Canadian Women's Foundation
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
C+
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.
81%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 81 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Canadian Women's Foundation:
Canadian Women's Foundation is a 3-star charity with a below-average results reporting grade. It is financially transparent and has overhead costs within Ci's reasonable range.
Founded in 1991, Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) funds projects that help women move out of violence and poverty and into confidence and leadership. According to CWF, Canada ranked 40th out of 156 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum in 2021. 10% of women in Canada live on low incomes. 28% of women-led households in Canada are in core housing needs. The rate at which girls are hospitalized for mental health problems is twice that of boys at the same age. According to Statistics Canada, about every six days, a woman in Canada was killed by her partner in 2021.
In F2022, CWF funded 521 programs. These include 12 in Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, 113 in British Columbia, 120 in the Prairies, 14 in Quebec, 66 in Atlantic Canada, and 196 in Ontario. These programs helped over 1 million people in total in F2022. CWF funds programs in five main categories: Out of Violence, Out of Poverty, Into Confidence, Into Leadership, and Northern Strategy. While program spending is provided for some individual programs, a breakdown is not provided by its main program categories.
Out of Poverty supports women of diverse backgrounds to achieve financial stability. It empowers participants to launch and develop their own businesses. It offers work opportunities and access to career sectors (technology, construction, mechanics, and electrical).
Out of Violence prevents violence by teaching youth how to recognize abusive behavior and build healthy relationships. CWF also paid services that help women and children who have experienced violence to rebuild their lives, including legal advice, counselling, safe housing, interest-free loans, and sexual assault response and care.
Into Confidence focuses on girls aged 9 to 13. The charity offers STEM education, sports and physical activity, media literacy, Indigenous culture and connection, and mentorship to girls.
Into Leadership provides opportunities for women and girls to practice leadership skills.
Northern Strategy supports projects that help Northern communities’ women gain life skills and connections.
Recent News: As of September 2022, the charity moved more than $93 million in emergency grants to gender violence prevention and intervention programs. This new fund serves about four million people all over the country.
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Results and Impact
Canadian Women’s Foundation reports 46% of women in its Out of Poverty programs developed a more sustainable livelihood. 90% of participants in the Out of Violence programs said they learned to recognize the signs of an abusive relationship. The foundation reports 62% of girls in Into Confidence felt more confident after participating. However, it is not clear when any of this data was collected.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not completely represent Canadian Women’s Foundation’s results and impact. This charity is not yet rated on impact (n/r).
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Finances
Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) received donations and special events revenue of $4.1m in F2022. It also received $46.8m in government funding in F2022, representing 89% of revenues during the year. The majority of the almost $22m increase is because the charity will use $18.2m of government funding on specific program expenses in the future. In F2022, it used $31.8m to fund 521 programs all over Canada. Administrative costs are 1% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 18% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 19%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 81% cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.
CWF has $40.8m in reserve funds. These reserve funds are CWF’s cash and investments. The charity can cover almost 1.3 years of its annual program costs with its existing reserves.
Charity Intelligence sent an update of this report to Canadian Women’s Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on May 19, 2023 by Krystie Nguyen.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
Administrative costs as % of revenues | 1.3% | 1.3% | 3.8% |
Fundraising costs as % of donations | 18.1% | 16.5% | 35.5% |
Total overhead spending | 19.4% | 17.8% | 39.3% |
Program cost coverage (%) | 127.5% | 49.2% | 106.1% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
Donations | 4,029 | 2,319 | 3,209 |
Government funding | 46,816 | 24,963 | 19,000 |
Special events | 77 | 145 | 264 |
Investment income | 1,812 | 1,873 | 678 |
Total revenues | 52,734 | 29,300 | 23,151 |
Program costs | 6,053 | 3,554 | 4,215 |
Grants | 25,738 | 24,087 | 14,137 |
Administrative costs | 680 | 360 | 860 |
Fundraising costs | 741 | 407 | 1,233 |
Total spending | 33,212 | 28,408 | 20,445 |
Cash flow from operations | 19,522 | 892 | 2,706 |
Capital spending | 6 | 0 | 11 |
Funding reserves | 40,761 | 23,558 | 19,690 |
Note: Ci adjusted deferred donations of $610k in F2022, $278k in F2021, and ($76k) in F2020. Ci adjusted deferred government funding. This affected revenues by $18.1m in F2022, ($1.2m) in F2021, and $3.8m in F2020. Ci adjusted deferred special events revenues of ($50k) in F2020. From September 2020, CWF changed its fiscal year end from December to March. The financial statement for F2021 is for a seven-month period.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
1 |
$160k - $200k |
1 |
$120k - $160k |
3 |
$80k - $120k |
5 |
$40k - $80k |
0 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Canadian Women's Foundation added these comments to the 2019 profile update:
The Foundation invested $800K of its internally restricted reserves as well as investment income to finance the operations and fundraising activities in 2017-2018 to ensure the majority of each donated dollar was directed to our mission.
Our charitable ratio remains strong at 61% (program expenses as a % of total expenses).
Comments for the 2023 profile update may be forthcoming.
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 416-365-1444