Your CanadaHelps Charity Account

A CanadaHelps Charity Account is where a charity manages its relationship with CanadaHelps and how it uses the services and technologies we offer.

A charity doesn’t have to have a CanadaHelps account to benefit from the work we do: we accept and disburse donations for any charitable organization registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). That said, only with one of our two free charity account types, can a charity use our services and technology to full potential.

Donations is only a portion of what we do for thousands of charities across Canada. Only with one of our two types of free CanadaHelps Charity Accounts do you have the tools to make the most of understanding and connecting with donors through our site. For example, with a CanadaHelps Charity Account you can:

• upgrade your charity profile on CanadaHelps;
• access complete donor information;
• manage your donations and disbursements.

We offer two types of Charity Accounts:

A Free Profile Account gives you:

• full access to your charity’s profile on our site which you can use to explain the purpose of your organization and to illustrate its work with photos and videos;
• the option to set up specific funds or “campaigns” through which donors can contribute to a specific cause or aspect of your work;
• the option to set up Electronic Funds Transfers for safer and more frequent disbursements of the donations we collect (as compared with paper cheques);
• access to information about the donors who contribute to your organization through our site.

A Free Donate Now Account gives you all the features included in a Profile Account, plus:

• use of our Donate Now and Fundraise Now buttons on your own web site or in other digital media;
• the option to customize the Donate Now experience for your donors so that it more closely matches their experience of your own site;
• a discounted transaction rate for every donation we process.

Charity accounts are free, with no membership fees or monthly charges. They only take a moment to set up, so create your account now.

If your organization is currently registered as a charity with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), you can sign up for a CanadaHelps Charity Account.

We don’t currently make accounts available for individuals or non-profits that are not registered with the CRA as a charity. We will be adding Registered Amateur Athletic Associations and other qualified donees to CanadaHelps in 2015.

A recognized administrator for any CRA-registered charitable organization can open an account for that charity.

If you have authority to act on behalf of your organization, then you can register it for an account. After you register, you can share your account username and password with other authorized administrators who should have access to the account and your profile on our site. Please note, we keep a single administrative email address on file which receives all notifications and announcements.

It’s easy. Sign up here.

We’ll ask you to provide the name and CRA-issued business number of your organization, along with some contact information. We’ll also ask you to create a password, and select search categories that correspond to your charity’s mission. The online registration should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete.

There is no charge to open a CanadaHelps account for charities.

CanadaHelps is a non-profit organization. Our mission is to increase charitable giving, and it’s critical to our mission that we pass along as much as possible out of every dollar we collect.

Like all online transactions, online charitable gifts are subject to transaction processing fees from banks, credit card companies and/or supporting brokerage firm. To ensure our fee structure is as simple and transparent as possible, our fees include the payment processing costs.

These are the fees we collect on donations in order to keep CanadaHelps running: 

* 3% fee applies to donations less than $10,000; 2.5% fee applies to donations between $10,000-$49,999; 2.25% fee applies to donations between $50,000-$99,999; 2% fee applies to donations $100,000+.

That’s it. There are no hidden fees.

We do not charge charities to:

• Open or maintain a CanadaHelps account;
• Set-up electronic fund transfers for donations they receive;
• Customize and manage their charity profile and campaigns on CanadaHelps.org;
• Create custom-branded donation and fundraising pages;
• Access real-time donation reporting information;
• Benefit from the advocacy work we do in support of small to medium-sized charities.
• And, we’re committed to keeping our educational tools for charities free or very affordable.

There is also no charge to open a CanadaHelps account for donors.

You manage your charity’s profile by logging into your Charity Account and accessing the Profile section.

There you’ll see the tools that allow you to add content or functionality to your charity’s profile:

• add a clear mission statement for your organization and a description of the work you do;
• add photos and videos to illustrate your work and show the real people who work for your charity and those you serve;
• add specific “campaign” funds to which donors can contribute in support of specific initiatives or needs;
• add testimonials from people who’ve worked with or benefitted from your organization;
• add an explanation of how people can support your organization beyond monetary contributions, with gifts of goods or services;
• customize the donation tool to reflect the donation amounts you’d like to suggest.

Remember that visitors to your charity’s profile page want to understand what your organization does and why it’s important. They’ve probably come because they want to know about the work you do and they want to be moved to contribute.

Your challenge is to focus your explanation so that visitors can understand it quickly.

You can use the charity description to elaborate on your mission statement, explaining in more detail the people you serve and the services you offer. Try to convey to potential supporters the impact that your organization has, and what difference you make in the world.

Is there anything about your organization that sets it apart from other organizations doing similar work? Do you serve a specific location or population? Is there a particular need you address which other organizations may not?

We offer more detailed tutorials and webinars on making the most of your charity’s profile.

As part of our charitable mission, CanadaHelps works to help charities learn more about donor acquisition and retention, email marketing, social media for nonprofits and other important topics relating to technology and fundraising in the charitable sector. Find out more about our low and no-cost learning opportunities.