Finance committee  Good afternoon, and thank you for giving the Association of Fundraising Professionals the opportunity to testify before you today on an extremely important topic of tax incentives for charitable donations. I am the chair of the association's board of directors. I'm also a fundra

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I was actually referring to exactly what you've said. During the recession many people lost their jobs and their houses. The people who are the working poor, who live, work and operate their daily lives on a very fine line, fell over that line and ha

Finance committee  I'm just glad you're not asking me to comment on whether the NDP would vote against the budget if—

Finance committee  I'm not going to say. But I would have to answer your questions with my personal opinion.

Finance committee  I would have to say capital gains, and gifts of private securities, land, and real estate.

Finance committee  Well, it's.... Counter me....

Finance committee  Actually, he's made me change my mind.

Finance committee  I can comment on the Gift Aid program. One of the reasons, and probably the essential reason, it has been very successful is that it's done through payroll tax giving in the U.K. It all comes off at source, so it's very different than the taxation system that we have here in Cana

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  It's somewhat like the United Way, but at the government level. One of the issues they do have in the U.K., though, is moving people beyond giving through payroll taxes to giving more and volunteering more. They don't have nearly the volunteer network in the U.K. that we have i

Finance committee  Yes, it's a different environment. Canadians are not as generous, for example, as Americans. Canadians on average give about 0.05% of their net income, I think it is, or close to 1% of their income, and in the U.S., it's more like 2.5%.

Finance committee  I think there's a greater understanding of philanthropy, for one reason, and I think there's also a greater understanding of the role the non-profit sector plays in civil society. It's more firmly rooted in the culture. Our culture has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, f

Finance committee  I don't know that I could answer that. I can certainly get back to you on that.

Finance committee  Actually, no, I don't think they are. I think that incentivizing any kind of giving is a positive thing, because increased philanthropy encourages more philanthropy. In fact in Canada in the text-giving scenario, we're way behind Europe and Southeast Asia and any of those countr

Finance committee  The question about how much charities spend to raise money, is that what you're really getting at?