East York Learning Experience
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.
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.
96%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 96 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About East York Learning Experience:
East York Learning Experience is a 5-star charity with an above-average results reporting score and High demonstrated impact. It is financially transparent and has overhead spending outside Ci's reasonable range.
Founded in 1987, East York Learning Experience (EYLE) helps adults improve their reading, writing, basic math, and digital literacy skills. The charity reports that 42% of Canadian adults between 16-65 years old have low literacy skills that prevent them from applying for jobs, reading the newspaper, writing letters, filling out forms, and banking. EYLE’s programming consists of one-on-one tutoring sessions with trained volunteer tutors to improve literacy, numeracy, and digital skills. Since 1987, EYLE has helped over 1,200 people improve their lives.
A Charity Intelligence 2022 Top 10 Canadian Impact Charity
Through its education services, EYLE manages 40-50 active learner/tutor pairs at a time. EYLE’s services are offered free of charge to clients and follow the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework. After a student leaves the program, EYLE follows up with them at the 3, 6 and 12-month mark to monitor their success. Staff develop an individualized training plan for each student based on their background, former education, work experience, goals, and literacy assessment results. The charity teaches reading, writing, numeracy, critical thinking, oral communication, and computer use/digital skills. EYLE hopes to provide students with the foundation for learning other skills, allowing them to find and maintain a job.
EYLE reports that it operates efficiently by using a modest budget to support a team of volunteers. EYLE has a team of 60 volunteer tutors who give an estimated $130,000 in tutoring hours each year. The charity reports that if it were to pay its volunteers, its costs would rise by 87%. The volunteers allow the charity to operate with only two full-time and two part-time paid staff. EYLE operates out of a low-rent facility designed specifically for nonprofits to further keep costs down.
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Results and Impact
East York Learning Experience reports that 4% of the clients who exited its program in F2022 found employment. A further 39% transitioned to further training/education such as adult high school or college.
While Charity Intelligence highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of EYLE’s results and impact.
Read Charity Intelligence's report on how we measure East York Learning Experience's impact. East York Learning Experience is rated as High impact per dollar by Charity Intelligence.
Impact Rating: High

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Finances
East York Learning Experience is a small charity with $124k in donations and special events revenue in F2023. The charity also received $143k in government funding, representing 53% of revenues.
Administrative costs are 4% of revenues (less investment income) and reported fundraising costs are less than 1% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 4%. For every dollar donated, 96 cents go to the cause. This is outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.
EYLE has reserve funds of $285k, compared to $222k in F2022. The charity could cover around one year and six months of its annual program costs with reserves.
Charity Intelligence sent an update of this report to East York Learning Experience for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on July 14, 2023 by Kiara Andrade.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
---|---|---|---|
Administrative costs as % of revenues | 4.1% | 4.7% | 6.1% |
Fundraising costs as % of donations | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
Total overhead spending | 4.2% | 5.1% | 6.0% |
Program cost coverage (%) | 146.9% | 124.1% | 114.2% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
---|---|---|---|
Donations | 115,445 | 105,983 | 80,603 |
Government funding | 142,537 | 143,395 | 123,501 |
Special events | 8,197 | 8,930 | 8,060 |
Investment income | 19 | 14 | 9 |
Other income | 350 | 150 | 0 |
Total revenues | 266,548 | 258,472 | 212,173 |
Program costs | 193,943 | 179,093 | 139,151 |
Administrative costs | 10,904 | 12,187 | 12,835 |
Fundraising costs | 100 | 418 | 0 |
Other costs | 405 | 416 | 147 |
Total spending | 205,352 | 192,114 | 152,133 |
Cash flow from operations | 61,196 | 66,358 | 60,040 |
Capital spending | 644 | 2,224 | 1,990 |
Funding reserves | 284,811 | 222,310 | 158,859 |
Note: Ci included Miscellaneous revenue and Interest in revenues, affecting total revenues by $369 in F2023 and $164 in F2022.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
0 |
$40k - $80k |
2 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
These comments were provided for a previous version of this profile.
East York Learning Experience has a small staff contingent and thus is a volunteer-driven organization. Each year we rely on the assistance of 50-70 volunteers to work on our Board of Directors, our committees, at fundraising events, and to deliver our literacy services on a one-to-one basis.
Our volunteer tutors go through a screening interview, participate in our tutor training program (small group format 2 to 3 times per year), are then matched with a student and receive ongoing support from staff.
Initially these volunteers make a one year commitment to EYLE. However, many stay with us for several years. Each year we celebrate & honour our volunteers at our Annual General Meeting. At this event we recognize our 1,3,5,10,15,20 and 25 year volunteers. These long-term volunteers represent almost ½ of our entire volunteer membership. Their reasons for staying with us may vary, but frequently we hear comments such as:
At EYLE our goal has been to foster a welcoming, relaxed, informal learning environment while delivering professional literacy services that meet the individual needs of our learners. Our success rate with learners and the dedication demonstrated by our staff and volunteers are indicators that we have met this goal.
We are pleased to announce that as of June 13, 2022 we are back to offering all services onsite. We are currently running a hybrid model with both onsite and online programming.
As an organization with a relatively small budget, we are proud of what we have accomplished and the positive impact we have had on so many lives in our community. Without our committed volunteers and funding support from various levels of government, foundations and the broader community, this would not have been possible.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about us and the work that we do.
Gail McCullough
Director
East York Learning Experience
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 416.425.2666