Registered charities are charitable organizations, public foundations or private foundations that are created and resident in Canada. They must use their resources for charitable activities and have charitable purposes that fall into one or more of the following categories:

(Vancouver Society of Immigrant & Visible Minority Women v. Minister of National Revenue, 1999 CarswellNat 18 (S.C.C.) (Vancouver Society).)

A charitable activity must be for the benefit of the community, or a significant portion of the community, and not be concerned with the conferment of private advantage. The public benefit requirement is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for a finding of charity at common law (Vancouver Society).

The advancement of the education head means one or more of the following:

Education can be provided by workshops, seminars, training, self-study and traditional, classroom-type instruction. Simply providing the opportunity for people to educate themselves (such as by making material available) is insufficient. Also, the education can advance a specific, practical end (Vancouver Society).

The residual head requires more than a public benefit but that the purpose benefits the community in a way that the law regards as charitable. The case law has established certain charitable purposes under the residual head. Others may be added by reasonable extension or analogy. However, given the significant loss of revenue to the public treasury, it is for Parliament, not the courts, to consider a new and more expansive definition of charity (Vancouver Society).

Unless the purposes of an organization are exclusively charitable, it cannot be said that the organization's activities are exclusively charitable.