Mercy Ships Canada
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
A
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
Low
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
63%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 63 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Mercy Ships Canada:
Mercy Ships Canada is a two-star financially transparent charity with a Low demonstrated impact rating. It has an A results reporting grade, which is above average. For every dollar donated, 63 cents are available to go to the cause. This is outside Ci’s reasonable range.
Founded in 1989, Mercy Ships Canada (MSC) is one of 16 national branches of Mercy Ships International (MSI). MSI operates two hospital ships, Africa Mercy and Global Mercy. The ships provide medical aid and training for people in coastal towns in West and sub-Saharan Africa. MSC states that 90% of people in West and sub-Sarahan Africa cannot access hospital treatment or afford medical care. It also states that each year, 16.9 million people around the world die due to lack of access to surgical care.
MSC funds two main programs, listed below. Charity Intelligence calculates MSC spent $1.7m on its programs in 2024. Ci did not find a program spending breakdown between the two programs on the charity’s website or in its annual report. The most recent annual report available on the charity’s website at the time of this update was from 2023.
All program work (surgeries, procedures, etc.) are reported for Mercy Ships International.
Through Direct Medical Services, MSI offers various types of surgical procedures on its two ships. It also performs procedures outside of its ships. These procedures include free maxillofacial, plastic, and orthopedic surgeries. MSI completed 4,804 surgical procedures for 3,136 patients in 2023. It also completed 11,436 dental procedures. Of the on-ship surgical and dental patients, 2,064 were from Sierra Leone, 922 were from Senegal, and 79 were from Gambia. Of off-ship patients, 2,122 were from Guinea and 1,688 were from Togo.
Through Education, Training, and Advocacy, MSI trains healthcare professionals. The charity also educates the public on how to prevent and treat health problems. MSI provided 105,123 hours of healthcare education and training to 1,733 people in 2023. The three countries with the most participants were Senegal (598), Liberia (378), and South Africa (236).
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Results and Impact
Mercy Ships Canada reports that through partnerships in Togo, MSI restored sight to 1,688 people in 2023.
In April 2024, the West African College of Surgeons granted accreditation to MSI’s surgical and anesthesia training programs. MSC reports that this partnership will allow trainees to gain specialized qualifications through their experiences on the ships.
MSI completed 4,804 surgical procedures for 3,136 unique patients in 2023. This means each patient received an average of 1.5 procedures.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not completely represent Mercy Ships Canada's results and impact.
Charity Intelligence has given MSC a Low impact rating based on demonstrated impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: Low
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Finances
Mercy Ships Canada’s audited financial statements follow activity-based costing, a best practice. Its expenses are clearly defined between program, administrative, and fundraising categories.
MSC received $3.0m in donations in 2024. Administrative costs are 6% of revenues (excluding investment income). Fundraising costs are 31% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 37%. For every dollar donated, 63 cents are available to go to the cause. This falls outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.
MSC spent $1.7m on its programs in 2024 excluding donated goods used, which is 57% of its revenue excluding donated goods. In 2024 it had a surplus of $98k.
MSC has $2.2m in gross reserve funds (cash and investments) and $4k in interest-bearing debts. This results in net reserve funds of $2.2m. The reserves can cover 127%, or one year and three months of program costs.
This charity report is an update that has been sent for review to Mercy Ships Canada. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on August 7, 2025, by Grady Simpson.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 5.9% | 6.3% | 3.8% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 31.1% | 22.7% | 16.1% |
| Total overhead spending | 37.0% | 28.9% | 19.9% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 126.5% | 128.2% | 96.6% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 2,985,346 | 2,558,970 | 3,082,496 |
| Goods in kind | 1,598,193 | 1,098,507 | 1,688,800 |
| Investment income | 57,685 | 65,634 | 19,353 |
| Total revenues | 4,641,224 | 3,723,111 | 4,790,649 |
| Program costs - International | 1,744,926 | 1,660,291 | 2,132,951 |
| Donated goods exp | 1,598,190 | 1,098,510 | 1,688,800 |
| Administrative costs | 272,015 | 229,014 | 179,456 |
| Fundraising costs | 927,961 | 579,693 | 496,516 |
| Other costs | 165 | 190 | 328 |
| Total spending | 4,543,260 | 3,567,695 | 4,498,051 |
| Cash flow from operations | 97,964 | 155,416 | 292,598 |
| Capital spending | 8,370 | 768 | 4,830 |
| Funding reserves | 2,207,522 | 2,129,106 | 2,060,264 |
Note: Amortization: Ci removed amortization on a pro rata basis from program, administrative, and fundraising costs in 2024, 2023, and 2022. Interest on capital lease: Ci removed interest on capital lease on a pro rata basis from program, administrative, and fundraising costs, and reported it under other costs. T3010: The most recent T3010 filing available at the time of this update was from 2023.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
1 |
$80k - $120k |
3 |
$40k - $80k |
5 |
< $40k |
1 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2023
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Comment provided by Mercy Ships Canada on August 30, 2024 and added verbatim:
Many Mercy Ships' global neighbours experience a complex system of poverty, disempowerment, often combined with broken relationships, leading to marginalization or exclusion from society. Thus, Mercy Ships endeavours to promote unity among individuals, communities, and organizations that affirms the intrinsic worth of every person, our mutual interdependence, and the value of working together for the common good. Thus, an essential element of addressing healthcare injustice requires consideration of qualitative factors that influence the process of transformation that cannot be adequately captured by social impact per dollar spent measurement.
As we start to incorporate more outcome-based measures, Mercy Ships Canada's reporting of results in the coming year will be enhanced for the direct surgical services provided free to our patients in underserved areas of Africa. The measurements are:
Mercy Ships' partnership with the host nation's government gives us a opportunity to help address systemic issues in the local healthcare delivery system and advocate for healthcare improvement nationwide. Thus, we invest in strengthening local healthcare systems through education, training, mentoring, and targeted infrastructure projects, including quality improvement interventions.
Mercy Ships' Education, Training, and Advocacy (ETA) efforts to strengthen the healthcare systems in the African countries where we are invited are a longer-term commitment that extends beyond the reporting cycle of an annual report. This underscores the complexity of the task and our dedication to making a lasting impact. Mercy Ships is initiating two research projects that will eventually contribute to our enhanced measurement of Education, Training, and Advocacy outcomes. The first project is a nationwide enumeration of Guinea's surgical and dental workforce, while the second project focuses on determining the prevalence of surgical and dental problems among Guinea's population. These projects will provide us with valuable data to assess our impact.
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 1-866-900-7447