If you’ve been walking on the streets of Montreal lately, you may have noticed persistent Phillipino women with their unicef looking boxes demanding money in the guise of a good cause.

This salesman persistence, highly uncharacteristic of a charity, raised some suspicion in me. What exactly is this charity? Do you issue charity tax receipts? What is your charity number?
She had no answer to these questions, instead she kept on asking me if I would like to give money.

On the box there was some information about the company, their website and address, and a number. All of which I scribbled down.

The box provided an address, 2037 Billeron which is in the suburbs of NDG and is some IT company.

Their website however, http://www.childrensjoyfoundation.org provides contact information from the phillipines. It’s pretty vague, and doesn’t provide a public balance sheet, (which charities usually provide).

I looked this company up on the better business bureau, and nothing. They were not even in the database.

I even took the time to call Revenue Quebec, and they have no information on them, they weren’t even a registered charity. Odd. Though they asked me questions so they could further investigate.

Could this company possibly make money under the pretense of giving it to children stricken with poverty in the Phillipines?

If it is, I’ll be sure to grab that box and give it to the United Way.

Sure there are corruption in other charities… but we can only take every measure to ensure 100% transparency. Be sure to ask questions, and take the time to read up on the law.

We shouldn’t only rely on the government to put everything in order, we should also assume civic responsibility.