Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund

• Donating and fundraising criteria
• Eligible donations
• Information for organizations interested in submitting proposals

In response to the January 12 earthquake, Canada has created the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

The Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund will provide effective, accountable, and timely financial support to trusted Canadian and international humanitarian and development partner organizations working in the affected area.

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Donating and fundraising criteria

For every dollar Canadians donated between January 12 and February 12, 2010, to a registered charity responding to the Haiti earthquake, Canada has put one dollar into the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

To be counted for this purpose, donations had to be:

• Monetary, up to $100,000
• Made by an individual Canadian
• Made to a registered charity that is receiving donations in response to the January 12 earthquake in Haiti
• Specifically earmarked by such organizations for the purpose of responding to the earthquake
• Made between January 12 and February 12, 2010

The requirement that donations be made by February 12, 2010, is to ensure that CIDA's matching contribution to the relief fund can in turn be mobilized quickly to respond to emergency needs in Haiti.

Not all registered charities were collecting donations for the disaster response. If you wanted the Government of Canada to make a corresponding contribution to the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, you had to ensure that your donation complied with the conditions set out above, that the registered charity in question intended to use the donations for earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, and that it would declare the donations to CIDA.

Both tax-receipted and non tax-receipted donations were eligible to be counted toward the size of the fund. Donations had to be made in cash or by cheque, money order, credit card or wire transfer. Donations made by Canadian individuals by cheque had to be issued from a personal bank account and not a corporate bank account.

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Eligible donations

Eligible donations:

• Included amounts from a fundraising event undertaken by school authorities, faith-based organizations, clubs, social groups, businesses, incorporated entities, or registered charities to raise money from individuals in response to the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.
• Excluded any donations by corporations, governments, businesses, partnerships, schools, incorporated or non-incorporated entities, and unions from their existing resources that were not raised from individuals specifically in response to the January 12 earthquake in Haiti
• Ensured no double counting of donations (i.e. donations collected by a registered charity and given to another such organization could be declared only once to CIDA)
• Excluded donations that were made by corporations, governments, incorporated entities, registered charities, unions, or government bodies (provincial, territorial, or municipal) to augment an amount raised in a fundraising activity or event

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Information for organizations interested in submitting proposals

Guidelines for submitting proposals to the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund

The Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund will provide money to established Canadian and international humanitarian and development organizations with significant in-country capacity to deliver humanitarian, early recovery, and reconstruction assistance in Haiti. Non-governmental organizations interested in applying for funding should first ensure that they meet the minimum institutional eligibility requirements.

For information on these eligibility requirements and on how to apply for humanitarian assistance funding, please see CIDA's Guidelines for Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Project Proposals and Reports.

Allocation of funds

Registered charities fundraising for the January 12 Haiti earthquake response do not have privileged access to the relief fund. Allocation decisions will be based on CIDA's humanitarian and development assistance guidelines and the ability of Canadian and international humanitarian and development organizations to access the affected populations and deliver timely, effective, and appropriate humanitarian relief, early recovery, and reconstruction activities.

For further information on the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, please contact CIDA's Public Inquiries Service:

Telephone: 819-997-5006
Toll free: 1-800-230-6349
Fax: 819-953-6088
Toll free for the hearing and speech impaired only: 1-800-331-5018
Email: info@acdi-cida.gc.ca