CRA issues new Information

The CRA recently issued a large amount of information and carried out website updates that affect Canadian Charities and Nonprofits. Please read the following links for all the updates:

Guidance on Charities Carrying Out Activities Outside CanadaIn early July, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) released a new guidance - Canadian Registered Charities Carrying Out Activities Outside Canada - that updates and replaces Guide RC4106. The guidance assumes that a charity is carrying out activities outside of Canada through an intermediary. The requirements about working with intermediaries also apply to charities working with intermediaries within Canada.

CRA Changes Web Addresses
On July 14, the Canada Revenue Agency's Charities Directorate changed most of the webpage addresses on the Charities and Giving website. While the content of the site has stayed the same, you will need to update your links and bookmarks to the website.

CRA extends resources
The CRA has added several new pages to their website under the Revoking Registered Status section. The new pages cover such topics as types of revocation and processes, consequences of revocation, and annulment, as well as a question and answer page.

Vitalize!

We attended Vitalize from June 10 - 12, 2010 and had a great time! It was terrific to see Alberta's nonprofits and charities come out for 2 days of great sessions and networking while celebrating our sector's accomplishments and contributions. Check out the ECVO Facebook page for photos from the event.

ECVO takes part in Edmonton’s first Social Media Camp

ECVO attended MediaCamp Edmonton on May 8, 2010 to learn more about the new technologies that are increasingly replacing traditional communications methods. The event attracted 200 ‘hacks and flacks’ (Media and Public Relations professionals) to network and discuss how to apply social media in our daily lives.

As an ‘unconference’ the day’s agenda was set by the attendees presenting to the crowd topics they would like to see discussed. Sixteen small group sessions evolved out of these topics, including using social media to build relationships between media and publicists, whether the traditional definition of journalist was still valid, and how to attract advertising and sponsorship for your website/blog.

The unconference also featured a opening panel discussion which included Sue Heuman (from Focus Communications), Mack Male (local blogger and developer), Dave Cournoyer (local blogger and occasional political pundit), and Paula Simons (columnist from the Edmonton Journal) and was moderated by Karen Unland (Edmonton Journal). Lighting talks on new technologies including the iPad, Empire Avenue and Google Tables occurred after the lunch, breaking the sessions in half nicely.

Social Media was employed throughout the event, with attendees ‘tweeting’ their thoughts and opinions on the event as it occurred, driving #yegmediacamp to be the highest trending topic in Canada on Twitter during the first two hours of the unconference.

Overall, the unconference was a great success and gave a wonderful opportunity to interact with both members of the nonprofit sector and media personalities. It was an excellent chance to put faces to many names ECVO interacts with through Social Media and to gain a greater understanding of the new technologies and their power to influence trends and events throughout Edmonton and Canada.

Hopefully this event will become a yearly occurrence for Edmonton - it was a terrific experience and definitely of value for any nonprofit looking to increase their social media and web presence!

Thank you to the organizers and sponsors for a great day!

ECVO AGM and Community Connector a great success!

The Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations' Annual General Meeting and Community Connector events where held May 4, 2010 at the Shaw Convention Centre. The AGM began at 3:30pm and was attended by over 40 members of ECVO.

Highlights of the AGM included a brief overview of 2009’s achievements, the investiture of Cindy Chiasson and Kathy Lenihan as returning board members, and the appointment of new board members Scott Lundell, Craig Stumpf‐Allen and Susan Logan. ECVO also thanked retiring board members Liz O’Neil, Catherine Cole, and Susan Morrissey for their hard work during their terms. The AGM ended with a presentation by Cindy Chiasson on the new Strategic Framework under review by ECVO, and an invitation to attendees to discuss and provide feedback to the board through moderated conversations throughout the room.

The AGM was followed immediately by the Community Connector Event, which brought together nonprofits, government, and business. Approximately 70 representatives of these three sectors joined us for refreshments and networking. Ron Gilbertson, CEO of the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, spoke briefly on collaboration between sectors, and how the EEDC is working with nonprofits to enhance Edmonton through events such as Homeless Connect.

