Canadian Charities Giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees - 2018
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CanadianCharitylaw.ca/ RedskyFundraising.com/ Canadian charities giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees - 2018 By Sharon Redsky, Wanda Brascoupe, Mark Blumberg and Jessie Lang (May 31, 2021) We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2018 to see how many gifts and the value of those gifts were made from Canadian registered charities to “Indigenous Charities” and certain Qualified Donees such as First Nation Governments or ‘Bands’ (listed as “municipal or public body performing a function of government in Canada”). Together we refer to them as “Indigenous Groups”. To identify Indigenous Groups, we reviewed the list with all grants over $30,000 and we also used terms and phrases such as: Indigenous, First Nation, Metis, Inuit, Indian, Indian Band, Nation, Tribal council, National Indian Brotherhood, etc.. We also used a list from the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Fund by CanadaHelps developed by Wanda Brascoupe. We cut off the review at $30,000 because these larger grants are over 28,000 grants and also encompass about 90% of the value of grants made by Canadian charities to qualified donees. If an individual or corporation donates to an Indigenous Group, this would not be reflected in this article as we only have visibility as to registered charities making gifts to other qualified donees. We encourage others to either do a more comprehensive review or use different methodology. 1 CanadianCharitylaw.ca/ RedskyFundraising.com/ We believe that Indigenous led charities are vital in providing culturally appropriate services. There are numerous charities in Canada that are either Indigenous led or primarily serving Indigenous communities, but it is not always easily determinable who they are and how many there are. These groups include First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. There are many misconceptions about funding of Indigenous Groups, and we are trying to add a little bit to the understanding of how these groups are funded. There are also 505 municipal or public body performing a function of government in Canada of which the vast majority are First Nation Governments or ‘Bands’ (we have pasted the complete list at the bottom of this article). Some are also Boards of Education or Regional Park Authorities. Statistics Canada notes that in the 2016 census 1,673,785 identified themselves as 'Aboriginal' or 'Indigenous' or 'First Nations people, Métis or Inuit'. This reflects approximately 4.9% of the population of Canada. So, we were wondering whether Indigenous groups were getting about 4.9% of funds being granted from Canadian charities based on population or perhaps even more because as is widely acknowledged Indigenous people in Canada have significant needs resulting from colonization and government policies. For example, from 1895 to 1951 the government under the Indian Act criminalized traditional Indigenous practices of reciprocity such as potlatch or give away ceremonies. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia: “In July 2019, a report co-authored by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives revealed that 47 per cent of the 254,100 status First Nations children in Canada live in poverty. Nationally, status First Nations children are nearly four times more likely to live in poverty than non-Indigenous, non-racialized children. The study, titled Towards Justice: Tackling Indigenous Child Poverty in Canada, was published by Upstream Institute, a national communication think tank. The authors of the report, Natasha Beedie, David Macdonald and Daniel Wilson tracked child poverty using Statistics Canada ’s 2006 Census, 2011 National Household Survey and 2016 Census. The also study revealed differences in the poverty rate for status First Nations children living on-reserve (53 per cent) and those living off- reserve (41 per cent). 2 CanadianCharitylaw.ca/ RedskyFundraising.com/ Poverty rates were highest on the Prairies, with status First Nations children in Manitoba and Saskatchewan living on reserves facing extreme poverty rates of 65 per cent. In comparison, recent studies reveal that non-Indigenous children in Manitoba and Saskatchewan have poverty rates of 15 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively. In Quebec, the poverty rate for First Nations children living on reserves has fallen to 29 per cent, most likely due to the results of agreements between First Nations and the province to share natural resource revenues (such as Hydro- Québec revenues). The national poverty rate for the 4.5 million non-Indigenous children (not including racialized and recent immigrant children), the biggest group in the country, is 12 per cent. AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde declared that “The findings of this report are shameful and underscore the urgent need to invest in First Nations children, families and communities. Our children face the worst social and economic conditions in the country.