Charitable Impact Foundation, known as "CHIMP" claims that it is the "fastest growing" giving network in Canada. CHIMP says that 197,000 people have used CHIMP's website to donate $1.4 billion to 14,000 charities. If CHIMP truly has funded a billion dollars worth of charity, that's fantastic! The problem is, CHIMP has more red flags than a Chinese military parade. This post is about on of these red flags, the payments that CHIMP has made for a total of $79 million paid to a private company run by CHIMP's president and his father.
Since CHIMP began, CHIMP has been paying a private company called Chimp Technology Inc. ("Chimp Tech") to provide CHIMP with technology, human resources and business services. The striking thing about CHIMP's payments to Chimp Tech is how they have soared, as follows:
2011 $ 50,522
2012 $ 81,429
2013 $ 158,540
2014 $ 681,701
2015 $ 2,573,169
2016 $ 3,573,722
2017 $ 3,484,139
2018 $ 12,773,997
2019 $ 7,202,359
2020 $ 10,118,606
2021 $ 13,641,648
2022 $ 13,632,500
2023 $ 11,640,965
Total $ 79,613,297
The second thing to note is that Chimp Technology Inc. is a for-profit company run by John Bromley and Blake Bromley. John Bromley is CHIMP's CEO. Blake Bromley is John's father. This means is that CHIMP has paid $79 million to a for-profit company run by the charity's president and his dad. This is unusual and warrants explanation.
Lets be clear: There's nothing wrong with a charity paying for services from a private company. What's important is that the services are paid for at fair market value.
The third thing that is troubling here is the unexplained origin of the $79 million.
The main service that CHIMP provides is a website that enables donations to any charity in Canada. CHIMP says that this service is "free" to use.
Obviously, CHIMP didn't generate $79 million by providing a "free" service.
On securities and charitable investments, CHIMP charges a fee of 0.5%. Even if CHIMP had charged 0.5% on the entire $886 Million that CHIMP has reported as tax-receipted donations since CHIMP began, that's only $4 million, not $79 million.
So where did CHIMP get the $79 million?
In a long series of lettrs, John Bromley and Blake Bromley have been asked about the origin of the funds that CHIMP pays to their private company and other questions. A year ago, I wrote to John Bromley specifically about CHIMP's payments to Chimp Tech. No reply. At that point, CHIMP had paid $68 million to CHIMP Tech. Add in last year's payments and the total is now $79 million.
In the absence of any explanation from the Bromley's, I wrote to CRA, requesting a CRA audit.
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