Frequently Asked Questions

GiveWise Foundation Canada is a registered charity with Canada Revenue Agency, Business Number 701032526 RR0001. GiveWise acts as a charitable grant making foundation and establishes Donor Advised Funds (Giving Funds).

While GiveWise exists to help more people give more money to more charities, we are a Canadian Registered Charity ourselves. So what does this mean? It means that we rely on the generosity of people like you, our donors! Some amazing people were generous enough to invest the seed money to get GiveWise started through a significant donation, but we need to keep moving forward, and that requires resources.

GiveWise charges monthly Giving Fund Administration Fees on funds with balances over $25,000, however, these fees do not cover all of costs, and so we humbly ask that you would consider allocating a percentage of your overall GiveWise Giving Fund to operations.

If our donors gave an average of 3% of the value of their contributions, this would supplement GiveWise's operations expenses and help us to keep spreading the generosity to more and more Canadians.

Will you invest in GiveWise Foundation Canada? If so, please do so directly through the Search Charities page.

A Giving Fund is a simple, tax-efficient vehicle for all of your charitable giving. It allows you to do all of your giving in one place, with one tax receipt, and you can give to any Canadian Registered Charity.

Your contribution is an irrevocable donation into your Giving Fund - this is why you are able to get a tax deduction at the time that you make your contribution. Any monies distributed from your fund must be designated to a registered Canadian Charity.

There is no cost to open and maintain a Giving Fund under $25,000. Balances over $25,000 will be assessed an administration fee based on the balance at the beginning of each month. A detailed fee structure is outline in the Fees page.

Grant is the term used when a donation is made to a Canadian Registered Charity from your Giving Fund.

All grant recommendations are reviewed for the following:

• To confirm that the grantee is a Canadian Registered Charity in good standing with the CRA.
• To verify that all grants will be used solely for charitable purposes and will not confer more than an incidental benefit on the donor or related parties.

Generally, grant recommendations may not be reversed once approved. If you are experiencing a technical issue, please reach out to support@givewise.ca.

A grant recommendation may be “Pending” for two reasons.

The grant recommendations may simply not have been approved yet, although we strive to review and approve all grants within 48 hours of submission, provided the grant recommendation meets our approval guidelines.

The grant recommendation may be also be “Pending” because there is an insufficient balance in the Giving Wallet. To verify, visit the Home page of your Giving Fund and review Total Fund balance and Available Balance.

You can recommend grants to any Registered Canadian Charity in good standing with the CRA, including places of worship, community programs, and international aid. We provide a search of the CRA database of charities to make it easy for you identify your charities of choice.

You can choose to make any or all of your grants anonymously. If you choose to be anonymous, GiveWise will not share any information about you with the charity receiving the grant.

To do this, select the checkbox for “I wish to remain anonymous” when making your grant recommendation. In doing so, GiveWise will not share your name or address.

You can designate a grant recommendation to a specific project or area within a charity by choosing "Purpose of Grant" when granting.

As an example, if you have a recurring child sponsorship with a charity, you can simply choose Other from the Purpose of Grant options and enter your sponsor child’s name (and ID number, if applicable) into the Note Field. This information will be shared with the charity when they receive the grant funds.

GiveWise Foundation Canada encourages a minimum grant amount of $20.

Grant recommendations must be made for charitable purposes to which no more than incidental benefit is received in order to qualify as a tax-deductible donation.

The restrictions for recommended grants are as follows:

• Dues or membership fees
• Purchasing tickets to a benefit
• Purchasing goods at a charitable auction
• Private benefit for any individual(s)
• Grant that is earmarked to support a particular volunteer

NOTE: Please refer to the CRA Guidelines for the full explanation of charitable grant restrictions.

Upon grant approval, steps are taken to forward the funds to the charity as timely as possible and are therefore processed weekly. To keep administrative costs low, GiveWise makes every effort to transfer grant funds to charities electronically. If a charity has provided Direct Deposit information, grant funds should be received by the charity within 2 - 9 business days of your recommendation.