Founded in Ottawa in 1974, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation (CHEO Foundation) aims to improve the physical, mental, and social well-being of children in eastern Ontario and western Quebec. It raises funds for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), including its main hospital building, the CHEO Research Institute, and the Roger Neilson House palliative care unit. CHEO reports that it receives more than 6,900 admissions, 7,800 surgery patients, and 169,000 outpatient visits. It also has one of Canada's busiest pediatric emergency rooms, with more than 72,000 visits each year. 

In F2020, CHEO Foundation granted $19.1m for equipment and capital projects, research funding, and hospital programs and services.

Equipment and capital projects represented 47% of grants in F2020. CHEO Foundation raises funds for renovations and new equipment to improve patient care. In 2019, it helped to fundraise for two new X-ray machines, which were last replaced 15 years earlier. CHEO reports that it performs around 50,000 X-rays each year. The foundation also installed a new “silent saw” for CHEO’s Orthopedics Clinic in 2019. CHEO Foundation states that its new saw technology helps to reduce distress among newborn and adolescent patients having their casts removed.

Research represented 31% of grants. CHEO Foundation funds research into the 7,000 rare genetic diseases that affect around one million Canadian children and families. CHEO’s research programs support 200 physicians and 100 scientists from around the world. In 2019, a study found that CHEO’s Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) Research Group was the world’s most active institution in physical activity and sleep research, having published 3% of papers in the field between 1979 and 2018.

Programs and services were the remaining 22% of grants. CHEO Foundation aims to improve mental health support for children and youth in eastern Ontario. It states that CHEO receives 3,100 visits each year from patients in need of mental health care. CHEO Foundation funds the hospital’s Head to Toe program, which trains physicians to speak to all young patients aged 12 or older about mental health, within four hours of admission for any reason.

Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation received cash donations of $22.6m in F2020. Administrative costs are 4% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 44% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 48%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 52 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. CHEO Foundation reports lottery expenses within fundraising costs, unlike almost all other charities with major lotteries that report lottery costs separately. As such, Ci was unable to report fundraising ratios with lottery costs excluded. CHEO Foundation’s overhead costs are likely overstated.

CHEO Foundation has $106.2m in funding reserves, of which $22.4m is donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, CHEO Foundation can cover 467% or around 4.7 years of annual grant costs.

CHEO Foundation's funding reserves contributed $6.7m in investment income in F2020, at an estimated rate of return of 8% ($10.3m at a rate of return of 15% in F2019). Over the last nine years, Ci estimates that CHEO Foundation's investment returns have averaged 8%. 

In F2020, CHEO Foundation provided grants to three related parties. It reported grants of $13.9m to CHEO (66% of grants), $6.1m to CHEO Research Institute (29%), and $986k to Roger Neilson House (5%). It had an unpaid grant balance of $3.1m at year end, which rose by $1.6m from the previous year. CHEO Foundation has committed $19.3m in future grants for F2021.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 20, 2021 by Eric Zhao.