Starlight Children's Foundation

1805 Trans-Canada Hwy
Dorval, QC H9P 1J1
CEO: Brian Bringolf
Board President: Patrick Lefrancois

Charitable Reg. #:13129 5693 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.

Low

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.

85%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 85 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Starlight Children's Foundation:

Starlight Children’s Foundation is a 2-star charity with Low demonstrated impact. It is financially transparent and has overhead spending within Ci’s reasonable range and an average results reporting grade.

Founded in 1982, Starlight Children's Foundation (Starlight) aims to brighten the lives of seriously ill children and their families when they need it the most by bringing them a little joy, laughter, and relief. Through games and activities, the foundation hopes to distract children from the stress of serious illness and injury treatment. The charity runs Out-of-Hospital and In-Hospital programs.

Out-of-Hospital programs – 63% of total program spending: Starlight Canada’s Out-of-Hospital programs grant wishes to seriously ill children. These include Play From Home, Brightener Wishes, Great Escapes Wishes, and Once In a Lifetime Wishes programs. In F2021, the Play From Home program distributed 1,868 packs of toys and ran eight virtual shows for children. During the same year, the charity also hosted 107 events for the Brightener Wishes program for 1,929 kids and 40 events for Great Escape Wishes for 141 kids.

In-Hospital programs – 37% of total program spending: Starlight provides toys and activities to distract kids before surgery or during extended hospital stays. There are more than 8,500 mobile Fun Centres which include a television, a Nintendo Switch gaming system, and a variety of games. In F2021, 49 new Fun Centre units were placed in 29 hospitals. Starlight Sites are rooms where families can gather to do crafts and play games. In F2021, the charity also sent 10,700 comfort kits, consisting of toys, books, crafts, and so on, to 112 hospitals to offer comfort, distraction, and entertainment for kids and their families.

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Results and Impact

Charity Intelligence could not find any recent publicly-available quantifiable outcomes for Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Ci has given Starlight Children's Foundation a Low impact rating for demonstrated impact per dollar. 

 

Impact Rating: Low

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Finances

In F2022, Starlight Children’s Foundation received donations, goods-in-kind donations, and special events revenues of $9.7m. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues, and fundraising costs are 12% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 15%. For every dollar donated, 85 cents go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range of overhead spending.  

The charity’s reserve funds are ($485k) due to mortgage debt of $2.2m. Excluding the debt, Starlight could cover 21% or nearly three months of its program costs with current reserves.

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

Updated August 4, 2023 by Krystie Nguyen. 

 

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending December
202220212020
Administrative costs as % of revenues 3.1%3.0%5.0%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 12.2%9.7%22.5%
Total overhead spending 15.3%12.6%27.4%
Program cost coverage (%) (5.7%)(1.4%)(5.0%)

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $000s
202220212020
Donations 5,8184,4423,015
Goods in kind 1,8291,6931,567
Government funding 00554
Special events 2,0711,4591,654
Investment income 2896
Total revenues 9,7467,6026,796
Program costs 8,4966,3722,989
Grants 001,167
Administrative costs 297224336
Fundraising costs 9665711,049
Other costs 000
Total spending 9,7587,1675,541
Cash flow from operations (13)4351,255
Capital spending 361331329
Funding reserves (485)(87)(206)

Note: Ci included deferred revenues from fundraising and deferred capital contributions, affecting revenues by ($254k) in F2022, $44k in F2021, and ($61k) in F2020. Ci has removed amortization from administrative, program, and fundraising costs to report on a cash basis.   

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 20

Avg. compensation: $73,177

Top 10 staff salary range:

$350k +
0
$300k - $350k
0
$250k - $300k
1
$200k - $250k
0
$160k - $200k
2
$120k - $160k
1
$80k - $120k
0
$40k - $80k
6
< $40k
0

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

No comments have been added by the charity.

Charity Contact

Website: www.starlightcanada.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 514.288.9474

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Charitable Registration Number: 80340 7956 RR0001