Finance committee  From our perspective, in the church community it is the individuals who have been supporting on a consistent basis, motivated quite often because of religious commitment to the local church, whether they are giving tithes, offerings, and those kinds of things. From looking at it,

Finance committee  I just want to mention, as a member of the Canadian bar, that the law societies across the country will often have a special wills day, and so forth, offered to the public. But it takes me back, as well, to the concept and the idea.... Remember, many years ago, the government s

Finance committee  You are referring to the CIDA experience?

Finance committee  Certainly in our membership, we have a number of development agencies and so forth around the world, and people respond to the crisis of the day, as it were, in which the churches and the church organizations are able to get involved. We think of MCC—that's the Mennonite Central

Finance committee  Of course, the problem with the church-based community, which we are, is that we struggle with our definitions fitting under advancement of religion, so we have to be careful when we get involved in social enterprise activities. Currently, the requirement is that if we are involv

Finance committee  I'd just like to add that, as I mentioned, we do have the seal of accountability. We're actually in the process right now of developing a separate website that's even going to advertise in a much more stark way those who have reached the seal of accountability. We also do adverti

Finance committee  Okay.

Finance committee  Sure. I'd be happy to. Since 1983 we have established a seal of accountability process. We have 3,200 members, but not every one of those members has reached the point of being able to advertise the seal of accountability, the CCCC seal of accountability. We have some 180 charit

Finance committee  As far as the Canadian Council of Christian Charities is concerned, we considered it as well, and we have some concerns. Most of those who give to the church community tend to be those who give on the basis of principle, you know, religious conviction and so forth. We are uncerta

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Canadian Council of Christian Charities, which I'll refer to hereafter as CCCC, is a member-based association of more than 3,200 faith-based charities across the country. We maintain two key functions. First, we provide practical, expert resources for