FAQ about Community Agency Agreements at The Architectural Conservancy of Ontario

Please read the FAQ carefully as many of your questions will be answered here, we recommend you keep a copy of this to refer to if you are successful in having an Agency Agreement with ACO.

 Just a few things about our agreements

HOW IT WORKS:

An Agency Agreement is a contract, set up between a community group and ACO which allows us to accept donations and make payments on behalf of a project that meets our charitable objectives. Technically, the project is an ACO project and you are people we have ‘hired’ to carry out this particular project.

This also means that ACO is the recipient of all donations. We are the charity to whom donations are made. We agree to take on your “project” as a program of ACO.

Agreements are for two years. They can be renewed, but remember they are no longer in existence after the two-year anniversary.

ACO receives the donation and issues the tax receipt directly. ACO cannot release the names of the donors to you as a third party – if you are looking for that, please ask your donors to let you know when they have made a donation and in what form, this way, when you get your monthly report, you can follow the donation by the amount.

ACO cannot send any money directly to you, when there is a bill to pay, you must submit the bill to ACO and we make the payment for you (payments must be made by the receipting body). ACO can not give money to those who are the recipient of the agreement as this would be seen as a fiduciary conflict of interest.

DONATIONS:

• Donations can be made several ways:
  through the ACO website (they need to select – make a donation and then “Community Agency Funds” from the dropdown menu, and MOST IMPORTANTLY add the name of your agreement to the ‘notes’ section;
• By mail. Again, they must put a note somewhere to indicate it’s for your agreement (on the cheque, a note in the envelope etc.) ;
• By phone, by calling our office and speaking with our membership coordinator, Tai (ext. 404) who can take a credit card payment.

ACO takes 10% of each donation as administration fee (the actual amount that ACO spends is closer to 17%)

ACO sends a brief summary to you of donations and payments once a month. We cannot provide this summary more often unless you pay our bookkeeper to do so.

ACO cannot assist with your fundraising, if you want some advice, feel free to call either the COO or our Development Coordinator. If you do not raise the money that is required for a bill, ACO cannot pay it. ACO does not subsidize communities looking to raise funds.

If you raise more money than is required for your cause, this money is put into ACO’s fund for similar causes, it cannot be given to the community group or back to the donors.

PAYMENTS

When a service provider contacts you about a payment we need the following: an invoice which is made out to Architectural Conservancy Ontario. And their EFT information

Payments are made by ACO using EFT, as we are a province wide nonprofit, our signing officers are scattered across the province and a cheque takes weeks to mail around for signature. We have an EFT system in place, we need a void cheque or the information off of their cheque to process the payment.

Payments take a minimum of two weeks to process.

II

What ACO needs from you to make an agreement:

An ‘application’ to take on a Community Agency Agreement (simply an email stating who you are, what you are raising funds for, and that you wish to take on an agreement), with the following:

The name of the organization you are going by – this will be the name of the agreement. It need not be the name of your group, just a simple name that allows us, and you to track the money going to the group. For example, a group called “committee to save the Saint Mungo’s church”, must just use “St. Mungo’s Church” as their agreement name. It only needs to be a name that will be different than any other group.

A one sentence long statement which states clearly what you are raising money for (this must agree with our charitable objects).

Two names/signing authorities for the group, both must be members of ACO at some level, they cannot be from the same household or hold a position at an ACO branch or with ACO, however, they must both be members in good standing, of ACO (they can join before ACO signs the agreement).

A simple budget that states what you are raising and specifically what each amount is for – for example:
$10,000.00 legal fees
$5,000.00 witness payments
$2,000.00 photocopying and mailing
$17,000.00

Remember, that ACO cannot pay amounts ABOVE the budget

Once you get these to me, and ACO agrees to sponsor the project. We can do up a draft agreement for you to go over. Then ACO needs to have it signed.

No money raised BEFORE the date of signature may be receipted.