Donate Directly To Your Charity
I recently donated $200 to a youth leadership program, believing I was giving directly through my charity’s site. Unbeknownst to me, CanadaHelps was handling the donation. I only realized partway through — their presence wasn’t clear upfront. I continued with the donation, assuming the charity must use their platform. I found out later my charity does not.
In addition, CanadaHelps promotes “reliable technology and support,” including the ability to post a message on the charity’s public supporter wall — a feature that failed completely. When I asked for help to fix this, I was told there was nothing they could do. My charity did not get any public recognition to further promote the good work they do.
Because this feature failed, I asked CanadaHelps to refund their 4% fee and ensure the full $200 go to the charity — they didn’t respond. This made me question whether their model really puts charities first. CanadaHelps does offer helpful tools for charities that can’t build their own, but they earn a percentage of every donation that goes through their platform — so their revenue grows the more charities and donors depend on them, even when the service doesn’t deliver what’s promised or when donors (like me) don’t realize they’re using a middleman.
Ultimately, while CanadaHelps’ tools can help charities who choose to use them, my experience suggests their model might put sustaining their own business ahead of truly serving the charitable sector’s best interests. I do not recommend CanadaHelps for donors — give directly to your chosen charity instead.