When Charles Dickens wrote The Christmas Carol, he probably didn't imagine he was creating a staple part of western Christmases from then on, as well as the word Scrooge that would come to stand for greedy, uncharitable people. But as we approach the winter festival season - whether celebrated as Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or other festivals - The Christmas Carol, with Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and the spirits will all be with us again: on television, in our libraries and classrooms, on our theatre stages, our radios, and no doubt on our computers as well.

Unfortunately, with the swelling ranks of the homeless and the growing gap between our rich and poor, we might be forgiven if we rub our eyes in some confusion, thinking we are seeing scenes from The Christmas Carol acted out at the turn of the millennium in Canada.

There will be, for example, the annual swelling of requests for charitable donations. Early in the 1948 movie version of The Christmas Carol, two gentlemen from the alms-houses (private hostels for the poor) approach Scrooge in his office requesting donations, stating by way of rationale "Because it is Christmas, want is more keenly felt." Scrooge's response is one of his most famous lines, "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

Today, the two gentlemen could be from food banks, hostels, groups collecting toys for the kids, other charities that provide hampers or dinners for the homeless. And Scrooge's response might be only slightly different: "Are there no prisons? (where the poor make up the vast majority). Are there no government hostels? Is there no social assistance? Scrooge goes on to explain that he is simply a good man of business, and that good business, for him, does not involve any sharing with those poorer than himself. Indeed, he might also be crying out "Are there no tax cuts?" We might also in 1999 see scenes similar to those the spirits show Scrooge.

The Spirit of Christmas Past shows Scrooge his first employer, the kind man who mentored Scrooge and refused to sell his business to a giant of the industrial revolution that wished to lay off workers and bring in machines. That employer is soon bankrupt and bought out by Scrooge and his partner, Marley. As we move from the industrial revolution to the information age, some would argue we are seeing similar take-overs and layoffs as another level of workers is laid off to make way for yet more efficient machines. The Spirit of Christmas Present shows Scrooge's ex-wife bringing Christmas dinner and presents to the poor who are living in the almshousesŠ not so different from our Christmas dinners at hostels. This Spirit also shows the Cratchits' dinner, small amounts accompanied by great praise. One wonders if this is the reaction to Christmas hampers today.

The Spirit of Christmases To Come shows Tiny Tim's empty stool and unused crutch because Bob Cratchit couldn't afford the price of nutritious food or privatized health care. Might our Christmases To Come include similar scenes?

Past and Present in Canada

It doesn't take much looking to notice that Canada's government spending policies, and consequently, the treatment of our poor and lower income earners, have changed over the last two decades of deficit-fighting and market deregulation. "In the mid-1980s spending on government programs amounted to more than 18 percent of our total national income. By 1999, when Paul Martin's cuts are fully phased in, spending on government program will have dropped to less than 12 percent of our national income - a drop of roughly one-third" (Linda McQuaig, The Cult of Impotence, reporting calculations by John McCallum, chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada) As government spending on social, educational, and health programs has gone down, the individual - through donations, volunteerism, and personal debt especially in the case of post-secondary students - and charities have tried to fill in the gaps. Schools themselves have become reliant on donations, with concerned parents holding fundraisers to find the money for school trips, modern equipment, music programs, sports, and in some cases, for general school revenues. On top of that, almost every school in the country gets involved in the collection of food for food banks, toys for toy banks, and other Christmas charity endeavours.

This involvement of students in Christmas giving may be a good time for learning about the relationship of governments, poverty, and charity, as well as some details of the laws which govern how charities actually work. Depending on the grade and ability level, here are some ideas which could be useful for those days before Christmas. Care must, of course, be taken in any work on poverty since one in five students in any classroom might well be struggling with life under the poverty line (approx. $33,000 for an urban family of four in 1997 according to the Centre for International Statistics at the CCSD and based on StatsCan Low Income Cut-Offs [LICO]).

Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future

After watching one of the movie versions of The Christmas Carol, younger students might discuss the situation of poor people in Dickens' time and now. Students could also discuss what help is available now for people who are unemployed or who have low incomes. Then students might be asked to draw pictures of what they imagine the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future would show Scrooge this Christmas.

At higher levels, students in groups could be directed to Internet resources to research an aspect of poverty and law. Then using that research as a springboard for imagination, each group could prepare a brief presentation in which the students role-play a scene shown by one of the Spirits.

Some topics could include the following:

Spirit of Christmas Past

• the Poor Laws of Dickens' England
• laws and poverty during the Depression (some students may be able to interview relatives who lived through this period)
• current Canadian social assistance, EI laws, and child benefit laws and programs

Spirit of Christmas Present

• food banks and their operation
• charities and the laws which govern them
• homelessness and the laws of vagrancy as well as municipal nuisance bylaws against panhandling, street camping, and squeegie-ing.

