What Are the Typical Startup and Ongoing Expenses for a Not-for-Profit?

From a legal perspective (i.e. keeping your non-profit corporate status), the main obligations and expenses are as follows:

• Incorporation fee $155 provincially and $200 federally (in addition to any legal fees)
• Creating bylaws (if you hire a charity law firm - or if you do it yourself, using an online bylaws builder, such as the federal bylaws template or provincial there is no cost)
• Holding annual meetings and passing necessary resolutions such as electing a Board, receiving financial statements, and appointing or waiving the appointment of an auditor (no hard costs necessarily)
• Annual filings and filing notices of change whenever you change your address or directors ($0 provincially $12 federally for annual filing online and additional costs if you use a third party provider of have someone else prepare them)
• Keep adequate financial and corporate records (cost of bookkeeper or accountant and/or accounting software, B.I.G. Charity Law Group can also help in setting up and keeping corporate records, let me know if this is something of interest to you)
• Getting financial review required by the statute (can range from $2,500-$5,000 for a review engagement to $7,000-20,000 for an audit. It can really range)
  
• Depending on your size, whether you hire employees, etc. tax filings (the cost of a tax preparer)
  

You should expect to operate your not-for-profit like a business with associated startup and organizational costs. There may be other obligations and costs associated with your actual operations but the above are the bare minimum for corporate status.

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By Benjamin Miller, Esq.

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