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The Royal Arch Charitable Foundation is a registered charity
that was established on the 20th day of August in the City of Nanaimo, B.C.
Objects
of the Foundation:
To promote
and further the aims, interests and objectives of the institution known as The
Grand
Chapter of
Royal Arch Masons of BC
&
Yukon. To carry on
all activities of a charitable nature beneficial to the
Grand
Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons of
BC &
Yukon including without limitation, soliciting,
receiving, recording, maintaining and disposing of
property, donations, bequests, or gifts of any
nature whatsoever; To provide
services to the
Grand
Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons of BC &
Yukon relating to fund management,
investments and financial management and advice and to coordinate all the
efforts relating to fund-raising activities carried on by or on behalf of The
Grand
Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons of BC &
Yukon;
To act as a recipient of trust
funds in the form of monies or other properties given for determined or
indeterminate use, and to receive such funds for use as is in keeping with the
Foundation’s objectives;
To raise funds from time to time
as required by public subscription, and to solicit or otherwise encourage to
obtain gifts, donations, bequests, endowments or other acquisitions of funds
and real and personal property of any kind
GIFT ACCEPTANCE & DISCLOSURE
GUIDELINES
Background:
The Royal Arch Charitable
Foundation (hereafter referred to as the “Foundation”) is a registered society
under the Society Act of British
Columbia (S-52567) with the Registrar of Companies in the Province of
British Columbia. The Foundation was
incorporated on the 22nd day of August
2007.
Purpose of the
Foundation:
To
promote the growth of income from contributed funds to achieve donor’s
charitable objectives.
To
encourage and support those charitable organizations best able to carry the
Foundations activities congruent with the purposes for which the Foundation
was established.
To
provide philanthropic leadership and to support endeavours which improve the
quality of life in the Province of
British Columbia and Yukon
Territory.
Objects of the Foundation
The objects of the Foundation
are:
a)
To promote and further the aims, interests
and objectives of the institution known as The Grand Chapter or Royal Arch
Masons of British Columbia & Yukon.
b) To carry on all
activities of a charitable nature including without limitation,
soliciting, receiving, recording,
maintaining and disposing of property,
donations, bequests, or gifts of any nature
whatsoever;
c)
To provide services
relating to fund management, investments and financial management and
advice and to coordinate all the efforts relating to fund-raising activities
carried on by or on behalf of the Foundation;
d)
To act as a recipient of
trust funds in the form of monies or other properties given for determined or
indeterminate use, and to receive such funds for use as is in keeping with the
Foundation’s purposes;
e)
To raise funds from time
to time as required by public subscription, and to solicit or otherwise
encourage to obtain gifts, donations, bequests, endowments or other acquisitions
of funds and real and personal property of any
kind;
Guidelines
Background:
The Foundation is a vehicle through
which a donor can support The Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of British
Columbia & Yukon, and its authorized
and approved charities.
The Gift Acceptance Guidelines are
designed to provide guidance to prospective donors to facilitate the gift giving
process. It clarifies the mission of the Foundation and, along with any
specific fund arrangement, the roles, responsibilities and expectations of both
the Foundation and its donors.
The Gift Acceptance Guidelines also
provide guidance for the Foundation’s decisions. They ensure that gifts to the
Foundation are made in accordance with legal and ethical regulations and
guidelines, promote consistent practices and protect the Foundation from
potential liability related to gifts that might come with unforeseen financial
consequences. The Guidelines can serve to enhance, long term,
relationships with donors, and encourage donors and the Foundation
representatives to work together to achieve the greatest benefit for society
consistent with donors’ broad philanthropic wishes.
The Foundation must
approve any gift, which in the opinion of its Directors exposes the
Foundation to an uncertain and potentially significant liability (e.g.
property).
These Disclosure Guidelines set out the Foundation’s
practice for publishing names of donors, funds and recipients, and instances
where anonymity will be permitted.
Gift Acceptance
Guidelines:
1. The
Directors of the Foundation, shall inform, serve, guide or otherwise assist
donors who wish to support the Foundation’s activities, but are not to pressure
or unduly persuade. Types of Gifts and the Foundation’s procedure in
dealing with them are set in Appendix
A.
2. The
Directors of the Foundation shall, in all cases of potential major new gifts,
encourage the donor to discuss the proposed gift with independent professional
advisors of the donor’s choice so the donor may receive a full and accurate
explanation of all aspects of the proposed charitable
gift.
3. The Directors of the
Foundation are authorized to review planned gift agreements with
prospective donors, following guidelines approved by the Foundation Board of
Directors. Gifts will be planned to reflect the donors’ charitable
interests.
4.
