney General’s home page.
Québec has extensive resources but they are situated in a variety of locations and are somewhat difficult to find. Saskatchewan Justice has a number of worthwhile web pages related to charities found under the section on corporations and business regulation. Alberta has wide variety and quality of resources specifically related to charity law and regulation and organized in a user-friendly manner on the Service Alberta webpage. Greatly improved from 2004 is the Corporate Affairs Registry for Service New Brunswick. This redesigned website provides helpful tabs of information for the user on a variety of items including guides & kits, and FAQs.
4. Electronic resources on applicable federal law and regulation have improved.
The Canada Revenue Agency registers qualifying organizations as charities, provides technical advice to the sector about operating a charity, and handles audit and compliance activities. These activities all benefit from the agency’s greatly improved “Charities and Giving” website with easy-to-access topic sections, checklists for charities, information for donors, and a glossary of terms.
While the librarians in 2004 could find no attempts to address accessibility issues, CRA now offers many of their pages and resources in a variety of accessible formats including, large print, Braille, e-text and audio.
5. There have been some improvements to the available public sources of electronic information about charity law and regulation.
The primary sources of information for both the public and the sector remain the federal government, the sector itself, and private law firms. There still appears to be very little work done with respect to charity law by the major public legal education organizations in Canada. Aside from the Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd., only three other Canadian public legal education organizations have been included in this bibliography. The Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia (LISNS) has developed an annotated version of the “T3010A: Charitable Information Return” and associated forms. They worked with the Public Legal Information Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (PLIAN) to create a presentation package introducing this to Registered Charities and together with PLIAN, the Public Legal Education and Information Society of New Brunswick (PLIESNB) and the Community Legal Information Association of Prince Edward Island (CLIA), held a series of information sessions throughout the Atlantic Region.
Another new online resource is The Charities File: Training and Resources to Complete the T3010A. This joint project of the Canadian Federation of Voluntary Sector Networks and the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development was developed to enhance knowledge among the sector participants, and help them meet the current requirements for filing, and also prepare for any future changes in the way returns are submitted to the Government of Canada.
6. Searching for electronic information is complex because a wide variety of terminology continues to be used to describe the charitable sector.
The minimal quality of the search functions found in 2004 on several sites meant that any inconsistency in terminology created unreliable search results. This problem has not lessened in the second edition of the bibliography. For instance, a search using “charities” instead of “charity” or “record-keeping” instead of “recordkeeping” produces quite different results. Even greater inconsistencies appear if the user chooses to search for charity law by using the terms “non-profit”, “nonprofit”, or “not-for-profit”.
With the new focus areas of the second edition, this problem with terminology intensified. In fact, the library professionals working on the bibliography sometimes had to go to various professional institutes (accounting, law) in order to determine what terminology to use when searching especially for resources about fundraising or books and records.
7. Standards for website URLs would alleviate issues with broken and inconsistent links (link rot) as well as unwieldy website addresses.
The challenge of “link rot” (hypertexted links that connect to web pages that have been removed or had their URLs changed) is a growing and frustrating problem on the internet. With the half-life of web pages now averaging two years, the public’s access to legal and government information is compromised.3
While updating the second edition of this bibliography, it became apparent that link rot is alive and well on almost every government website. If and when websites are re-organized, governments and organizations need to ensure that the old web address is redirected to the same information or at the very least to a relevant and stable “root” page. A re-direction to the home page of the agency or department is usually not sufficient to locate information buried within a site.
It would also greatly improve the public’s access to information if URLs were simplified and less unwieldy in length and complicated. For instance, avoiding spaces in the URL address or inserting an underscore would eliminate the “%20” symbols that clutter many URLs. For some sites, care taken during the design process could reduce the need for long strings of numbers and symbols in URL structure.
8. Provincial associations of volunteer organizations are reaching to the charity and non-profit sector with information and workshops.
Provincial volunteer associations, such as Volunteer B.C. and ECVO / CCVO in Edmonton and Calgary, are more actively connecting charity and non-profit organizations with resources, information and workshops, particularly on such topics as governance issues and the filing of T3010A returns.
9. There are an increasing number of high quality resources being designed for the public.
Quality resources designed for the public do exist, depending on the definition of “public”. There are an increasing number of resources created for the sector. And there are also a growing number of brochures and tipsheets written in plain language for the general public (primarily around donor awareness and consumer protection.)
Some of these quality resources include the Canada Revenue Agency Newsletters, the Not-for-Profit law column in LawNow magazine, the Not-for-Profit and Charity Law website, Imagine Canada, The Charities File and Charity Village. Our searchers found no navigational guides or aids for users who want to search charity law online.
While it was difficult to find resources in the 2004 bibliography about the law as it relates to fundraising, a number of resources from organizations (like Imagine Canada, and the Volunteer Sector Initiative) have been included in the 2008 edition as they now provide significant information about fundraising law.
There is a lack of resources in languages other than English and French.
10. An increased use of Web 2.0 technologies (i.e. podcasts, RSS feeds) is improving access to information for the public.
The second edition of the bibliography reflects the growing number of new technologies in use for the provision of legal information for the public and for the charity and non-profit sector.
These technologies include the use of new formats like audio and podcasts. Increasingly, organization and government websites are using RSS feeds (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication), a tool which easily posts updates to website users. Sector organizations often use a weekly email
2Hoffstein, M. E., Carter, T. S., & Parachin, A. (Eds.) (2003). Charities law, 2003/2004 Edition. Butterworths Canada Ltd.
3 Tjaden, Ted. Linkrot and Legal Research. Retrieved March 20, 2008 from the Slaw.ca website: Link Rot and Legal Research.
2Hoffstein, M. E., Carter, T. S., & Parachin, A. (éd.) (2003). Charities law, 2003/2004 Edition. Butterworths Canada Ltd.
3 Tjaden, Ted. Linkrot and Legal Research. Consulté le 20 mars 2008 sur le site Web Slaw.ca: Link Rot and Legal Research