Right To Play is a financially transparent four-star charity. It has an above average results reporting grade and overhead spending within Ci's reasonable range. Ci has given this charity an Average rating for demonstrated impact.

Founded in 2000, Right to Play (RTP) protects, educates, and empowers children through play. Its vision is to support children through play, so they have a safe and happy childhood, and grow into thriving adults. The charity reports that 468 million children live in places affected by armed conflict, a 28% rise since 2015. It also reports that worldwide, 78 million children are not attending school.

Right to Play runs four main programs, listed below. Charity Intelligence calculates RTP spent $56.2m on its programs in 2024. RTP does not break down its programs by program area but does provide a breakdown by Canadian and international program spending in its annual report. The charity spent $50.3m on international programs and $6.0m on Canadian programs in 2024. In total, RTP reports it reached 4.7 million children in 2024, 48% of which identify as girls.

The Early Childhood Care and Education program provides children with playful early learning to support their development. RTP reports it trained more than 4,100 kindergarten teachers in play-based skills in 2024. It also reports it provided care and education to close to 5,000 children in Uganda. The charity reports its Play to Grow program helped more than 1,600 parents form trusting bonds with their children in 2024.

The Primary Education program helps primary school children improve their literacy and gain life skills. RTP reports its P3 program in Ghana trained over 83,000 teachers in 2024. It also reports it helped over 110,000 students learn STEM skills in Rwanda. Its Roshan Rostay program in Pakistan provides accelerated learning for out-of-school girls. RTP reports that 1,500 girls took part in the program in 2024.

The Gender Equality and Girls’ Well-Being program helps girls build confidence and challenge harmful social norms. RTP reports it helped 4,800 girls in Tanzania build skills and confidence to remain in school in 2024. It also helped 17 girls in Senegal create photo and written narratives about the barriers they face playing sports.

The Emotional Well-Being program helps children experiencing trauma cope with their emotions and express themselves. RTP reports it provided hygiene kits and support sessions to over 5,000 children in 2024. The charity also reports it provided coats and warm clothing to 600 children. It reports that it provided psychosocial support from trained coaches to 7,000 Lebanese children in 2024.

Right to Play’s audited financial statements follow activity-based costing, a best practice. Its expenses are clearly defined between program, administrative, and fundraising categories.

In 2024 RTP received $5.3m in Canadian donations and $39.7m in international donations. It also received $19.2m in government funding. Government funding is 31% of total revenue.

The charity’s fundraising costs include international fundraising costs. Ci only included Canadian fundraising costs within fundraising and put international fundraising costs in administrative costs. Fundraising costs are 18% of Canadian donations and administrative costs are 15% of revenue (less investment income). This results in total overhead spending of 33%. For every dollar donated to RTP, 67 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.

RTP spent $56.2m on its programs in 2024 excluding donated goods used, which is 90% of its revenue excluding donated goods. In 2024 it had a deficit of $4.0m.

RTP has $32.5m in reserve funds (cash and investments). The reserves can cover 58%, or just under seven months of program costs.

In 2024, RTP paid external fundraisers $386k who collected $151k in donations. This means it cost RTP $2.55 to raise $1 using external fundraisers. It is likely more cost efficient to directly donate to the charity.

This charity report is an update that has been sent for review to Right to Play. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on July 16, 2025, by Grady Simpson.