Founded in 1922 as the Ontario Society for Crippled Children, Easter Seals Ontario (ESO) supports children and young adults in Ontario who live with a disability. ESO is one of ten provincial arms of Easter Seals Canada. Easter Seals Ontario provides financial assistance for mobility equipment and communication devices, fully accessible summer camp, special education resources, post-secondary scholarships, and works to increase public awareness on disability issues. ESO reports that more than 20,000 young people in Ontario are living with a physical disability and the charity works with those whose disability will permanently affect mobility.

In F2018, ESO allocated 47% of program spending to operating family camps which are fully accessible to people with disabilities. Many children with disabilities feel isolated by spending most of their time at home or school and interacting with few other children of their age. During a ten-day session during the summer, children and their families can participate in crafts, high ropes courses, indoor climbing, kayaking, and whitewater rafting. ESO covered 83% of the cost of hosting each kid at camp, worth $2,075 for each of the 753 campers.

Easter Seals Ontario allocated 29% of program spending in F2018 to supporting children and families. A family is eligible to receive up to $3,000 per year in financial support to purchase mobility devices and other equipment to care for their disabled children. Of the 786 children who received funding for equipment purchases in F2018, 48% are from families with less than $40,000 in annual income. ESO granted an average of $1,764 per child in F2018. The charity also distributed $44,250 in post-secondary scholarships for students with disabilities.  

The remaining 24% of program spending in F2018 was allocated to public awareness and education programs. ESO has 75 youth ambassadors who represent the charity at fundraising events and other speaking engagements. In F2018, 25 representatives from the ESO special education advisory committee sat on 18 school boards. These volunteers help to ensure that the needs of kids with disabilities are represented in the school system in areas such as accessibility, transportation, communication, therapy needs, and personal care.

Easter Seals Ontario is a large charity with donations of $8.3m in F2018. Administrative costs are 8% of revenues and fundraising costs are 34% of donations. For every dollar donated, 58 cents go to the cause, which is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. ESO has $4.8m in funding reserves of which $861k is donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity could cover more than eight months of program costs using reserves.  

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Easter Seals Ontario for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 2, 2019 by Madison Kerr.