Life Outreach International (Canada) (LIFE Outreach Canada) is the Canadian division of Life Outreach International Association of Churches Incorporated (LIFE Outreach International). There is no independent website or webpage available for the Canadian operations of LIFE Outreach International. 

The Canadian charity’s T3010 filing with the CRA reports that it produces and distributes religious media in Canada including television and radio programs as well as by mail. It also reports that it evangelizes by meeting the physical needs of poor around the world.  

In F2018, LIFE Outreach Canada granted $1.1m to other registered Canadian charities. The majority of grants were allocated to Joint Aid Management – Canada ($900k), followed by Kuwasha International Development Society ($50k), Living Faith Evangelistic Association ($49k), Windsor Life Centre ($40k), and Cure International Canada ($36k). Grants from LIFE Outreach Canada represent 68% of Joint Aid Management – Canada (JAM-C) revenue in F2018. JAM-C is a Christian charity that provides humanitarian and development aid in Africa.

The global LIFE Outreach International website reports that it encourages the support of missions and relief programs in areas of need around the world. Some of its current outreaches include Water for LIFE which has helped build more than 6,500 water wells around the world, Mission Feeding which provides food to more than 350,000 children in villages around the world, especially across Sub-Saharan Africa, and RescueLIFE which provides education and prevention to children living in villages who are potential targets for human traffickers. The Canadian charity’s filing with the CRA indicates that it does not operate programs outside of Canada, including not operating in the United States.  However, it does transfer grants to non-qualified donees outside Canada – $235,565 was reported in the F2018 filing. 

Life Outreach International (Canada)’s financial statements received by Charity Intelligence did not come with a signed auditor’s letter or accompanying financial notes.

LIFE Outreach Canada is a large charity that received $6.6m in donations in F2019. Administrative costs are 9% of revenues (excluding investment income) and fundraising costs are 11% of donations. Per dollar donated to LIFE Outreach Canada, 80 cents go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

The charity’s financial statements do not present expenses using activity-based costing to show how much was spent on programs, administration and fundraising. Ci uses the charity’s annual filings with the CRA Charities Directorate to obtain fundraising and administrative costs but the F2019 filing was not available at the time of this profile update. Based on historical adjustments, the F2019 administrative ratio may be overstated and the F2019 fundraising ratio may be understated.  

LIFE Outreach Canada has $921k in funding reserves, which can cover annual programs and grants spending at the F2019 level for under two months.

This report is an update that has been sent to Life Outreach International (Canada) for review. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 14, 2020 by Katie Khodawandi