Every year since 2010, Tides Canada Foundation has reported in its Canadian tax returns that it does not fund any organizations outside of Canada, except for organizations that are eligible (called "qualified donees" in the terminology of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
The question that charities are required to answer on their tax returns is this:
"Did the charity carry on, fund, or provide any resources through employees, volunteers, agents, joint ventures, contractors, or any other individuals, intermediaries, entities, or means (other than qualified donees) for any activity/program/project outside Canada?"
Tides Canada Foundation has always replied, "No." See line C4 in the returns posted at the links below:
The information reported at line C4 by Tides Canada Foundation does not right true with me in light of the dozens of organizations outside Canada that Tides Canada Foundation has funded via its Exchange Fund. By its own admission, Tides Canada has processed at least $22.6 million via this fund.
On December 26, 2016, Mark Blumberg, a Canadian lawyer with clients in the charitable sector, reported that Tides Canada Foundation had closed is "international donation matching system." Mr. Blumberg also reported that Tides Canada had charged a fee of 10 percent on the transactions that it processed using this mechanism. As Mr. Blumberg notes, a 10 percent fee on a $1 million payment is a hefty $100,000.
Asked about the apparent inconsistency between what Tides Canada Foundation has been funding and what it has reported in its Canadian tax returns, Tides Canada Foundation has denied that it funds organizations outside of Canada. A representative replied, "Tides Canada Foundation grants only to qualified donees in Canada." For that correspondence, click here. From my lay perspective, I find that this statement is impossible to reconcile with the evidence that in 2013 alone, The Tides Foundation in San Francisco made more than 100 payments to organizations outside Canada that are not qualified donees.
Below, here are examples of 25 payments that The Tides Foundation made in 2013 to organizations outside of Canada. As the covering letters note, all of these payments were made on behalf of the Tides Canada Foundation Exchange Fund. As far as I can tell, none of these organizations are eligible for funding from registered charities such as Tides Canada Foundation.
- $195,580, Great Britain
- $95,000, New York, NY
- $91,805, Sausalito, CA
- $55,096, Hudson, OH
- $48,215, Sunnyvale, CA
- $31,743, Peru
- $28,905, Milpitas, CA
- $21,698, Bozeman, MT
- $21,431, Lakville, CT
- $20,638, Hudson, OH
- $12,939, Langley, WA
- $10,799, North Palm Beach, FL
- $10,799, North Palm Beach, FL
- $10,170, Houston, TX
- $10,114, Miami, FL
- $10,000, Juno Beach, FL
- $9,475, Princeton, NJ
- $8,951, North Plm Beach, FL
- $8,653, Cincinnati, OH
- $8,609, Waterton, MA
- $8,483, India
- $7,711, New York, NY
- $7,711, San Francisco, CA
- $6,600, Leawood, CA
- $5,000, Sausalito, CA
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