Flinks is the most efficient way to deal with financial information.

Backed by the National Bank of Canada, a major Canadian financial institution, Flinks allows users to safely and reliably connect their banking data to the application or service of their choice. In this case, CanadaHelps.

The quick and secure process eliminates the need for legacy processes such as micro-deposits, PDF documents or picture uploads, and even unsafe processes such as identification document sharing.

Unfortunately not everyone is good, and there are some bad actors out there. Online hacking and phishing has significantly increased in recent years across all technology industries. CanadaHelps wants to ensure that no one tries to impersonate a charity and fraudulently change sensitive account details.

Therefore, CanadaHelps is increasing our online security measures to eliminate fraud and stay up to date with security and privacy best practices. Flinks allows us to securely verify the EFT information provided by charities which in turn protects charities by ensuring that donations are being disbursed to a bank account that has been confirmed to be owned by the charity.

When registering for a new charity account, or when requesting a banking information update, a charity is sent a custom CanadaHelps Flinks link to complete the verification and are asked to complete the following steps:
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1. The charity member is asked to fill in their information including their charity’s legal name and Business Number (BN).

2. The next step is to select your financial institution at which point the charity member will be asked to securely enter the charity bank card number and password (the same information required to login to their online banking account).

3. If the charity has two-factor authentication (2FA) set up on their bank account, they will be prompted to select to receive a code via text or email to complete the 2FA.

4. Once login is complete and/or 2FA accepted, the charity member will be prompted to choose which account within their overall bank account they would like to use for disbursement of donations from CanadaHelps.

5. Internally, a CanadaHelps representative will review the information provided via Flinks to ensure the information matches what was also provided by the charity on their manual banking information form and that the bank account belongs to the charity.

6. Once the CanadaHelps finance team approves the verification, a confirmation email is sent to the charity for their records.

Please note: the following video is shown from the end user perspective, as you would see your own personal information.

Please refer to our additional FAQs below for more information about additional privacy and safety measures taken to ensure CanadaHelps cannot see the same information you are shown as the end user.

Neither CanadaHelps nor Flinks can see the bank card number or password that you enter, nor is this information stored anywhere.

Flinks uses Interac’s  Sign-In-Partner which allows you to sign in using information you already have. This is comparable to the CRA’s GCKey; GCKey requires you to enter your user ID and password, while the Sign-In Partner option requires you to enter your online banking credentials.

Flinks is a very safe way to transfer financial information. Charity members are sharing sensitive data that's only meant to be used by CanadaHelps in a specific manner, so Flinks keeps this information secure by using the 256-bit encryption method.

Charity bank account login credentials are never displayed, viewed or shared with CanadaHelps.

Flinks also engages with the best security firms to routinely audit their processes, ensuring security standards are always at the highest level. For instance, Flinks has maintained a SOC 2 report for years. This is the gold standard for companies dealing with customer data, and it confirms the effectiveness of their security practices.

It is your and your charities personal data. Not CanadaHelps' and not Flinks', or anyone else. You have control over it.

No one can access your information without your knowledge or permission. It is encrypted using the highest industry standards, moved through secure channels, and stored on protected servers.

Charity members can request to correct, updates or erase information in Flinks' records at any time. Consent can be withdrawn at whenever by requesting a data deletion at privacy@flinks.com.

If the bank that your charity uses is not an option to verify with Flinks we ask that you contact CanadaHelps at info@canadahelps.org or by phone at (877) 755-1595. We will either contact Flinks to have your banking institution added, or we will offer you a secondary option for completing the required verification.

If you do not have, or do not have access to a bank card number and/or password for your charity bank account we ask that you contact CanadaHelps at info@canadahelps.org or by phone at (877) 755-1595. We will either contact Flinks to have your banking institution added, or we will offer you a secondary option for completing the required verification.

If after completing the banking information and login with Flinks there are no banks accounts shown to connect to we ask that you contact CanadaHelps at info@canadahelps.org or by phone at (877) 755-1595. We will either contact Flinks to have your banking institution added, or we will offer you a secondary option for completing the required verification.