Founded in 1996, Calgary Health Foundation (CHF) is the fundraising arm and a controlled division of Alberta Health Services (AHS) in Calgary. In F2021, it changed its name from Calgary Health Trust. CHF raises funds for equipment, research, and patient programs at hospitals and health centres in the Calgary area. It grants directly to AHS, which distributes funding across Foothills Medical Centre, Peter Lougheed Centre, Rockyview General Hospital, Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre, South Health Campus, and 12 Carewest long-term care sites. It also funds research projects at institutions outside of AHS, such as the University of Calgary.

In F2021, Calgary Health Foundation granted $19.3m in cash and $524k in goods in kind for Care, Wellness, and Research programs. This included $16.6m to Alberta Health Services (84%) and $3.2m to the University of Calgary and other recipients (16%). CHF does not provide a program spending breakdown of its grants.  

Care: CHF raises funds for new equipment and renovations in Calgary hospitals. According to its most recent annual report in 2018, its grants helped to buy ten hemodialysis chairs and build a new neonatal intensive care unit during the year. Calgary Health Foundation also funded the creation of South Health Campus’ pediatric emergency care centre, which can receive up to 14,500 patients each year.

Wellness: CHF funds a variety of patient care and mental health programs. It funds the Pregnancy and Infant Loss Program at Foothills Medical Centre to support families experiencing a miscarriage or other birth complications. The program serves more than 1,500 people each year through grief support, counselling, and memorial services. CHF’s Close to Home Campaign helps to improve the quality of life for senior patients by funding music therapy, recreational activities, and comforting spaces. The campaign has funded a gardening program for 30 senior residents at Carewest George Boyack.

Research: Calgary Health Foundation provides grants for health research at AHS hospitals and the University of Calgary. In F2021, CHF helped to fund the Canadian arm of the WHO Solidarity trial on covid-19 treatments. It reported that 225 covid-19 patients enrolled in trials across four Calgary hospitals during the year.

Calgary Health Foundation received $8.1m in cash donations and special events revenue in F2021. It also received $524k in donated goods and $432k in government funding, which consisted of $22k in cash grants and $410k in donated rent from Alberta Health Services. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 74% of donations and special events revenue. This results in total overhead spending of 77%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 23 cents go to the cause. This is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending, which has been the case for the past three years.

CHF has funding reserves of $170.2m, of which $22.9m is donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, its funding reserves can cover 7.9 years of annual grant costs. Calgary Health Foundation's funding reserves contributed $17.5m in investment income in F2021, at an estimated rate of return of 23% (compared to an investment loss of $2.2m at a return of -3% in F2020). Over the last ten years, Ci estimates that its investment returns have averaged 7%.

Calgary Health Foundation discloses related party transactions. It received $420k of its government funding from AHS in F2021 ($12k from unrelated government sources). During the year, it gave out $10.6m in grants and $6.0m in unpaid grant amounts from prior years to AHS ($3.2m in grants and unpaid amounts to unrelated grant recipients). In F2021, CHF also bought two homes worth $5.2m as lottery prizes from a firm with a senior executive on CHF’s board. It has committed to future home purchases of $9.2m for lotteries in 2022 and $2.7m for lotteries in 2023.

According to its most recent CRA filing in F2020, CHF uses external fundraisers. It paid $2.9m to raise $29.3m in F2020, at a cost of $0.10 per dollar raised. CHF uses external fundraisers to raise a substantial portion of its lottery revenues. Its gross lottery revenues were $29.2m in F2020, while its donations and event revenues were only $14.1m.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Calgary Health Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 3, 2021 by Eric Zhao.