This text is part of the special Philanthropy section
Charities can now count on a new donation program: I assure my cause.
The I assure my cause program allows you to take out life insurance adapted to your budget, then designate the organization of your choice as holder and beneficiary. Payment of premiums can be made annually (over a maximum period of ten years) or all at once and entitles you to tax credits for donations in Quebec and Canada. When the donor dies, the life insurance capital is paid directly to the beneficiary organization, tax-free.
“Each time a donor takes out such life insurance, we ourselves make a donation of $125 to the beneficiary organization and if a donor supports several organizations, we make this donation to each of them,” explains Chantale Vigneault, financial security advisor affiliated with the Cloutier Group and president and co-founder of the program.
Organizations in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick that wish to participate in this program must register, for an annual subscription of $375 plus tax. In return, J’assure ma cause takes care of insurance contracts, signatures, payment of premiums and sends a list to organizations each year so that they can send tax receipts to donors. They will also receive support to raise awareness of the program among their current and previous donors.
To everyone
“We really want to show that you don’t have to be rich to donate life insurance to an organization,” adds Chantale Vigneault. You can do it within your budget. »
J’assure ma cause offers life insurance without a medical examination, which will pay between $5,000 and $250,000 to organizations upon the death of the donor. For a 45-year-old, non-smoking man in good health, for example, $10,000 of life insurance will cost approximately $625 per year. “After the tax credits, it comes to $333 per year, which means that after ten years he will have paid $3,330 to donate $10,000 to an organization,” specifies the advisor.
Of course, a donor who would like to contribute a life insurance capital higher than $250,000 could do so using a different product, which will require a medical examination.
Organizations in difficulty
Chantale Vigneault maintains that she had the idea for this program when she noticed the growing need for charitable support among the population and the organizations that provide it. It must be admitted that they are going through a bad time. They are facing an increase in demand, a slowdown in donations and a shortage of labor.
According to CanadaHelps’ 2023 Giving Report, released last April, 22% of Canadians intended to use charitable services to meet essential needs in 2023, compared to 14% in 2022. Despite this increase in needs, 20% of Canadians thought they would reduce their donations in 2022 and only 13% planned to give more.
Online donations via CanadaHelps increased by 2% in 2021 and 4% in 2022. Between 2010 and 2020, they increased by an average of 22.4% per year. Almost a third of the organizations surveyed by CanadaHelps are receiving fewer donations than before the pandemic, both from individuals and businesses.
The report also shows that more than half are struggling to meet current levels of demand, are concerned about staff burnout and have fewer volunteers than before the pandemic. Inflation also increases the costs of providing services for eight out of ten of these organizations.
Alerted by these difficulties, the federal government created the Community Services Recovery Fund, a one-time investment of $400 million. The Canadian Red Cross, Community Foundations of Canada and United Way Centraide Canada have been selected to manage funding requests from community, charitable and non-profit organizations, as well as Indigenous governing bodies under this program. In August 2023, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Jenna Sudds, announced that the Fund had financed nearly 5,500 projects (including more than 1,250 in Quebec, for a value exceeding $77 million).
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.
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2023-11-11 05:17:00
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