All proposed planned
arrangements requiring execution by the Foundation shall be reviewed and
approved as to form and content by the Foundation’s legal counsel.
5.
All gift agreements must
be reviewed and approved by the Directors of the Foundation.
(See Appendix B - The use that is to be made of the
gift).
6.
The Foundation reserves
the right to decline a gift.
7.
Gift-related costs such as legal fees, appraisals, real estate commissions and
taxes relating to acceptance, maintenance, management or re-sale of a gift or
property will normally be the responsibility of the donor, unless the Foundation
agrees to assume responsibility for any portion of these
costs.
8. The
Foundation shall obtain independent written appraisals as to the value of gifts
other than cash or tradable securities.
9. The
Foundation shall not serve as executor of a donor’s will or trustee of a
charitable remainder trust.
10. Donors’ wishes of
recognition or anonymity regarding a gift will be respected except as required
by law.
Disclosure
Guidelines:
All donors and amount ranges may be
disclosed at the Foundation’s discretion unless the donor requests the gift to
be anonymous.
For tribute gifts (memorial, etc.)
the family is notified of each donor’s name unless the donor wishes to remain
anonymous. No individual gift amounts are divulged; only fund
balances.
For all other gifts to funds where
the founder is still living, the donors’ names and amounts will be divulged to
the founder upon request by the founder unless the donor has requested that the
gift be anonymous.
Where there is a written agreement,
the founder of the fund may request that the text of the agreement, but not its
existence, remain confidential, except as required either legally or by
Foundation practice.
APPENDIX A –
TYPES OF GIFTS
1. Outright
Gifts
This
is the most common type of giving. Outright gifts, either monies or
property, provide support for a charity’s day-to-day activities, for special
projects or in the case of the Foundation, to be capital for an endowment fund
intended to provide annual income in perpetuity. There are many ways of making
outright gifts, but they share a common characteristic: as soon as the gift is
made it can be put to use.
The
Board of Directors approves recommended guidelines and minimum funding
thresholds to establish a named endowment or specific fund. These minimum
amounts will be reviewed annually.
a.
Cash Gifts
Monetary gifts, whether
by cheque, money order, credit card or currency, are the most common way to
contribute an outright gift to a charity. A cheque is generally considered
to have been given on the day it was received.
Exception; A gift sent
by mail, if postmarked in December, qualifies as a charitable donation in that
tax year, even if it is not received until January.
b. Credit Card
Gifts
A gift by credit card is considered
to have been made on the date the obligation was
incurred.
c. Gift of
Publicly-Traded Securities
Publicly-Traded
Securities can include shares, bonds, bills, warrants and futures that are
traded on prescribed stock exchanges.
Valuation of Gifts of
publicly-traded securities shall be dealt with as
follows:
(i)
to qualify for reduced
capital gain inclusion rate, the securities must be given
in-kind.
(ii)
Receipt –
publicly-traded securities that are freely tradable and which are gifted to the
Foundation may be delivered by the donor directly to the Foundation or they may
be deposited by the donor into a Foundation account located with the Foundation
custodian as directed by the Foundation.
Gifts of
publicly-traded securities which are not freely tradable because of legal
restrictions pertaining to their transferability are not considered to be
accepted and receiptable by the Foundation until the shares have been approved
and received into the Foundation’s custodial account, to ensure the delivery of
the gift has been completed.
(iii)
Valuation – where
a gift of freely tradable, publicly
traded, securities is made to the
Foundation, the value will be the
closing market price on the date the shares were received by the Foundation (by
either an irrevocable deed of gift or the shares themselves whichever event
first occurs). Where none of these securities are traded on that day, the
value of these securities shall be determined by the Foundation in consultation
with its advisors and an independent valuation may be
obtained.
In the
case of securities, which are not freely tradable, because of legal restrictions
pertaining to their transferability or are thinly traded, an independent
valuation may be obtained and the value determined by the Foundation in
consultation with its advisors. The value, having regard to the nature of
the restrictions, may be subject to a discount to the closing market price of
the securities on the day the Foundation receives the
securities.
(iv) Realization – all gifts of
publicly-traded securities which are not going to be absorbed into the
Foundation portfolio are to be sold in an orderly fashion but as quickly as
possible so as to maximize the sale proceeds and to minimize any difference
between the proceeds and the value at which they were receipted, all subject to
market conditions at the time of sale. Until the securities are sold and
the resultant cash is transferred into the portfolio of pooled Funds, the
“Specified Charity” which is the recipient of the securities shall have no share
in the pool. All commission charges and all resulting capital losses
and gains which arise from the sale of the gifted securities, as compared to
their value at the time of receipt by the Foundation, shall be charged or
credited directly to the ”Specified Charity” which is the recipient of the gift
of securities and not to any of the other Funds at the Foundation.
However, these charges, losses and gains shall not affect the value of
the receipt issued for the gifted securities, which shall be valued as detailed
above.
(v) A copy of this Guidelines
document shall be provided by the Foundation to all donors who wish to make
gifts of securities to the Foundation.
d.
Life
Insurance
There are various
methods by which life insurance policies may be contributed to the Foundation.
A donor
may:
·
assign irrevocably, a
paid-up policy to the Foundation;
·
assign irrevocably, a
life insurance policy on which premiums remain to be paid;
or
·
name the Foundation as a
primary or successor beneficiary of the proceeds.
When ownership is
irrevocably assigned to the Foundation, the donor is entitled to a gift receipt
for the net cash surrender value, if any, and for any premiums subsequently
paid. Any of these types of life insurance gifts are acceptable to the
Foundation.
In the event a policy is
contributed on which premiums remain to be paid, or if the donor subsequently
ceased to pay premiums on the policy, the Foundation will examine the following
options in order to maximize the benefit to the
Foundation:
i.
determine if the cash
surrender value of the policy is sufficient to purchase a paid up
policy.
ii.
determine if the donor
is willing to pay premiums on a policy of reduced face
value.
iii.
determine if the
Foundation is willing to pay the premiums, taking into consideration the donor’s
life expectancy, present value of the policy’s death benefit, and the donor’s
health.
e.
Gifts in Kind:
Real estate
.
Gifts of
real estate may be made in various ways: outright, or residual interest in
the property.
The
following guidelines pertain to gifts of real estate in general.
Donors
must be advised of the following steps:
·the donor
shall secure a qualified appraisal of the property;
·the
Foundation shall determine if the donor has clear title to the
property;
·the
Foundation shall review other factors including zoning restrictions,
marketability, current use and cash flow, to ascertain that acceptance of the
gift would be in the best interests of the
Foundation.
·the
Foundation may choose to conduct an environmental assessment which may include
an environmental audit, and accept the property only if:
(a) it contains no toxic
substances or other environmental impediments, or
(b) they are removed or other
remedies taken assuring that Foundation assumes no liability
whatsoever.
A gift
receipt will be issued for the appraised value. For large, unique or other
complex properties, a second independent appraisal may be required by the
Foundation to meet its responsibilities under income tax
regulations.
2. Deferred
Gifts
Deferred gifts are gifts which come into effect on the happening of a future
event such as the death of a donor. Any deferred gifts are subject to the same
guidelines as outright gifts.
a.
Gifts by Will
Many people
who would like to make a substantial gift to charity cannot afford to part with
assets during their lifetimes. Preparing a will and giving a portion of
one’s estate to charity is a common type of future
gift.
In future years
the Foundation could be the beneficiary of many gifts by will.
A specific gift gives
the charity a specific piece of property or amount of money. A residual
gift gives the charity all or a portion of whatever remains of the estate after
all debts, taxes, expenses and specific gifts have been paid. A contingent
gift takes effect if certain conditions on which the gift is given are
satisfied.
The conditions of a
Contingent Gift must be reviewed by the Directors of the Foundation in
accordance with these Guideline statements.
b.
Life
Insurance
The Foundation may be the
beneficiary of a life insurance policy. A tax receipt will be issued to
the estate upon receipt of the proceeds of the
policy.
c. Gift of Registered
Funds
Registered funds such as
a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) or registered retirement income fund
(RRIF) are taxed in the hands of the estate.
Where Registered Funds are given to
the Foundation the charitable tax credit may offset the tax payable on the
Registered Funds. The donor should consult a tax advisor.
d. Other
Gifts
Gifts not otherwise
dealt with may only be accepted after consultation with the Directors of
the Foundation. A majority agreement to proceed would be
mandatory.
APPENDIX
B
Restrictions on
Gifts:
The charitable needs of society
are continually changing and so the Foundation encourages gifts that are
either “undesignated” or specified for a “Charity of interest”. This allows the
Foundation future discretion to allocate such funds for purposes consistent with
the objects of the Foundation.
Donor-Advised
Funds:
The nature of a charitable gift is
such that a donor cannot expect material consideration (financial benefits, or
opportunities for other persons not at arm’s length) to flow from the gift, nor,
after the gift has been made, to direct the Foundation as to how it must apply
the income from the gift.
Donors may advise the Foundation
from time to time as to how they wish the income from the gift to be applied
where there exists a “donor-advised” or “Charity of interest” arrangement.
The Foundation’s Guidelines are to consider the donor’s advice in accordance
with the Society Act of British
Columbia and Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
requirements.
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