Spirit of Christmases To Come

• economic forecasts for Canada's future
• international organizations and agreements on trade and on rights such as the "right to an adequate standard of living"

Questions Scrooge Might Ask

Are there no food banks?

The website of the BC Teachers' Federation www.bctf.bc.ca has a social justice link which has a further poverty link which includes lesson aids for teaching about poverty. In particular, there is an excellent section which sets up a debate about the pros and cons of food banks at www.bctf.bc.ca/LessonAids/online/la2030/FoodBanks.html

Is there no social assistance? Social Housing?

Debates similar to the food bank debate could be developed on themes such as the merits of government assistance to overcome poverty versus charitable assistance to assist poverty, social assistance versus workfare, and so on. Some debate resolutions might be

• Everyone has a "right to an adequate standard of living for himself/herself and his/her family, including adequate food, clothing, and housing" (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)

• Governments are better able to make sure everyone has enough to meet basic needs than are private charities.

• Everyone should have to work for their living and not rely on government help.

• Each individual should be able to decide how much he or she wants to give to charity, rather than being forced to support government programs through taxes.

Further Research on Poverty

There are many websites which give information on poverty in Canada. These are some of the most useful:

www.gdsourcing.com - this is a site which provides links to a vast array of statistics including statistics on poverty lines, Canadians' income, the number of people living below the poverty line in Canada, and so on.

www.ccsd.ca - this site includes articles, book summaries, and other information on poverty among other social issues www.napo-onap.ca - this is the website of the National Anti-Poverty Organization and provides fact sheets on poverty, an online newsletter, and links to key issues in poverty.

Exploring Charities

If you wish to emphasize the positive aspects of what charities do rather than exploring the negative area of poverty itself, there are also several approaches that could be used:

• If a class is involved in collecting donations for some Christmas charity, this particular charity might be examined in some detail, taking a field trip, for example, to help sort food donations or pack hampers; inviting a Board member of the charity to class to explain their work, including their legal structure, and so on. Students may be asked to write journals or reports on their feelings and learnings from such exploration.

• Depending on grade level, students might be asked to research and write (or draw) a report on some charity which they are particularly interested in. I have often used charities as the jumping off point for students to give persuasive oral presentations, giving informational background and attempting to persuade their fellow students to 'support' their chosen charity.

• Creating and/or operating a mock charity (as we so often do mock trials) may be a useful hands-on way to help students understand some of the issues of the charity world.

Creating a Mock Charity: Creating a mock charity could be done by a whole class or by small groups within the class. If you choose to have your students create their own mock charity the following activities and skills could be involved:

• decision-making in groups about the type of charity;

• critical thinking skills in forming purposes for their charity based on the legal requirements;

• group decision-making skills in deciding on what activities they will carry out;

• writing skills in writing a simplified incorporation document.

Operating a Charity: If you choose to have your students operate a mock charity, you may want to have students elect a Board of Directors; to divide the class into three groups: Board, Volunteers, and the 'public'; or to have small groups each form a charity and operate it. The following activities and skills could be involved:

• democratic process skills in Board elections;

• oral presentation skills in presentations from Volunteers and Directors, and possibly members of the 'public'

• persuasive skills in persuading others to work with the charitable organization or donate to it. These could include writing skills and preparing brochures;

• critical thinking skills in deciding on who will receive charity assistance. In some classes, it may be appropriate to have members of the 'public' request services (food, scholarships, etc.) from the charity, and for the Board to decide whether this request fits with their purposes.

Volunteers may advocate on the part of the 'request'. However, this does create a winner/loser situation in the exercise, and while realistic, it may not be appropriate in some classrooms or for some students.

Creating a Mock Charity

The Canadian government allows charities to be registered and to collect donations. The people who give donations to the registered charity receive a receipt that allows them to deduct their donation from their income tax. However, the charity must be properly formed and operated for this to happen.

1 The first task when creating a Mock Charity is to decide what your purposes are for the charity. The federal government through its laws has said that there can be four kinds of purposes for charities:

• the relief of poverty - e.g., food banks, toy banks, soup kitchens, supplying housing for the homeless, clothing, etc.

• the advancement of religion - e.g., churches, organizations that provide religious instruction, etc.

• the advancement of education - e.g., starting and running schools, providing bursaries and scholarships, providing museums and public art galleries, etc.

• other purposes that benefit the community - e.g., providing relief to victims of natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, preserving the environment, protecting the welfare of children, preventing cruelty to animals, etc.

Work in groups to decide what purpose your charity will have.

