2009 bike tour site

WHERE: Don Pedro’s Mexican Restaurant
114 Market Avenue
WHEN: February 11, 2009
7:00 pm
TICKETS: $15.00 Early bird
$25.00 at door or after Feb. 1, 2009

Purchase your ticket online

The evening begins for our guests with the sponsored cocktail hour where guests can mingle and view the exciting offerings in the silent auction. The dinner itself is a celebration of the talents of Winnipeg’s finest gourmet Chefs. Each course prepared by a guest Chef and is expertly paired by a product consultant from the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission.

Delta Winnipeg, a Gold Sponsor, has hosted this event for the past six years. Delta Winnipeg’s beautiful ballroom and their expert service make the evening very special. Delta Winnipeg graciously offers our guests a special room rate of $109 the evening of the Gala. You can stay and dance the night away and then retire to your room.

The Gala Dinner of Culinary Inspirations is the largest fundraiser for the Canadian Hemophilia Society, Manitoba Chapter. Proceeds from the dinner go to programs and
services that help Manitoba families successfully manage inherited bleeding disorders. The Chapter is very grateful to the volunteer committee who work tirelessly for months each year on this project. We are also very grateful to all the sponsors who support the Gala each year. Without your help, the Gala would not be possible.

Visit this event’s website to buy your ticket online

One such fundraising initiative is through donationrelay.com concepts. Digital Relay Inc. created donationrelay.com to help charities, churches and schools, increase their contributions and reduce overhead of day to day operation through low cost technologies.

This month, The Winnipeg Humane Society is looking forward to seeing the results of their first online auction and the ultimate success of this type of fundraising event. The online auction solution available at donationrelay.com offers everything an organize needs to organize and maintain online auctions. A number of specialized features are offered to make it easy for anyone to organize this type of fundraising event. Some of the features that can be found on this special event package include an administrative interface, watch list, email notifications, reporting, category search features, start and end times, and more…

Charities using this special event software also have control over bid increments giving them control over how much a bid can go up either on a specific item or for the whole auction. Watch lists and email notifications make it easy for those looking to buy to know when they’ve been outbid and when auctions are getting ready to end. A project to integrate the online auction event software to donationrelay.com Donor Management Pro suite is already on the way.

The upcoming online auction event is launch around the Valentine’s them. Not only the items available make great gifts for your special Valentine but you will also be donating to the welfare and dignity of animals who may otherwise suffer. The Winnipeg Humane Society is looking forward to this first time event and hope Winnipegers will participate in the auction. . Please visit http://www.winnipeghumanesociety.ca for more details.

1) Determine if your organization is a charity for GST/HST purposes.
A registered charity for income tax purposes is also a charity for GST/HST purposes. However, a charity for GST/HST purposes does not include a public institution (that is, a registered charity that is a school authority, a public college, a university, a hospital authority, or a local authority determined to be a municipality).

2) Determine if your charity is making taxable supplies.
The tax status of your charity’s supplies (for example, its sales, leases, rentals, and services) has to be determined. While most of a charity’s supplies are tax-exempt, some of its supplies can be taxable at 5% or 13% (the 13% HST applies to supplies made in the participating provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador), or zero‑rated (taxable at 0%).

3) Calculate the small supplier tests.
Small supplier tests are used to determine if your charity must register for GST/HST purposes. Charities have two small supplier tests—the $250,000 gross revenue test and the $50,000 taxable supplies test. Gross revenue includes business income, donations, grants, gifts, property income, and investment income, less any amount considered a capital loss for income tax purposes. The $50,000 taxable supplies test includes worldwide revenues from supplies of goods and services subject to GST/HST, including zero-rated supplies. Do not include sales of capital property, supplies of financial services, or certain payments for goodwill. A charity is considered a small supplier if it has either $250,000 or less in annual gross revenue or not more than $50,000 in annual worldwide taxable supplies.

4) Determine if your charity is required to register for GST/HST.
If your charity makes taxable supplies, it may have to register for GST/HST. A charity that is a small supplier does not have to register for GST/HST, but it may do so voluntarily. Charities that are not small suppliers must register for GST/HST.

