Fighting Blindness Canada

890 Yonge St., 12th Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 3P4
President & CEO: Jennifer Jones
Board Chair: Tara James

Charitable Reg. #:11912 9369 RR0001

STAR RATING

Ci's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics:

[Charity Rating: 2/5]

✔+

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.

B+

RESULTS REPORTING

Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.

n/r

DEMONSTRATED IMPACT

The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.

NEED FOR FUNDING

Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.

34%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 34 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Fighting Blindness Canada:

Fighting Blindness Canada is a 2-star rated charity with an above-average results reporting score. It is financially transparent and has overhead costs outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Fighting Blindness Canada (FBC) was founded in 1974 as the Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation of Canada. Renamed Foundation Fighting Blindness in 1995, and Fighting Blindness Canada in 2019, the charity funds vision research, raises awareness about eye health, and advocates for access to new treatments. FBC reports that 1.5 million Canadians are blind or partially sighted, with one in five Canadians at risk of vision loss. The charity also states that the annual cost of vision loss in Canada is $32.9 billion.

Fighting Blindness Canada runs two main programs: Research, and Education and Advocacy.

Research: In F2022, Fighting Blindness Canada allocated 67% of annual program spending to Research. In 2022, FBC awarded $2.6 million to 35 projects. These projects include research on numerous eye diseases.

Education & Advocacy: This program accounted for 33% of program spending in F2022. Its goal is to educate the public on eye diseases and advocate on behalf of Canadians living with or at risk of developing blinding eye diseases. In F2022, a bill to establish a National Eye Care Strategy was introduced in the House of Commons. Through FBC’s efforts, 5,956 emails were sent to Members of Parliament in support of this bill. In F2022, FBC had 277,000 website views and 66,000 email subscribers.

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Results and Impact

In the past two years, researchers funded by FBC have made several advancements in the vision domain, such as finding a way to reactivate cells in the retina and turn them into light-sensing cells, potentially replacing those lost in retinal degeneration. Some of the work conducted by FBC-funded researchers has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Stem Cell Reports, Disease Models and Mechanisms, and the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology.

Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec) was approved by Health Canada in 2020. It is the first ever sight-restoring gene therapy medication, used to treat people with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) or retinitis pigmentosa (RP). As of February 2023, FBC’s advocacy contributed to four provinces agreeing to publicly fund Luxturna.

While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of Fighting Blindness Canada's results and impact. This charity is not yet rated on impact (n/r).  

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Finances

Fighting Blindness Canada received $6.0m in donations and special events fundraising in F2022.

Administrative costs are 11% of revenues (excluding investment income) and fundraising costs are 55% of donations. This results in overhead spending of 66%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 34 cents go to the cause. This is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

The charity has reserve funds of $6.5m, which could cover a year and eight months of annual program costs.

According to its annual filing with the CRA, Fighting Blindness Canada used external fundraisers in F2021. In F2021, FBC paid external fundraisers $136k. These external fundraisers raised $218k in donations. This means it costs FBC $0.62 to raise $1 using external fundraisers.

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

Updated on June 27, 2023 by Kiara Andrade.

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending December
202220212020
Administrative costs as % of revenues 10.9%9.4%6.7%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 55.3%34.3%23.4%
Total overhead spending 66.2%43.7%30.0%
Program cost coverage (%) 169.6%248.4%311.7%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $000s
202220212020
Donations 4,6385,0676,457
Government funding 10146382
Special events 1,360884714
Investment income 10635(91)
Total revenues 6,1146,1317,462
Program costs 3,8561,2701,047
Grants 01,8151,264
Administrative costs 657572504
Fundraising costs 3,3162,0421,677
Total spending 7,8285,6994,492
Cash flow from operations (1,714)4322,970
Capital spending 11125
Funding reserves 6,5407,6617,204

Note: Ci included the change in fair value of investments in investment income, affecting revenues by nil in F2022, $6k in F2021, and ($176k) in F2020. To report on a cash basis, Ci included deferred contributions, affecting revenues by ($1.6m) in F2022, $140k in F2021, and $2.5m in F2020. Ci included grant amounts from the charity’s T3010 filings with the CRA, and removed the amounts from program costs. At the time of this report, the charity’s T3010 filings for F2022 are not available so this adjustment has not been made for F2022.

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 25

Avg. compensation: $53,215

Top 10 staff salary range:

$350k +
0
$300k - $350k
0
$250k - $300k
1
$200k - $250k
0
$160k - $200k
1
$120k - $160k
2
$80k - $120k
2
$40k - $80k
4
< $40k
0

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2021

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

No comments have been added by the charity.

Charity Contact

Website: www.fightingblindness.ca
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 416.360.4200

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Charitable Registration Number: 80340 7956 RR0001