2. The government requires that a charity have a constitution or set of rules under which it operates. Each province may have a slightly different set of rules, but they all include the following points. So to apply for registration of your charity, you must write up a constitution: the form below is a simplified version of a constitution for you to use.

3. In order to be registered for income tax purposes, the government also requires a complete statement of your charity's activities and how they relate to your purposes. The law requires a statement of activity written something like this:

Purpose: to relieve poverty

Activity: to set up a toy bank to give toys to children living in poverty. Our charity will seek donations of toys from the public and donations of money to buy new toys. Each December, our charity will arrange for these toys to be given to children whose names are submitted by the food bank and by social services workers.

Charities are not allowed to do activities that are considered political. For example, your charity could not support a political party or candidate even if that party promised Christmas toys for all children in the country. While this is an over-simplification, most activities that involve political lobbying or trying to change people's opinions will not be allowed. However, if the government asks for your charity's opinion, you can give it.

In your groups, write up a list of your charity's activities.

4. In a real application for registration, a charity would have to send in a budget as well. If your group has time and wants to do this, it should contain estimates of all the income your charity expects during its first year (including gifts of things instead of money) and a list of all your expenses. Remember that 90% of your resources must be devoted to your charitable purposes.

Assuming the government agreed with all your statements, you would now be registered as a charity for income tax purposes and could proceed to operate your charity.

Operating a Charity

1. To operate your charity you will need a Board of Directors to make the decisions and volunteers to help carry out the activities. Directors and volunteers have certain general duties that they must be careful to fulfill.

Duty of Care:

• First, Directors must only do what the Charity's constitution allows them to do.

• Directors must be careful in the way that they run the charity and make decisions. For example, Directors must read any documents carefully and understand an issue before they vote on the issue.

• Directors must take care to keep all the records (financial and other) that the government will want to see, such as a yearly financial report and a yearly report to Revenue Canada.

• Directors must take care to check out any volunteers and employees thoroughly before hiring them to make certain that the volunteer or employee won't do anything that could harm someone who needs the help of the charity.

Directors must take care to look ahead and make sure that any decisions they make won't cause anyone harm. For example, if the charity owns a building, the Directors will have to look ahead when deciding something like whether to clear ice and snow from the sidewalk. If the snow and ice could cause harm, then they have a duty to decide it should be cleared.

Duty of Trustworthiness:

• Directors have a duty to look after the money and other resources of the charity just as carefully as if it were their own.

• Directors have a duty to use the money of the charity well. For example, a Director should not vote for a contract if he or she owns part of the company and will receive part of the profit. That Director should tell the other Directors about his/her ownership and not vote on that decision.

Obviously, Directors have a very responsible position. They must be chosen carefully and are almost always chosen by election. For your mock charity, your teacher will decide whether to have an election for Directors.

Volunteers also have a duty of care. For example, if a volunteer was driving some children to have special medical appointments, that volunteer would have to drive very carefully. (You can read about these duties in the article Off to the Game on p. XX)

2. To get donations to your mock charity, you will have to let the public know what it is doing and why they should donate. Your Board of Directors will have to make a decision on how to get publicity. They could decide to make a pamphlet, or put an announcement on radio or TV, or do some kind of fundraiser, such as holding a dance or a concert. What could your mock charity do to publicize its activities to the rest of the class?

Once your Board of Directors has decided what to do, then often the volunteers will do the work to make it happen.

3. Depending on the type of mock charity you have organized, your teacher may decide that you should try making decisions about a charitable activity. For example, suppose your charity's purpose is to advance education by giving bursaries to help students attend university or college. Remember that the Directors have a duty to be trustworthy and careful, and must give out the bursaries according to the proper criteria, not because someone is a special friend or offers them something in return.

To carry out this activity, you would have to do a number of things:

• decide on the criteria for giving a bursary (e.g. decide what qualities a student must have, activities the student must carry out, or reasons a student must have for asking for the bursary);

• members of your class who are not members of your Board of Directors would plan (and perhaps write) requests for a bursary;

• your volunteers may help class members plan or present their requests

• because charities rarely have enough money and resources to give bursaries, for example, to everyone who asks, the Board of Directors has to decide how many bursaries it can give out (remembering the 90% rule) and then listen to or read the requests and decide who should receive the bursaries. The Board should give the class its reasons for its decision. Further Research on Charities Law

There are lots of sites on the Internet that give information on charities. Here are two useful ones:

www.law-nonprofit.org - this site includes articles and FAQs on non-profits and charities, as well as links to other sites

www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca - this site is Canada Customs and Revenue and contains lots of articles on charities and income tax. When you get to the site, click on Charities.

Return to LawNow's Not-for-Profit "Reprints"