Founded in 1963, Oxfam Canada (OXC) is an affiliate of the international Oxfam Confederation, an international charity based in Oxford, UK. It works with over 100 partners in local communities to tackle the root causes of poverty and inequality in the Americas, Africa and Asia. OXC believes that ending global poverty begins with promoting women's rights and that three key actions must be taken: humanitarian response, long-term development and advocating for social change.

The charity spent $20.1m on international programs and program management in F2018, making up 92% of program costs. The charity’s work includes emergency response and tackling long-term problems with education, health, poverty, gender inequality, and water and sanitation. In F2018, Oxfam Canada worked directly with 22.3 million people in 67 countries, 53% of whom were women. Oxfam provided life-saving emergency assistance to 17.3 million people in F2018, including those affected by flooding and landslides across large areas of Bangladesh, India and Nepal, hurricanes in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and earthquakes in central Mexico. OXC also campaigns to raise public awareness of causes of poverty and encourages people to act. The charity spent $1.6m on education and public affairs programming in Canada in F2018, making up 8% of program costs.

Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Oxfam Canada estimates that Cox’s Bazar is one of the densest areas of refugees worldwide with 860,000 Rohingya refugees, 688,000 of whom have arrived since August 2017. Over 70% of newly arrived refugees do not have shelter and only 50% have access to safe drinking water. In F2018, OXC reached 260,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh by providing clean drinking water, hygiene and sanitation facilities, shelter materials and other essentials.

Yemen Crisis Work: OXC has worked in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, for over 30 years, with the goal of improving water and sanitation services as well as the livelihoods of poor people. Nearly 75% of the population is in need of emergency aid. Since July 2015, OXC provided aid to 3.0 million people at the frontlines, including cash payments to over 270,000 people to help with food purchases.

Syria Refugee Crisis: OXC estimates that in Syria, 13.5 million people are in urgent humanitarian need, 7 million people do not have enough food and 60% of the population needs healthcare. OXC has assisted 2 million people with clean drinking water, vouchers for hygiene supplies, as well as cash and other necessities like blankets and stoves for the winter months.

South Sudan Crisis: Since rebel forces erupted in 2013, and as of September 2018, there are 1.85 million internally displaced people in South Sudan and 2.4 million who have fled to other countries. OXC reports that 4.5 million people are facing extreme hunger and 7.0 million people are in need of humanitarian aid. In OXC’s most recent update, it reports that as of 2017, it has reached over 600,000 people with emergency and longer-term support.

Oxfam Canada is a Large charity, receiving donations of $13.8m in F2018. In addition, the charity received $13.1m in government funding. Administrative costs are 7% of revenues (excluding investment income), and fundraising costs are 26% of donations, excluding international donations (which includes amounts contributed by other Oxfam entities). For every dollar donated, 67 cents go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. OXC holds funding reserves of $8.4m, which can cover 5 months of annual program costs.  

OXC used external fundraisers in F2018. The charity paid $648k to raise $315k from the external fundraiser for a cost of $2.06 per dollar raised.  

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

Updated on July 30, 2019 by Caroline McKenna.