Not necessarily. Some organizations operate as unincorporated associations. This might be, say, a small club that meets once in a while to discuss common goals. Being incorporate under the Societies Act has advantages. For one, the members of an incorporated non profit aren’t exposed to personal liability if something goes wrong. It’s also easier to attract funding and open and maintain a bank account as an incorporated entity. Cabrio Law can assist with incorporating and setting up the legal foundations of your BC society.

You absolutely can set up a BC society on your own. There are plenty of DIY packages out there.

The advantage of having legal counsel helping you is that they’ll ask the right questions about your organization to get you set up right, the first time. Having all the right documents and processes in order means having less to clean up later, a more engaged membership group, and a far better ability to attract funding.

The cost here is a mix of fees charged by your lawyer or other service provider, and fees charged by the province to complete the incorporation. Cabrio Law charges a flat fee of $500 plus tax to set up a BC society, which includes the province’s fees for incorporation ($100) and reserving your society’s name ($30).

Each year, your society should run an annual general meeting where the members of the society hear about the previous year’s performance and elect directors to run the society for the coming year. Once that is complete and documented, the society files a short annual report to keep it in good standing.

Yes. BC societies are typically either member funded, or not.

BC societies that are member-funded have fewer rules to deal with. For example, they don’t have to disclose to the public their financial statements or how much they paid their directors. Also, if they cease operations, they can distribute their assets to whomever they want. Societies that are funded by outsiders have to satisfy a few requirements. They have to be more transparent, have at least three directors, and are limited in terms of who they can give their assets and money to if they cease operations.

You would make the choice of member funder or not when you incorporate, although it can be changed later.

Charitable tax status in Canada basically means that people who donate to your charity are eligible for a tax rebate. You can still accept donations to your non-profit without charitable tax status, but it’s often a good hook to get people to donate.

Getting charitable status isn’t automatic. It requires an entirely different and far more involved application process than just incorporating. And it can take up to a year (or even longer). All in all, it requires careful planning before you incorporate.

Many! The Societies Act sets out the full list here.

The records are typically kept in what’s called a minute book, which is a physical and/or virtual binder of all the society’s documents and records.

Cabrio Law can help you keep and maintain your societies records, either on an ad-hoc basis or as yearly fee. Leave the paperwork to us so you can focus on achieving your societies mission and goals.

The directors (also known as the board), oversee the operations of the society. Depending on how big the society is, the directors may also hire separate officers (like an executive director, or a finance manager) to be the day-to-day operators. For smaller societies, the directors tend to be more involved in operations.

The members are less involved with the inner workings. They might be the beneficiaries of the society’s services, or key stakeholders that have an interest in how the society is run (like funders). Each year, the members typically have a right to vote on who they want to act as directors of the society, although some societies may have different classes of membership.

At least three, and at least one must reside in BC.

You may chose to have more directors to add certain expertise or representation on your board. More than seven directors can make decision making slower.

Directors have what’s called a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the society when making decisions. As in, they can’t act in their own self interest when making decisions. If they do, they can be held liable.

An example might help — say the board of directors of a non profit is deciding on who to hire as their new executive director. A board member strongly recommends someone who is actually one of their business partners, in the hope that this business partner might do them a favor in the future. In that case, the board member isn’t acting in the society’s best interest.

The right thing to do here would be to disclose the possible conflict so that other board members can weigh in on it with transparency.

Conflicts of interest have to be handled in accordance with the BC Societies Act. Cabrio Law can help you set up processes and procedures to make sure this is done correctly and consistently.