Fresh Start Recovery Centre
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.
B+
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
High
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.
86%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 86 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Fresh Start Recovery Centre:
Fresh Start Recovery Centre is a 5-star, financially transparent charity. Its results reporting score is a B+. Its overhead spending is 14%, which is within Ci’s reasonable range. Its reserve funds can cover nine months of annual program costs.
Founded in 1992, Fresh Start Recovery Centre (Fresh Start) is an addiction recovery and rehabilitation center. It has locations in Calgary and Lethbridge, Alberta. It follows the medical model of addiction as a disease. Its recovery program facilitates individual and group counseling sessions and runs recreational and therapeutic activities.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top Impact Charity.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 100 Rated Charity.
Fresh Start's Calgary location is a 40,000-square-foot home with 50 primary treatment beds for men. The house has 65 resident rooms, counseling rooms, a meditation room, gymnasium, dining hall, weight room, games room, movie theatre, laundry room, wellness clinic, and more. Fresh Start's Lethbridge location has 50 beds and hosts both men and women.
Fresh Start runs two programs: Addiction Treatment and Friends and Family Healing. The charity does not provide a program spending breakdown.
Addiction Treatment includes live-in recovery services and post-treatment employment and housing services. Fresh Start reports that the percentage of Canadian drinkers who report some form of harm in the past year due to alcohol intake is 20%. In 2023, Fresh Start opened 66 more beds for post-treatment housing. It also reported that over 275 individuals were supported in entering treatment and over 200 clients accessed vocational and education opportunities.
Friends and Family Healing provides support for the loved ones of individuals struggling with addiction. Fresh Start states that 33% of individuals report some form of harm due to someone else’s drinking. The Friends and Family – Coming Together series runs sessions two times a week for four weeks. It supports individuals in contributing to a loved one’s recovery.
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Results and Impact
The charity reports that 98% of individuals reported that the staff helped them believe they could recover in F2023. 89% of individuals reported a deepened sense of community and belonging. In F2021, the charity reported an 85% group completion rate and a 56% success rate of continuous abstinence. It has not provided data for F2023. Among its alumni, Fresh Start reports 1034 collective years of sobriety.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of Fresh Start Recovery Centre's results and impact.
Charity Intelligence has rated Fresh Start as having a high impact based on demonstrated impact per dollar. Read our report on Fresh Start's impact to learn about its social return on investment and how we calculated it. Fresh Start is in the top 10 Canadian Impact charities rated by Ci in 2024.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top Impact Charity.
Impact Rating: High
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Finances
In F2023, Fresh Start Recovery Centre received $2.4m in donations and $5.0m in government funding. It also received $2.0m in accommodation revenue, listed as fees for service. Administrative costs are 4% and fundraising costs are 10%, for a total overhead spending of 14%. For every dollar donated, 86 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s range for reasonable overhead spending. Fresh Start has $4.6m in reserve funds, which can cover nine months of annual program costs.
This charity report is an update that has been sent to Fresh Start Recovery Centre for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. Updated on May 31, 2024 by Stellar Zhang.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 3.5% | 2.7% | 5.9% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 10.3% | 8.6% | 21.0% |
| Total overhead spending | 13.8% | 11.3% | 26.8% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | (53.2%) | 67.8% | 55.3% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 2,362 | 1,380 | 1,189 |
| Government funding | 5,046 | 2,465 | 2,880 |
| Fees for service | 2,031 | 1,819 | 1,485 |
| Business activities (net) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other income | 2,365 | 480 | 161 |
| Total revenues | 11,804 | 6,144 | 5,716 |
| Program costs | 6,066 | 4,867 | 4,972 |
| Administrative costs | 410 | 168 | 335 |
| Fundraising costs | 244 | 119 | 249 |
| Other costs | 85 | 5 | 11 |
| Total spending | 6,805 | 5,159 | 5,568 |
| Cash flow from operations | 5,000 | 985 | 148 |
| Capital spending | 15,916 | 63 | (189) |
| Funding reserves | (3,227) | 3,298 | 2,751 |
Note: Ci adjusted for deferred contributions, affecting revenue by $2.2m in F2023, $424k in F2022, and $151k in F2021. The charity did not disclose if these deferred contributions were individual donations or government funding. As such, Ci listed these under other revenue. Ci adjusted for deferred capital contributions, affecting revenues by $495k in F2023. These contributions were received for the construction of a new building. Ci listed accommodation revenue under fees for service. At the time of this profile, the charity’s T3010 filing has not yet been made public. This may lead to minor errors in salary information.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
4 |
$80k - $120k |
1 |
$40k - $80k |
5 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 403-387-6266