The following paper is the culmination of The Philanthropist’s series “Canadian Charities Working Internationally,” which began in March 2015. In it, Toronto charity lawyer Andrew Valentine outlines the challenges with the current “direction and control” rules that apply to Canadian charities working abroad. He also presents proposals to reform the system, ranging from simple administrative…
Author: Andrew Valentine
Foreword SiG@MaRS, the Social Innovation Generation program at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, provides services to social entrepreneurs who come to MaRS to get help with their social enterprise or social purpose business. Regardless of the stage of development, the issue of incorporation comes up: “Should I incorporate as for-profit, not-for-profit, or a charity?”…
Organizations that provide settlement services for immigrants and ongoing support for immigrant communities play a vital role in Canadian society. These organizations provide benefits—including assistance with housing, language training, employment preparation, and social services for new immigrants, as well as ongoing programs designed to support disadvantaged communities and eliminate discrimination—that are now recognized as accruing…
Social enterprise is a broad concept.1 Literature on the subject tends to emphasize its hybrid nature, combining aspects of both traditional for-profit and nonprofit operational models and comprising a spectrum of activities which may fall closer to one end of the spectrum or the other.2 In its broadest sense, social enterprise denotes the pursuit of primarily…