Supporters of the Jewish National Fund-Canada have founded a “Friends of” organization to support the group’s work while it fights to restore its charitable status, the organization announced this week. 

Last summer, Canada’s tax authority revoked the charitable status of both JNF Canada, the Ne’eman Foundation and other Israel-focused fundraising nonprofits, following complaints by anti-Israel activists. The Canadian Jewish News reported that JNF Canada’s issues with the tax agency spanned years, with the Canadian Revenue Agency citing JNF Canada’s decision to keep its accounting operations in Israel, rather than Canada, and the organization’s funding of improvements on Israeli military bases and projects in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.  

The new organization, “Friends of JNF Canada,” will launch on Sept. 8, Nathan Disenhouse and Lance Davis — JNF Canada’s president and CEO — announced on Tuesday. 

According to the statement, lacking charitable status has hindered JNF Canada’s ability to “operate effectively,” particularly being able to provide charitable receipts to donors. 

“We also know this is not a sustainable path forward,” Disenhouse and Davis wrote. “The absence of our charitable status has limited our ability to operate effectively, and our supporters have told us they want their donations to have the full impact, including the ability to receive charitable receipts.”

By founding Friends of JNF Canada, the organization hopes to alleviate that issue for donors, while funding projects aligned with JNF Canada’s mission including supporting environmental sustainability initiatives and supporting mental and physical health care in Israel, the statement said.

“Wonderful friends stepped forward to dedicate their charity to carrying out similar work, and have appropriately re-named it, Friends of JNF Canada. With our board of director’s full endorsement, this organization will continue supporting the kinds of projects that have always defined JNF Canada’s mission: serving Israelis in need through charitable projects that help the vulnerable, enhance environmental sustainability, and support the mental & physical health of Israelis in need,” the statement said.

The launch of the “Friends of” organization comes soon after Canada’s federal court dismissed JNF’s appeal to restore its charitable status in June. JNF Canada’s legal battle remains ongoing.