Kids.Now

About Kids.Now:

Founded in 1999, Kids Now offers an in-school, after school hours mentorship program to develop life skills for grade 7 and 8 youth in over 200 schools in Ontario and Alberta.  Kids Now programs aim to empower youth to reach their full potential. In 2016, they served 2000 kids through 180 volunteer mentors and 150 school reps.

Kids Now matches a volunteer mentor with 10 students for a 12-week curriculum-based program that focuses on five main themes: building self-confidence, resolving conflict, setting goals, improving communication, and managing stress.  Kids Now believes that providing preventative mentoring to its target clients, by qualified adult coaches in a small group setting, is critical in the reduction of unproductive life choices. It targets youths in grades 7 & 8 as the organization believes that these are some of the most vulnerable years for kids with high school approaching. Statistics demonstrate that only 36% of girls in grade 6 say they feel confident and that 36% of students reported being victims of bullying. Kids Now programs build life-success skills that: improve family and peer relationships, provide youth with tools to make positive choices and turn away from risky behaviour, enhance self-esteem, and encourage healthy thinking, leading to a more productive and rewarding life.

Through a program survey, it reported that 100% of participants felt more confident and that 90% of participants say the program is helping them to face immediate problems and challenges. The charity also issued an alumni survey to participants from 1999 to 2012. It found that 97% of respondents would want their kids to participate in the Kids Now program and that 90% say they still use some or all the skills they learned over the course of the program.

Kids Now has 2 full-time staff members, plus 3 part-time workers to help run the Kids Now leadership programs. As reported in its T3010A filings with the CRA, it has used external fundraisers. In F2016, external fundraisers raised $7k for the charity, costing Kids Now $37k. In F2015, no revenues were reported from external fundraisers, costing the charity $60k.  

Financial Review:

Kids Now is a small charity with monetary donations of $346k and with goods-in-kind donations of $104k. It spends 11% of total revenues on administrative costs and 21% of donations on fundraising costs. For every dollar donated, 68 cents goes to the cause, falling within Ci’s reasonable range. Kids Now has funding reserves of ($24k) due to bank indebtedness, demonstrating a need for funding.

This charity report is an update that is being reviewed by Kids Now. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 2, 2017 by Josh Lam.