Founded in 1999, Kids Now aims to empower grade 7 and 8 students to make positive choices and become leaders. Participants work to build self-esteem and confidence, goal setting, relationships and communication skills, conflict resolution, and stress management. The age group of grades 7 and 8 was selected as an opportunity to build critical skills before high school, working to improve the chances that participants go on to graduate. The charity reports having helped over 35,000 kids since founding.

Kids Now runs its 12-week mentorship program during or after school hours, pairing ten kids with an adult mentor. The group size is intended to allow for participants to both interact directly with the mentor and learn from their peers. In F2018, Kids Now delivered the program 125 times in southern Ontario and Alberta. It worked with 1,250 kids mostly from poor communities.

Kids Now is a small charity with donations of $302k in F2018, of which $70k was in-kind donations including management salaries, communications, and legal services. Administrative costs are 15% of revenues and fundraising costs are 13% of donations. For every dollar donated, 72 cents go to the cause which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Kids Now has $38k in funding reserves which could cover two months of program costs. In F2017 and F2016 the charity had interest-bearing debts of $26k and $24k respectively, producing a negative program cost coverage.

Kids Now reports spending $8,048 on external fundraising which contributed no revenue to the charity in F2017.

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

Updated on July 8, 2019 by Madison Kerr.