Now more than ever, your dollar needs to go further. I am saddened when I hear about how donations are taking advantage of their donors' charitable investments.

• The Canada Revenue Agency revokes the charitable status of Universal Aide Society

I can't stress enough how important it is for donors to ask organizations where their money is going and how it is being used to further the mission/mandate of the organization. In this case, according to CRA, the Universal Aid Society was using donated dollars for personal expenses. Copies of the Donor Bill of Rights and other resources for making informed decisions can be found here. I encourage you to ask the organizations that you are involved with if they have adopted this code and how they do their fundraising.

On October 26th, 2008 the Malawi Project praised the work of the Universal Aide Society. There are always two sides to every story, and it is unfortunate that the ripple effect of the actions of the management of this society will be felt by organizations that are on the front-lines.

In related news:

• The Canada Revenue Agency revokes the charitable status of The Children's Emergency Foundation

There have been several blog posts on this site as well as others about tax shelters and charities. As donors, it is up to you and your advisors to do your due diligence around how and where you charitable investments are going.

Dexterity Consulting recently hosted a last minute "coffee-clatch" with Adam Aptowitzer, Drache LLP, on issues concerning charity law. What came out of that discussion was an obvious need of both donors and charities to get some more clarification around the complexities of the law and charities. As a result there will be a series of posts from Adam on this blog on a variety of topics. I encourage your feedback and suggestions for other topics.