Welcome to the West Vancouver Yacht Club website

Donate To Youth Fund

Donate

Late in the fall of 1945, several West Vancouver residents combined their energies to form a yacht club that would serve the North Shore. The West Vancouver Yacht Club was brought into being on December 21, 1945, with a membership of 45 and six boats.

Today, the West Vancouver Yacht Club is a leader in youth and adult sailing programs in Canada – a friendly, family-oriented club which strongly supports active community living. The West Vancouver Yacht Club Junior Race Team is one of the most active junior racing programs in Western Canada. The c=Club has actively supported youth sailing for over 20 years, and athletes from WVYC have gone on to compete in national and world championship regattas.

To support our youth program, WVYC has partnered with the West Vancouver Foundation and Sport BC to create an avenue for charitable donations, The Fund for Youth Sport.

Proceeds from the Fund will support those amateur sport activities that are open to the general public. Funds will not support the member-oriented activities of the club. The West Vancouver Yacht Club is a BC Nonprofit Society and will receive disbursements from the funds through a partnership agreement with Sport BC.


Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can we now get a tax receipt for donations made to WVYC?
    • Yes.
  • Why are we supporting youth sport? Aren’t there other things in the club that should be a priority?
    • The only Club activity that qualifies for charitable status is youth amateur athletics.  The Income Tax Act allows for only a short list of things that can qualify for charitable status, such as medical research, and so forth.

      This new status does indirectly benefit the other areas of the Club.   If we were to spend $100,000 a year on youth sport, the charitable status enables us to half that expense.  The tax status in effect doubles the amount of money.     
  • How does this work?
    • The Club website has a yellow 'Donate' button, it will take you to the West Vancouver Foundation website (or you can CLICK HERE). The Foundation holds the money for us until we request it. On the Foundation site you can donate to the West Vancouver Yacht Club, for youth amateur sport in sailing. In minutes, you get emailed a tax credit. You either forward the email to your accountant or store it to use when you do your year-end taxes.

      If donating by cheque, be sure to make it payable to: West Vancouver Foundation, and sent to the Foundation at: 775 15th Street, West Vancouver, V7T 2S9.
  • Does that mean the Club now has charitable status?
    • No. There must be a public benefit to get such status, for which we do not qualify.    

      However, youth amateur sport does qualify.   Especially because we offer sailing lessons available to the public which is a public benefit.      

      Youth amateur sport is becoming a significant part of the Club’s expenses, so we have established a charitable organization where donations will be directed to youth amateur sport in sailing.    When you donate toward that, you get a tax credit.   Immediately. 
  • You said tax credit. Is that a tax deduction?
    • No, a tax credit is not the same as a tax deduction.   A tax credit is a bit better. 
  • What’s the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction?
    • A tax deduction of $10,000 reduces your income by $10,000, which means you save ~$2,000 in tax.   

      But a tax credit is applied directly against your tax bill.   A $10,000 tax credit usually means you save almost $5,000 in tax. As a donation, it isn’t a dollar-for-dollar savings.  If it costs you nothing at all, then it’s not a charitable donation.  A charitable donation has to make you somewhat poorer.   

      Club Members like tax credits, because most of us want to donate to some charity.  It’s much nicer to pick a charity that actually benefits your own kids or our club youth sailing - the lessons, the coaching, the dinghies, all of it.  
  • Does the tax benefit vary depending on the level of donation?
    • Yes. For donations under $200 the credit is very low, only 20%. You only get a $15 credit for $100.    

      Donations above $200, then you get the high credit of almost 50%. If you donate $10,000 to the Club, it actually costs you $5,000.     

      For those in a higher income bracket over $240,000 the higher tax bracket of 53% you get a slightly higher percentage of tax credit. 
  • For small donations with a tax credit of only a few dollars,?why would one bother?
    • It’s not hard.     We sent the Foundation a spreadsheet with all the members.    Their computer will bulk email a tax credit to every contributor.   