5) Complete GST/HST returns if your charity is registered for GST/HST.
If your charity is registered for GST/HST, ensure that GST/HST returns are filed and calculations are done correctly. Most charities that are registered for GST/HST have to file a return once a year using the “net tax calculation for charities.” A charity that uses this method remits 60% of the GST/HST it collects on most of its taxable supplies, but it can only claim input tax credits for the GST/HST paid on certain purchases.

6) Apply for the public service bodies’ rebate.
Regardless of whether your charity is registered for GST/HST, it is generally entitled to claim a 50% public service bodies’ rebate of the GST/HST it paid on its purchases.

7) Establish eligibility for other GST/HST rebates.
Your charity may be entitled to other GST/HST rebates, including rebates of the GST/HST paid on printed books, expenses related to providing rent‑geared‑to‑income housing, goods and services exported outside of Canada, and goods and services removed from the participating provinces.

Maintain adequate books and records.
Generally, your charity must keep all records and supporting documents, in English or French, used to determine its GST/HST obligations and entitlements for a period of six years from the end of the year to which the records/documents relate.

More information on charities and the GST/HST can be found in Guide RC4082, GST/HST Information for Charities, and Guide RC4034, GST/HST Public Service Bodies’ Rebate.

When you get into the question of whether you want to keep donor information online or on your local network, the first thing that might occur to you is the fact that you would rather keep it close to home. Take some time and think about how you have secured your local network. The truth is that when you are dealing with information that is the least sensitive that you need to make sure that it is locked down tight. There are specifications that you need to meet in order to make your local network security good enough to meet professional standards.

Let’s face it. If you re in the business of running a charity, it is a good bet that you don’t have a lot of money to throw around on setting yourself up to be a fortress! Local networks are vulnerable to a number of different kinds of attacks, ranging from spyware, to malware, to outright hacking, and putting up the defenses that it takes to defend against things like that can take more time and money than you are willing to invest.

However, you will find that when you are looking at a service like an event software, or a donor database, more ofter than not, hosting your donors’ information will be much more secure than keeping them on your local network.

Hosting makes it also much more affordable to tie together event software, online donation and central clients database. You will find that this is a great way organize your data and to make sure that you can get the right information that you need at when ever you need it.

Online donation has proven to yield more monetary gains than donating through strictly checks and cash. The most attractive selling points of the Canadian economy remain convenience and efficiency, and the increasing number of people opting to shop or bank online reflects this state of affairs. It only makes sense that many charities are choosing to go online and capitalize on this unprecedented cash flow.
Online donation reaps many advantages for both large and smaller-scale charities. First, it hugely boosts a charity’s visibility because it becomes part of the World Wide Web rather than remaining in a limited area and operating scope. For this reason alone, the charity will likely generate greater donation numbers. High web traffic ensures more people view the charity and have the opportunity to donate.
The most successful online charities understand that safe transactions are crucial. They maintain safety in their online donation by using encryption software on their websites. This software “locks” the website when the donor enters his or her personal information, and scrambles the donor’s personal and credit card information before it is sent out on the Internet. The best-known version of this software is Secure Socket Layer (SSL), known as the industry standard. Furthermore, charities that store donor information on an online network use blocking technology such as firewalls to ensure donor privacy. They also make sure to regularly update their anti-virus software to prevent hackers.
Now that you see how online donation can be both fruitful and safe, you may wonder how to go about it. Many charities purchase software designed to accept online donations and operate extra features such as customized donation forms. Other charities use a third-party vendor to handle payments. However, you should bear in mind that employing a third-party vendor may turn away donors because they know the vendor will receive some of their money. Conversely, the charities that learn to use their own software often find it worth their while because they fully control the software and do not pay third-party fees. Many versions of this software also allow them to sharpen their professional image by offering customized options. Donors, likewise, will be more willing to contribute when they know their money will be handled exclusively by the charity.

Installing online donation can be both challenging and intimidating, but will lastingly reward your efforts as you watch the donations pour in.

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