Canadian donors to Programa Pro Niños Incapacitados del Lago will be able to receive tax receipts thanks to a unique three-way agreement signed November 28 between Save the Children Canada, Save the Children Mexico and the lakeside non-profit.
“We are very excited about this unique collaboration,” said David McNiven, president of Niños Incapacitados, an organization that provides funds for the treatment and medications of local children with life-changing illness.
“Thanks to this agreement and the generosity of our Canadian donors, we are confident we will be able to help more sick children here in Ajijic and the surrounding area,” McNiven said. “We need to strengthen our financial foundation so that the children in our program can count on us and we don’t have to do what we dread most: turn away a seriously ill child through lack of funds.”Currently, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) does not allow individuals to take tax deductions for donations made to foreign not-for-profit organizations such as Niños Incapacitados. However, it does allow certain approved domestic not-for-profit organizations such as Save the Children Canada to disperse funds to foreign charities. Save the Children Canada has agreed to issue tax receipts for donations made by Canadians to the lakeside organization.
“We’re very much the same, even though we’re tiny and (Save the Children) are huge,” said Niños Incapacitados board member Rich Petersen. “Our mission is children’s health, also a key goal of Save the Children but nowhere in the world do they do what we do and nowhere in our sphere do we do what they do. The potential of this relationship is huge.”
The two national Save the Children organizations will be working together. Save the Children Mexico has programs in 21 major cities in this country and an organizational structure that provides regular oversight, monitoring and mentoring – functions that will be extended to Niños Incapacitados.
Celebrating the agreement, a generous Canadian has made a 5,000-dollar commitment to Niños Incapacitados and another 1,000-dollar pledge toward the organization’s campaign to raise 15,000 dollars before the end of the 2012 taxation year.
Niños Incapacitados will remain completely independent, although McNiven adds that, “anytime Save the Children Canada wants to know how money from Canadian donors is being spent, Save the Children Mexico will be able to tell them.”