Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation

About Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation:

Established in Ottawa in 1974, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation hopes to further the physical, mental and social well-being of children and their families in eastern Ontario and western Quebec by raising, managing and dispersing funds.  In F2018, CHEO Foundation has granted $7.3m to Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), $6.7m to Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, and $812k to Roger Neilson House. In F2018, CHEO Foundation received $30m in revenues and granted $15m (50%). In F2018, CHEO had $82m in funding reserves, but made $129k on investment income. CHEO reports that each year, it has more than 6,900 admissions and 7,800 surgeries, as well as nearly 169,000 visits to its outpatient clinics. Moreover, it reports it has one of the busiest pediatric emergency rooms in the country, with more than 72,000 visits a year. 

CHEO Foundation granted $7.3m to Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario for programs, services, and equipment. In F2018, CHEO conducted 7,725 surgical procedures and had a total of 6,638 admissions to the hospital. The most recent published annual report was of F2017. In F2017, CHEO serviced 75,961 emergency department visits, 175,421 ambulatory clinic visits, and 10,879 medical day unit visits. CHEO reported in F2017, the renovation and expansion of CHEO’s Surgical Day Unit and Post Anesthetic Recovery Unit was completed. CHEO reports their doctors, nurses and staff can now provide surgical procedures for almost 10,000 patients per year. This is an increase of 1,500 more kids and will reduce wait times for children and youth needing surgery by up to 50 percent. 

Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation distributed $6.7m in grants to the hospital’s research institute in F2018. Funds were provided to 37 scientists, 548 staff, and 98 trainees. Researchers were published 536 times, of which 109 were reported as high-impact. In F2018, there were 651 active studies with 45,546 patients and families involved.  

Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation distributed $800k in grants to Roger Neilson House (RNH) in F2018. RNH had 457 total admissions and provided 2,621 days of care in F2018. As compared to F2017, the symptom assessment service at Roger Neilson House saw a 64% increase in growth, the perinatal hospice bereavement support group increased by 38%, and an overall growth in occupancy of 15%. 

In F2018, the Foundation granted a total $14.8m to the hospital, research institute and Roger Neilson House, including: $6.7m to research grants and programs, $3.1m to capital equipment, $3.4m to hospital programs and services, $467k to research equipment, $388k as gifts in kind, $60k to fellowships, and $50k for a research building. 

Results and Impact: In F2017, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario reported the use of a new mental healthcare delivery system called the Choice and Partnership Approach. This resulted in a 73% drop in wait times for child and youth mental health.  In addition, the hospital’s research institute produced 536 publications, of which 109 were recoded to be high-impact.  

Financial Review:

Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Foundation is a major 100 charity with $19.2m in donations and special events fundraising in F2018. Administrative costs were 3.6% of revenues and fundraising costs were 48.6% of donations. CHEO Foundation does not disclose lottery costs separately from fundraising costs, thus Charity Intelligence has included lottery costs in the fundraising ratio, likely raising it significantly. As such, for every dollar donated, 48 cents go to the cause. This is not within Charity Intelligence’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

CHEO has funding reserves of $82.2m, of which $19.6m are donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, CHEO Foundation has a program cost coverage ratio of 453% meaning they can cover annual grant spending for 4.5 years.

This charity report is an update that is currently being reviewed by CHEO Foundation. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 29, 2019 by Parker Thomlinson.