Canadian affiliate charity of Clinton Foundation defends expenses – by Joanna Smith (Globe and Mail July 10, 2016)

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The Canadian Press – A Canadian affiliate of the Clinton Foundation that has raised millions from mining executives has spent far more on salaries and administrative costs than charitable programming in the two most recent years for which numbers are available, according to financial statements from the Canada Revenue Agency.

The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada), a registered charity based in Vancouver, B.C., devoted $737,441 — amounting to 78 per cent of its expenditures — to management and administration in 2014. The amount includes spending on office supplies and expenses, salaries and professional and consulting fees.

That same year, according to the return filed to the Canada Revenue Agency and published online, the organization devoted $205,419 to charitable programs, accounting for 22 per cent of its expenditures.

A similar ratio — 72 per cent to management and administration costs and 28 per cent to charitable programs — is in the 2013 return. The Canadian charity strongly defended against any suggestion it is spending too much on overhead.“It is incorrect to look at one-year expenditures in a vacuum,” the charity wrote in an emailed statement in response to a request for an interview.

The Canadian charity was founded by Frank Giustra, a Canadian philanthropist and mining financier who raised more than $16 million in pledges for the initiative at a star-studded 2008 fundraising gala in Toronto, where former U.S. president Bill Clinton spoke to more than 1,000 guests from Hollywood, Bay Street and the mining industry.

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