U.S. Senior Executives Learn about Canadian Charity Law

What would bring U.S. members of the Christian Reformed Church’s executive team to Toronto for a seminar on charitable tax law? The fact that the church is a binational organization. According to Darren Roorda, the CRC’s Canadian ministries director, that effort speaks of the denomination’s commitment to being a binational church.

Steven Timmermans, CRC executive director, said that learning about the denomination’s various responsibilities of an organization approved by the Canada Revenue Agency to provide charitable activities and receive charitable gifts is necessary. “As new leaders of the denomination, our hope was to gain a basic working knowledge of Canadian charitable law as it impacts our agencies and ministries, thereby complementing what we already know about U.S. charitable law,” he said. “In a binational denomination, it’s important that senior leadership are well-versed in law affecting our denomination in both countries and fully understand the legal requirements in each nation.”

Timmermans said that what they came away with as well was knowing “that those in our Burlington office utilize appropriate policies and internal controls that honor our members' trust in denominational services.”

Timmermans was joined at the conference by Colin Watson, director of ministries and administration; John Bolt, director of finance and operations; and Terry Veldboom, CRCNA controller in the Canadian office.

“The benefit for a team including leaders from both national contexts is that we can listen and learn together, and then, maybe even more importantly, reflect together on our policies and practices in light of what we were hearing.”