Mr. Bromley,
RE: Tax-receipted donations for $600 Million
According to your web-site, you have created 650 charities and executed >$2 billion worth of charitable giving. Because of the substantial tax relief associated with TWO BILLION DOLLARS in charitable giving, I believe that your work is a matter of public interest to Canadians. This is why I have looked into your charities so extensively and why I am writing this open letter to you.
As you are aware from our correspondence since the spring of this year, I have done an extensive analysis of the financial data in the tax returns for more than 100 charities under your direction or co-direction. For 75 charities, I have compiled detailed information (click here). All or nearly all of these 75 charities are run out of your Vancouver office and by your employees/associates so it makes sense to me to examine their charitable contribution as a whole.
As far as I can tell, 35 of the 75 charities account for the bulk of the transactions made by these entities. For most of the 35 charities, I find that the figures in the tax returns are not a true reflection of their charitable activity because of the circular grant-making amongst these charities.
Combined across all 35 charities, total expenditures are roughly $1.1 billion. I find that this figure has been inflated by at least half a billion dollars due to circular grant-making.
Total tax-receipted donations for the 35 charities are roughly $600 million. According to my analysis, less than $100 million of that has been spent on actual charity. I do not see any way that remaining assets could account for the gap between what has been spent on actual charity and what your charities have reported as tax-receipted donations.
In light of the significant tax relief involved, my initial questions are:
- What charitable purposes were served with the $242 Million in tax-receipted donations to Sea to Sky Foundation and Stewart & Marilyn Blusson Foundation?
- For what charitable purpose did Sea to Sky Foundation and Blusson Foundation pay $240 Million for interest and bank charges, and other, unspecified expenses? Were the recipients the same parties that made tax-receipted donations for $242 million? Put plainly, did the donor(s) get their “donation” back – in addition to the tax relief?
- What charitable purpose was served with the $100 million in tax-receipted donations to Global Charity Fund ($70 million) and Association for the Advancement of Scholarship ($30 million)?
I also feel that it is necessary to raise questions about the grant making by Chimp Foundation. Chimp has received about $111 million from some of the very same charities to which Chimp has granted nearly the same amount ($100 Million). What charitable purposes have been served with the $100 million paid to Chimp Foundation by these charities? Put plainly, how much of the $100 million did Chimp spend on actual charity and how much does Chimp just road-trip in circles?
For your reference, here's the material that I have prepared and that is the basis of my questions:
- Notes
- Flowcharts
- Spreadsheets for 75 charities
- Case Studies:
- Open Letter to Blake Bromley, November 26, 2018
If I have presented anything here that is factually incorrect, or if I have missed any important points, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Vivian
@FairQuestions