Founded in 1992, Women in Need Society of Calgary (WINS) supports women and families in need of clothing, household items, and referrals to other social services. The society operates five thrift stores that collect and sell donated clothes, jewelry, furniture, and sporting equipment. The charity uses thrift store revenue to support its three main programs: Free Goods Referrals, Family Resource Centres, and Employment Programs.

The Free Goods Referral program operates at each thrift store location. The program allows women with financial difficulties to shop for free upon referral by a local agency. In F2019, WINS provided $624k worth of free goods to women in need (up from $522k in F2018). Women in Need Society of Calgary works with 100 different partner agencies to process referrals.

Women in Need Society of Calgary operates Family Resource Centres, providing one-on-one guidance and programs to support women. WINS also connects its clients with community resources and support groups. Through WINS’ services, women can access computers or classes on parenting and English. In F2019, the charity reported that it provided services 16,844 times (up from 11,182 in F2018). WINS states that it directly served 6,287 people, affecting a total of 17,953 clients and their family members.

WINS’ Employment Programs aim to provide critical job skills for vulnerable women. In F2019, the charity launched its new Retail Ready Employment Service, which trained 40 women for employment in the retail industry. The training program ran for six weeks and included a mix of classroom and on-the-job placements.

Women in Need Society of Calgary is a medium-sized charity, with donations of $1.1m in F2019. In F2019, the charity also received $3.8m in net revenue from business activities, which included its thrift stores and recycling programs. This represented 72% of total revenues.

WINS’ administrative costs are 4% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 5% of donations. This means that total overhead spending is slightly over 8%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 92 cents go to the cause. This falls within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Women in Need Society of Calgary has $1.7m in total funding reserves. With its existing reserves, the charity can cover 43% or five months of annual program costs.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Charities Directorate has granted extensions for filing financial details for the 2019 fiscal year. Although its year-end was in December, WINS’ F2019 T3010 filing with the CRA has not yet been posted. In F2018, the charity reported using external fundraisers. It paid $2k to raise $68k from external fundraisers, for a cost of $0.03 per dollar raised.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Women in Need Society of Calgary for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 23, 2020 by Eric Zhao.