Malcolm Burrows

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Malcolm is a philanthropic advisor with over 30 years of experience. He is head, philanthropic advisory services at Scotia Wealth Management and founder of Aqueduct Foundation. Views are his own. malcolm.burrows@scotiawealth.com

Does Donor Recognition Create Obligations?

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Is a donor obliged to provide ongoing support to a charity after a building or facility is named in their honour?  The legal answer is “no”.  Naming, however, may stir up complex feelings of ownership and hope, which often lead to misunderstandings — even after the donor is dead. There are legal, practical, and human issues to consider. Legal Limitations Donations must be freely given and are not contractually binding,….

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Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

Social and Personal Giving

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There is a charity fundraising truism that says “you don’t get money unless you ask for it”. But estate planning professionals know that’s not true. Thirty years ago, I was working in gift planning at a major Toronto hospital foundation.  My professional education consistently reinforced the above truism, but my experience didn’t align with what I was taught.  My job focused on exceptional donations from wealth and estate donations. To….

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Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Donations to Government

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[caption id="attachment_22376" align="aligncenter" width="401"] Queen’s Park, Toronto (Wikipedia)[/caption] The title of this article may provoke laughter, or perhaps, just head-shaking disbelief.  But lifetime and estate donations to various levels of government do happen. The trick is to ensure that the donor’s intentions are carried out. The Crown – i.e. federal and provincial governments – and Canadian municipalities are qualified donees under the Income Tax Act. Agents of the Crown are….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

Estate Donation Regime at 10 Years

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Ten years ago, in 2016, the introduction of the Graduated Rate Estate (GRE) regime turned Canadian estate planning upside down.  The sidebar to the GRE rules were rules for “estate donations”. These Income Tax Act provisions in Section 118.1(5.1) altered the administrative and tax treatment of gifts by will, as well as direct designation gifts of life insurance, RRSP/RRIFs, and TFSAs. A decade later, how are charities and executors managing?….

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Uncategorized

Getting Something Back from Charitable Giving

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[caption id="attachment_22206" align="aligncenter" width="423"] Siemens MRI machine[/caption] The common law of charity defines a gift as property that is “freely given without consideration”. That is, a transfer without any expectation of getting something back. It’s an ideal for giving, which often gets tattered and torn in the real world. It has always been so. Medieval Indulgences Perhaps the most famous example of quid pro quo giving are indulgences. In 1517,….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

The Invention of Charitable Options

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The promise of venture philanthropy is seductive.  It aspires to harness entrepreneurial energy for the public good – to meld business methods with generosity to give back and create change.  That was the hope when I helped invent charitable stock options in 1999. Charitable Stock Options, or just Charitable Options, are a Canadian capital market charitable giving tool incubated in the dot-com era of late 1990s. In 2000 they were….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving
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