Salvation Army is a 2-star, financially transparent charity with a Low impact rating and a below-average B- results reporting grade. Its reserves can finance just over two years of its program spending. Its 23% overhead means that for every dollar donated, 77 cents are available to go to the cause.

Operating in Canada since 1882, Salvation Army represents the Canadian branch of The Salvation Army International – an international Christian charity. In Canada, there are 328 registered charities with the name Salvation Army. Most of these are local Salvation Army chapters. This report is on the Canadian Head Office Salvation Army.

Across Canada, Salvation Army, through its grants to local chapters and programs, supports vulnerable people in 400 communities across Canada and is involved in activities such as hunger relief, emergency shelter, palliative care, school nutrition programs, and addiction recovery services. According to the charity, 3.4 million Canadians live in poverty each day, 622,000 of which are children.

Salvation Army runs four main programs: addiction services, health care, community & family services, and congregational ministries. It also runs a number of smaller programs such as Christian education, youth programs, and international humanitarian relief. It spent $696.8m on its programs and grants in the March 2025 fiscal year (F2025).

Since Salvation Army’s F2025 annual report has not yet been published at the time of this profile update, Charity Intelligence (Ci) has only updated its financial information and program spending breakdown. Ci calculated the charity's program spending numbers assuming spending between programs will be the same in F2025. Ci will have the opportunity to amend this profile with F2025 program information once it becomes available.

Addiction services was 41% of Salvation Army’s program spending ($283.0m). The charity runs specialized shelters that offer detox support, mental health counselling, and meals to those in need. Salvation Army operates 5,500 detox beds (2 million yearly potential bed nights) at its shelters each night and reported 1.4 million nights of shelter in F2024. This implies a 71% occupancy rate at its addictions recovery centres.

Health care was 31% of Salvation Army’s program spending ($213.5m) and includes the charity’s portfolio of hospitals, nursing homes, and daycares. In F2024, Salvation Army provided 248 hospital, 1,158 long-term care, and 30 hospice beds. It also reported that it visited 82,000 people at its health care facilities in F2024.

Community and family services was 14% of Salvation Army’s program spending ($98.4m). The charity operates 250 community centres where it provides basic needs support to families in need. In F2024, Salvation Army distributed 3.2 million meals and reported 3.2 million visits at its community centres.

Other programs was 8% of Salvation Army’s program spending ($55.5m) and includes after-school youth programs and international humanitarian disaster relief. The charity runs 45 community youth programs where it distributed 115,000 meals to those in need. Salvation Army also runs 110 international relief projects in 37 countries where it provides medicine, clean water, and food to those in need.

Congregational Ministries was 7% of Salvation Army’s program spending ($46.4m). The charity operates over 300 churches across Canada where it offers Christian education, congregational activities, and spiritual guidance for those in need.

Salvation Army's international programs include grants to UK-based Salvation Army International Headquarters ($3.7m in F2024 which is 58% of international programs). The remainder of international programs are grants to various Salvation Army Headquarters around the world. In 2024, the largest international grants were $337k to Salvation Army in Ukraine, $335k to Salvation Army in Romania, and $276k to Salvation Army in Kenya.

In F2025, Salvation Army had $249.4m in donations (26% of total revenue) and $487.4m of government funding (50% of revenue).

Administrative costs are 12% of total revenue excluding investment income and fundraising costs are 11% of donations. Its 23% overhead spending means that for every dollar donated, 77 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range of 5-35%.

Salvation Army spent $696.8m on its programs and grants in F2025 – a 1% increase from $681.6m spent in F2024.

Although the charity likely made grants in F2025, it fails to disclose grants in its audited financial statements. This information comes from Salvation Army's T3010 filing. The 2025 filing is not yet available at the time of this profile update. In F2024, it distributed $131.9m to qualified donees, $131.9m of which was given to other Salvation Army subsidiaries across Canada. 

Salvation Army collects and sells donated goods. The net proceeds are shown as Business activities. In F2025, sales of donated goods were $188m ($185m in 2024 and $178m in 2023) with thrift shop operations costing $168m ($162m in 2024 and $155m in 2023).

At the end of F2025, Salvation Army had $1.7 billion gross reserve funds and just under $1.7 billion net reserve funds (cash and investments), $32.0m of which was donor endowed. Excluding interest-bearing debt and donor-endowed funds, its net reserves can cover 233% or just over two years and four months of its annual program spending. This is just below Ci's 300% reasonable limit.

Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on August 21, 2025. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming. 

Questions? Contact jdranitsaris@charityintelligence.ca