ECVO was delighted to see so many members in attendance, as well as Culture and Community Spirit’s Deputy Minister Lois Hawkins and Assistant Deputy Minister Tom Thackeray, Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman, and Mayor Stephen Mandel and Ward 5 Alderman Don Iveson from the City of Edmonton.

Our thanks to everyone who attended for making both events a great success! We look forward to holding another Community Connector event in the future.

For more photos, please visit ECVO's Facebook fan page.

The Amazing Contributions of Volunteers

The following is a guest post from Volunteer Edmonton's Evelyn Pham on National Volunteer Week and the contributions of Edmonton's Volunteers - thanks Evelyn! 

From April 18 to 24, National Volunteer Week celebrates and recognizes the amazing contributions of volunteers across Canada.

In recent years, it’s become evident that volunteers are critical to sustaining our quality of life. Nonprofit and voluntary organizations are continually struggling to do more with fewer dollars. Programs and services that exist in every facet of community—arts, culture, health, education, recreation and sports, religion, environment and more—would be seriously at risk, if not for the support of a volunteer workforce.

The dedication and enthusiasm of hundreds of people who help out in our community ensures that organizations can continue to provide the same level of services and programs that we all rely on.
These people are building homes, packing food and clothing for at-risk families; sitting on organizational boards and making decisions that have a lasting impact on our community; fundraising for cancer awareness and much more. Volunteers express human values of community and caring, give of themselves, and find solutions to shared community challenges.

They are our neighbours, parents, students, children and coworkers.

They are people just like you and me.

This week is not only our time to say thank you to the volunteers in our lives, but to reflect on the ways we can all give back to the 4,000 nonprofit organizations that exist in Edmonton, and how volunteering helps build better, stronger, healthier and more vibrant communities for us all.

-- Evelyn Pham, Volunteer Edmonton

Happy National Volunteer Week!

The sun is out, and the weather is gorgeous just in time for Edmonton's nonprofits and charities to send out more than 13,000 thank you cards to their volunteers!

National Volunteer Week, which started April 18, is seven days in which to recognize the outstanding efforts of all of Canada's volunteers - from those who sit on national hospital boards to those who bake cookies for their child's soccer team, and back again. Throughout our country, these volunteers are improving our quality of life at every level.

For those of us working in the nonprofit sector, we see the benefits of volunteers every day - these are the people who help run our programs, put their skills to work on our committees, organize fundraisers, balance our books, and give us guidance and direction as members of our boards. Many of Alberta's nonprofits and charities are entirely volunteer driven, and the rest of us succeed only with their committed help.

On behalf of the 4,000 nonprofits and charities in Edmonton, we thank all the volunteers for their help & determination in making sure that not only Edmonton's nonprofit sector continues to thrive, but that Edmonton itself is a stronger, healthier, more compassionate and simply better place to live for all of us.

Happy National Volunteer Week!

With Thanks,

ECVO

Social Media & Volunteers

While attending the Chris Jarvis Workshop Series today, I was struck by the mention of attracting volunteers through social media. While there was a lot of good content to the session (especially around steps to move volunteers from a 'one time tourist' to a dependable and consistent 'guide'), I really appreciated the social media video that was shown, and all the ideas for promoting ECVO it inspired in me.

A lot of people are still unsure or uninformed when it comes to social media; a lot of others think it is just a trend or something that should be supplementary to their communications efforts. This video presents the truth about  Social Media in a far more eloquent manner that I could ever manage!

it's called the  Social Media Revolution Video.  The link will take you straight to it on YouTube. The information is a bit outdated (the video is from 2009, a lot of the numbers come from 2008), but it gives a good idea of the scope and power of social media - even if it's a little understated in comparison to today's numbers!

Hope you enjoy - and that this gives you some new ideas on how to attract volunteers!

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