Haiti Earthquake Updates

January 28, 2010

The approval process for organizations to receive matching funds for donations designated for Haiti relief is not automatic. The United Church of Canada, along with the other Canadian churches and agencies that are members of Canadian Churches in Action (CCA), is submitting a detailed proposal to CIDA requesting that all donations be matched dollar for dollar by the Canadian government. We expect that this request will be approved—as it was in the case of the tsunami in 2004.

For United Church donations to qualify for matching funds, certain conditions must be met:

• donations must be received by Financial Services Unit of the General Council Office no later than February 12, 2010
• donations must be received from individuals only, not businesses or companies

In order to ensure that all money collected is seen as coming from individual donors, we suggest that congregations

• encourage donors to give directly to
  The United Church of Canada
  3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
  Toronto, Ontario M8X 2Y4, marked “Haiti Appeal”
  or give directly online, choosing “Emergency Response” and specifying “Haiti Appeal”
• alternatively, collect all personal cheques received and forward the cheques to the United Church address above

Receipts will be issued from the General Council Office for each donor. As described in United Church Launches Emergency Appeal for Haiti, the news release of January 14, 2010, donations made by United Church members and congregations to the Haiti Appeal are considered “over and above” gifts to the United Church’s wider work, so they are not recorded as part of a congregation’s Mission and Service Fund giving, but are reported as part of the extra appeal amounts collected by the United Church.

Congregations that have already submitted a single cheque to the United Church Haiti Appeal will be contacted and invited to submit a list of names, addresses, and the amount received from each donor. We expect that having this detailed documentation on file and available to CIDA will be sufficient for eligibility.