… It’s beneficial to all Canadians to close the gap in quality of life between First Nations and Canada.” The AFN and authors of Towards Justice believe that a “national poverty strategy,” with self- determination for Indigenous peoples, increased government funding and resource revenue sharing arrangements between Indigenous peoples and government, should be implemented immediately to tackle and reduce child poverty among Indigenous children. It appears there were 284 grants to Indigenous Groups out of 28,164 that were over $30,000. So just over 1% of grants were to Indigenous Groups. There were 7 gifts of $1 million and over to Indigenous groups. 117 gifts over $100,000 in total. The total amount given by Canadian charities (including charitable organizations, public foundations and private foundations) to Indigenous Groups was $46,887,535. In 2018 Canadian charities gave to other charities and qualified donees $9,400,321,633 which is slightly over $9.4 billion. Of the total grants over $30,000 given by registered charities they were $8,350,587,042 in value which is about 89% of the dollars involved. How much does the $46,887,535 equate to as a percentage of the $8.3 billion? As a percentage Indigenous groups received 0.005614879%. This is about ½ a percent of the funds granted. Even though Indigenous people are about 4.9% of the population, Indigenous Groups received just over one half a percent of gifted funds. As Indigenous people account for 4.9% of the Canadian population then Indigenous groups are receiving about 1/10th of the funding that they would receive as 3 CanadianCharitylaw.ca/ RedskyFundraising.com/ a result of population size, even if one ignores issues of need. Indigenous Groups are getting about $1 for every $178 given to non-indigenous groups. We probably over included some grants – for example one of the bigger grants was for Winnipeg Art Gallery: Inuit Art Centre – probably the Winnipeg Art gallery is not Indigenous controlled or primarily serving Indigenous communities. As well some of the grants to Indigenous Groups included in this article are from Indigenous Groups such as National Indian Brotherhood Trust Fund and not funds coming from non-Indigenous groups. This reflects similar finding in recent report release December 2020, ‘The Charity Report reveals where private foundations spend their money’, that reviewed the funding of 20 private foundations who gave a total $1.63 billion in grants, in which 0.2% of funding went to support Indigenous organizations. Just to put these total numbers in context, there are 11 non-Indigenous charities that each received more than all the Indigenous Groups in Canada combined in 2018. As well, Brigham Young University, a foreign registered university and therefore a qualified donee received about $73 million in that same year from Canadian charities. So, one foreign university received about 1.5 times more than all Indigenous Groups in Canada. One Christian religious private foundation in Cambridge, Ontario, in 2018 received more than twice what all the Indigenous groups in Canada received. While there is a growing awareness of how wealth has been accumulated in Canada through the dispossession of land, agriculture production, and the extraction of natural resources, much more needs to be done to foster equity and reconciliation. Here is the list of grants over $30,000 to Indigenous Groups in Canada from other Canadian charities in 2018. It is from the T3010 filings of registered charities and we have in a few cases inserted geographic information where we know it and it is in italics. Please review the caveats at the end about the reliability and usage of T3010 information. 4 CanadianCharitylaw.ca/ RedskyFundraising.com/ Recipient Total amount Recipient Charity or QD Recipient City Donor Charity Province gifts Wanuskewin Heritage park THE BROWNLEE FAMILY 1. Saskatoon SK $5,025,000.00 Authority FOUNDATION INC. THE VICTORIA 2. Tsay Keh Dene First Nation $4,079,659.00 FOUNDATION THE VICTORIA 3. Kwadacha First Nation $2,279,000.00 FOUNDATION 4. QQS (EYES) PROJECTS SOCIETY BELLA BELLA BC $1,150,000.00 THE ANNUAL FOUNDATION ABORIGINAL FRIENDSHIP CALGARY HOMELESS 5. Calgary AB $1,052,963.00 CENTRE OF CALGARY FOUNDATION Ka:yu:k'th/Che:k'tles'et'h' First 6. Kyuquot BC $1,000,000.00 THE ANNUAL FOUNDATION Nations RICHARDSON FOUNDATION Winnipeg Art Gallery: Inuit Art 7. Winnipeg MB $1,000,000.00 INC. /FONDATION Centre RICHARDSON INC. Arctic Indigenous Wellness ARCTIC INSPIRATION PRIZE 8. Yellowknife NT $980,000.00 Foundation CHARITABLE TRUST LISIMS FISHERIES 9. Nisga'a Lisims Government Gitlaxt'aamiks BC $650,000.00 CONSERVATION TRUST MA MAWI WI CHI ITATA CENTRE 10. Winnipeg MB $635,023.00 UNITED WAY OF WINNIPEG */** NATIVE CHILD AND FAMILY UNITED WAY OF GREATER 11. TORONTO ON $631,094.00 SERVICES OF TORNOTO TORONTO SUNCOR ENERGY 12. Indspire Toronto ON $575,000.00 FOUNDATION/FONDATION SUNCOR ENERGIE URBAN INDIGENOUS HEALTH & The 625 Powell Street 13. $500,000.00 HEALING CO-OP Foundation THE SLAIGHT FAMILY 14.