Amnesty International Canada is a 2-Star charity. It is financially transparent and has a need for funding. However, it has a below average results reporting grade and overhead costs outside of Ci's reasonable range. This is largely due to its high fundraising costs. Before you give, read Charity Intelligence's report. 

Founded in 1974, Amnesty International Canada (AIC) is the Canadian arm of Amnesty International (AI), a global movement of over 10 million people in 150 countries working to protect and promote human rights. Its mission is to research and prevent or end significant abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.

AIC has approximately 90 support groups and Action Circles across Canada that participate in national campaigns and write letters on behalf of people who are facing human rights violations. To work towards its mission, the charity diverts funds to AI's international programming and runs three of its own programs: Action Strategies, Grassroots Activism in Canada, and Communications and Marketing.

AIC spent $4.9m on International Projects in F2021 (52% of total program spending). Typical projects funded include research missions, investigations and reports, worldwide campaigns, and work with international bodies like the United Nations. AIC states that AI sends around 130 research teams to 70 countries to investigate human rights violations annually.

Action Strategies supports AIC's response to crises and its Urgent Action Network. AIC mobilizes letters of appeal written on behalf of individuals in immediate danger whose human rights are being violated. Its biggest letter writing event is Write for Rights. In 2021, the Global Write for Rights campaign had 4,657,104 actions including 80,630 from Canadians. Canadians held 180 in person and virtual events for Write for Rights.

AIC’s Grassroots Activism provides support and materials to the greater Amnesty network that is working on issues (e.g., Indigenous peoples), or with groups (e.g., human rights defenders).

Communications and Marketing works towards educating the public on human rights violations through channels such as social media or published reports.

In F2019, a review of Amnesty International's workplace culture was conducted following the death by suicide of two of its employees. This review characterized AI's workplace culture as “toxic,” with prevalent bullying, public humiliation, sexism, and other abuses of power. AI's response can be found here. Following this report, Amnesty International's Secretary-General, Kumi Naidoo, resigned. In 2021, another review of AI found it had a culture of white privilege, with incidents of overt racism.

Amnesty International Canada received donations of $17.5m in 2021. AIC's administrative costs are 9% of revenues and its fundraising costs are 31% of donations. For every dollar donated, 60 cents go to the cause. This is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending and has been for every year of Ci’s analysis of AIC. 

AIC has funding reserves of $5.4m, which could cover nearly 7 months of annual program costs at the 2021 level.

AIC uses external fundraisers as part of its fundraising activities. The charity reports paying $3.0m for external fundraisers to raise $3.6m in F2020, equating to a cost of $0.83 to raise a dollar. This 83% cost is consistent over the last 9 years. Donors wanting to avoid these high fundraising costs should donate directly to Amnesty International rather than through external fundraisers. 

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

Updated on July 21, 2021 by Emily Downing.