Calgary Homeless Foundation
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.
87%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 87 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Calgary Homeless Foundation:
Calgary Homeless Foundation is a 5-star, financially transparent charity with a High impact rating and an excellent A+ results reporting grade. It has a reasonably sized reserve of cash and investments and 13% overhead spending. For every dollar donated, 87 cents are available to go to the cause.
Founded in 1999, Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF) distributes grants to its 36-member agency network of shelters and other Albertan charities that help the homeless. CHF also collects data on and tracks its agency members’ program performance through its Coordinated Access and Assessment database. According to the charity’s latest October 2024 point in time study, 1 in 500 Calgarians are homeless – a 13% decrease since the previous point in time study conducted in 2008. CHF’s only program is the grants it provides to its agency network and the programs these grants fund. It distributed $60.5m worth of grants to 36 organizations in the March 2025 fiscal year (F2025).
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 100 Rated Charity
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 5 Impact Homeless Sector Charity
CHF’s grants funded 105 programs across its network. This included 2,190 new supportive housing units in F2025. The charity’s grants also funded 51 training sessions attended by 855 frontline program staff, five winter warming centres which saw 37,180 visits, and 23 outreach teams who redirected Calgary’s homeless to shelters. CHF’s network also distributed 102,440 essential items (toothbrushes, hand warmers, blankets, toques, and products needed to meet basic needs) in F2025.
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Results and Impact
In F2025, Calgary Homeless Foundation reported that thanks to its funding and program support, 1,105 clients at its agency network were able find housing and live independently (1,229 in F2024 and 1,076 in F2023) after exiting supportive housing programs.
While Charity Intelligence (Ci) highlights this key result, it may not completely represent Calgary Homeless Foundation's full results and impact.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 5 Impact Homeless Sector Charity
Ci has given Calgary Homeless Foundation a High impact rating based on its demonstrated social impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: High
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Finances
Calgary Homeless Foundation’s audited financial statements follow line-item costing as it does not separate its wages paid to employees by program, administrative, and fundraising activities. This is not a best practice.
In F2025, CHF received $1.1m in cash donations (2% of total revenue) and $67.1m in government funding (97% of revenue). Administrative costs are 10% of total revenue and fundraising costs are 4% of donations. Its 13% overhead spending ratio means that for every dollar donated, 87 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
In F2025, the charity spent $60.5m on its programs (grants to its agency network). Since CHF's F2025 T3010 filings with the CRA have not been released at the time of this update, Ci was unable to determine F2025 non-grant program costs. Ci will have the opportunity to update this profile when this information becomes available.
At the end of F2025, CHF had $23.9m reserve funds (cash and investments). This can cover 39% or just under five months of its annual program spending.
Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on June 27, 2025. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 9.9% | 9.2% | 8.0% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 3.6% | 10.3% | 5.7% |
| Total overhead spending | 13.5% | 19.5% | 13.8% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 39.4% | 31.5% | 61.8% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 1,058 | 1,630 | 1,412 |
| Government funding | 67,131 | 63,168 | 65,666 |
| Other income | 1,260 | 1,632 | 1,091 |
| Total revenues | 69,449 | 66,430 | 68,168 |
| Program costs | 0 | 4,912 | 4,271 |
| Grants | 60,510 | 64,185 | 47,910 |
| Administrative costs | 6,867 | 6,121 | 5,460 |
| Fundraising costs | 38 | 168 | 81 |
| Total spending | 67,416 | 75,386 | 57,722 |
| Cash flow from operations | 2,033 | (8,956) | 10,446 |
| Capital spending | 22 | 16 | 199 |
| Funding reserves | 23,861 | 21,790 | 32,227 |
Note: 1. PROGRAM COSTS: Since CHF’s audited financial statements do not separate program costs into grants and cash used in operations, Ci referred to its T3010 filings with the CRA when available to report non-grant program costs. 2. DEFERRED GOVERNMENT GRANTS: Since CHF follows deferred accounting, Ci adjusted deferred government grants to show donors the year-to-year movement of cash within the charity. This affected total revenue by $88k in F2025, ($42k) in F2024, and ($161k) in F2023. 3. GRANTS PAYABLE: Ci adjusted grants distributed for changes in grants payable, affecting total expenses by ($nil) in F2025 , ($nil) in F2024, and ($691k) in F2023 .
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
1 |
$160k - $200k |
3 |
$120k - $160k |
4 |
$80k - $120k |
2 |
$40k - $80k |
0 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2024
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Comment added on July 23, 2025:
Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF) currently provides transparency by disclosing wages paid to employees for fundraising activities in Note 14 of the F2025 audited financial statements and wages paid to employees directly funded by government grants in our statement of Operations under the Systems Programs fund. CHF’s wages paid to employees under the Operating fund include a combination of wages paid to employees whose primary activities are related to the coordination, disbursement, monitoring, and evaluation of systems programs grants and implementation of strategic initiatives and wages paid to employees whose primary activities are related to leadership and administrative functions of the organization.
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 403-237-6456