Poor record-keeping sinks two Canadian charities

VANCOUVER, Nov. 19. 2025 – The importance of proper bookkeeping and maintaining detailed records is at the heart of two recent decisions by the government to revoke the registrations of Canadian charities.

Evangelical World Outreach of Canada, Inc., of Winnipeg and Mazel Charity Fund of North York, Ont., both lost their charitable status on Oct. 18. 

In both cases, the charities had previously signed agreements with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), promising to fix problems of non-compliance with the Income Tax Act, according to revocation letters released to the Investigative Journalism Foundation. The letters say both charities’ failures to keep adequate books and records made it impossible to determine if they were meeting the terms of the compliance agreements.

The Sept. 11 letter to Evangelical World Outreach of Canada, Inc. says a key issue in the organization’s 2020 compliance agreement with the CRA was whether it was maintaining enough control over the money it was sending to rural India to support missionary efforts. 

The charity had agreed it would start signing agreements with the people doing work on its behalf in India, to make sure the funds were being used as directed, according to the CRA. But during an audit of the 2022 and 2023 books, “the organization did not provide us with any signed agreements,” the letter says.

“We were not provided with any other information to demonstrate that the organization maintained direction and control over the use of its resources,” the letter continues. 

It goes on to say that the charity did not provide any copies of meeting minutes, records of discussion between board members or proper documentation of spending in India during the audit period.

The letter notes that the organization made a request in May to have its status voluntarily revoked, following the death of its founder late last year. But granting a voluntary revocation happens at the CRA’s discretion. In this case, “based on the serious and continued nature” of the problems identified in the audit, it would not be appropriate. Voluntary revocation “cannot be used to avoid any ongoing compliance action,” according to the letter.

Meanwhile, the Mazel Charity Fund, a private foundation that provides funding for Jewish institutions, also signed a compliance agreement with the CRA in 2020, according to the Sept. 11 letter to that charity. Part of that agreement included retaining proper records to prove it was dedicated to charitable activities.

But when CRA auditors reached out to the charity in 2025 to request documentation to review how well it was meeting the terms of the agreement, they say they came up short.

“Despite being provided with multiple opportunities to do so, the organization has not provided us with sufficient documentation to substantiate its sources of revenue or its expenses. Further, the organization did not provide any documentation regarding its donation receipting processes, or to substantiate that it is devoting all of its resources to charitable activities in furtherance of its stated purposes,” the letter says. 

Charities have the option of appealing their revocations through the courts. Neither organization responded to requests for comment from the IJF.

Bethany Lindsay is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with the Investigative Journalism Foundation in Vancouver, BC. Title image: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) national headquarters in Ottawa in June 2024. The agency recently revoked the charitable status of two organizations that failed to adopt proper record-keeping practices after being audited. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick).