Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderball
There's always the potential that the foundation is building up an invested base to be able to provide charitable proceeds in perpetuity from the proceeds of its investments and not rely on active donations. I believe CRA only requires charities to spend about 3.5% each year, so not immediately using donated funds doesn't necessarily mean anything negative.
Financial summaries and much of the tax return filings are freely available on CRA's charity website, and if their expenditures were considered out of line, charities get audited quite a bit. This would be doubly so if those funds found their way back to the Flames.
I'd be more concerned that the foundation is doing this because they think the Flames might not be around for a lot longer and are building up a warchest to be able to maintain their charitable pursuits without as many 50/50s and other Flames events to support them. Right now, they'll need to save a lot more than what they have to have anywhere near the same revenue, as charities are a bit restricted in what they can invest in (lower risk).
Either way, its a "get out the pitchforks" argument with half the facts.
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I think thats generally understood? That was my first guess when presented with a reserve that large.
But considering the optics of CalgaryNEXT combined with the arena fiasco the factr that the Flames could use some positive press and then this report comes out and unfairly skewers them....they're just setting themselves up.
This report was basically designed to vilify pro sports in Canada and the Flames just happened to be caught in the unenviable position that they are currently in.
The fact of the matter remains that the Flames Foundation's position is not bad, its just unusual and victim to timing differences.
Honestly, with information this flawed and biased I would be hesitant to draw any conclusions from it.
Theres too many question-marks and everyone wants to use them to pile on.
At the moment the Flames Foundation is being vilified by poor accounting standards, some sub-par journalism and arbitrary goalposts as well as just being associated with 'The Flames' their owners and King who have not done wonders for themselves in the arena of Public Opinion.
There is no proven malice here. There are irregularities but the fact of the matter remains that the Flames Foundation doesnt generate this much revenue annually so its clearly been going on for a while. Why is it a travesty today?
And once again, they just donated $1M to the Calgary Children's Hospital which is not included in this study.