      Yes, the tax credit is only a few dollars.    We do it because it shows the members that if they increase it a bit, they get a bigger tax credit.   It creates awareness.   Remember, under $200 you only get a tax credit of 15%.   Over $200 you get the full reward of 50% as a tax credit. 
  • Do I have to use the tax credit in the year I gave it?
    • No, you have a choice.   Philanthropy and tax planning work together.     You can carry forward your tax credit for five years.    You can pick a year where you have a huge income, when you most need a tax break.   

      If you give a bequest to the youth fund in your Will, the tax credit goes to help your Estate and can go one year back to help your last personal tax return.  You can actually reduce the tax bill on your Estate down to zero. 
  • What does the West Vancouver Foundation do with our money?
    • They invest it until we ask for it.  They have a professional team of investors, the respected investment management firm Leith Wheeler. They handle billions of dollars including through school pensions and union pensions. Up to now, our Club fund was too small to retain Leith Wheeler, but through our new relationship with the West Vancouver Foundation we get access to the big advisors.   

      See the West Vancouver Foundation website to see how much money they manage and how many organizations they serve https://westvanfoundation.ca  
  • What does the Foundation charge us for doing this?
    • We have a flow through fund for money going in and out at a 2% fee.  We also have a permanent capital fund at a 1.4% fee.   

      If you donate by credit card, they will take out of it, the amount of the fee that the credit card company will charge them.      So, if you want them to receive the entirety of your donation, mail them a cheque instead. 
  • How do we get the money back from the Foundation?
    • When we need the money, such as funding the rebuilding the youth racing dingy dock, we inform the Foundation of our expense and request that the funds be released.  The Foundation sends a cheque to Sport BC; Sport BC then issues the cheque to us. 
  • Why involve Sport BC?
    • The charitable status structure has to involve a provincial amateur sporting association to ensure it is going to legitimate expense reimbursement.   

      The West Vancouver Foundation is the investing arm.  Sport BC serves an abuse prevention function.   Both are required.   

      We are building a trust relationship with the Foundation and Sport BC.   They don’t audit us.   They accept what we say. 
  • How do you decide what’s for youth sport?
    • It’s common sense.   

      For example, our powerboat Iron Will would qualify. It goes out with the kids on race days and training days.   It brings out buoys to help them train.    That’s the charitable purpose.   But it also brings workers and material to the outstations, which is Club business, not charitable business. So, we determine the mileage and time spent; if it is 50%  we would claim half of the gas and half the maintenance costs to the charitable purpose.    

      This takes some accounting to keep them separate, but we do that.  It’s important to show Sport BC and the CRA that we are playing by the rules and keeping a record.   
  • For a project, can we only get monies for past expenditures, or can it be for expected expenses in the future?
    • Only monies we have spent. 
  • Does this fund support the Wednesday night racing, Club regattas, or the various VARC races?
    • No.   Those adult recreational races are not supported by this charitable fund. Adult members pay for their recreation out of their own pocket.  As John put it, he, as a 62-year-old tax lawyer, doing the recent Round Bowen Race, in his 36-foot cruising sailboat with a case of French wine down below, no, that has no public benefit.    That is not youth amateur sport in sailing.    
  • What are the benefits of all this?
    • The Club benefits because many of our new members come through our Learn to Sail program. Such classes are open to the public.   Youth sport attracts new, young, members.   As we make money from such classes.    Each small keelboat, such as the J22, makes us about $20,000 every year, from sailing classes.    This new charitable initiative will reduce the financial barrier to entry for our youth.   It serves a public good to enable accessibility to a traditionally expensive sport. This was a public good. 
  • Who is setting this up?
    • John Noble.  He has been a WVYC member since 2000 and is a tax lawyer. 
  • Could we set up our own WVYC charitable Society?
    • Yeah, John Noble says he could certainly do that if we want.   But he recommends against it for now.    It would be more work for us, and there would be an added layer of administration about how we are investing the money.   

      For now, the Foundation are the professionals in this.    We should just focus on being a yacht club.   

      In the future we will be revisiting this.   One year we may decide to try it out. 
  • How do I learn more about this?
    • For WVYC members: Read the Foghorn.    John writes a column. 
      For the public: please contact the WVYC at [email protected]
Site Scripts
Hide Click to Edits:
FED Scripts
CWS & Content Load