Founded in 1981, MIRA Foundation (MIRA) offers free guide dogs to people living with disabilities. By providing people with a disability a guide dog, MIRA hopes to increase their autonomy and mobility. MIRA gives guide dogs to people who fall into three different categories: blind and visually impaired, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and people with reduced mobility. Since its establishment, MIRA has offered more than 3,500 dogs to people with disabilities.

MIRA breeds Labradors, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Labernese (cross between Labradors and Bernese mountain dogs), and Saint-Pierre’s (second generation Labernese). At the age of nine weeks, all MIRA dogs are placed into the care of a foster family for 12 to 18 months before returning to the charity for a 3 to 6-month training program. After completion of training and evaluation, dogs are paired with their partners. MIRA pairs 200 dogs each year and the dogs remain in service for an average of 7 years. The charity reports that the average cost to raise and train a Mira dog is $30k. In F2017, total operating costs per dog (assuming 200 dogs) were $37k.

MIRA’s service dog program offers guide dogs to adults and children with physical disabilities that limit their mobility. MIRA states that most of the beneficiaries in this program use wheelchairs. Service dogs help people by picking up objects on the ground, serving as a support or rest, and pulling their wheelchair. This program also gives guide dogs to the blind or visually impaired. These dogs help their partner interact and freely move within their environment. Lastly, MIRA offers service dogs to youth with an ASD. These dogs have been found to help reduce stress and anxiety levels, and improve the quality of sleep and socialization of the children.

The MIRA Foundation is a large charity with total donations of $8.2m, including $0.5m in goods in kind in F2017. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues and fundraising costs are 35% of donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, 62 cents go to its programs. This is outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. MIRA holds funding reserves of $2.5m, of which $387k are donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity’s reserves can cover annual program costs for almost 6 months.

In F2017, MIRA raised $21k from external fundraisers. For every dollar collected, MIRA paid the external fundraisers 13 cents.

Please note: this report was prepared by an English-speaking analyst using the audited financial statements which are in French. 

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Fondation Mira. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 1, 2019 by Stefan Tetzlaff.