Operation Smile

About Operation Smile:

Founded in 2011, Operation Smile Canada Foundation (OSCF) is a member of Operation Smile International. Donations received by OSCF are granted to the international organization and then used to provide surgeries to children with a cleft lip or cleft palate. A child with a cleft is born every 3 minutes, and South Asia has the highest rate of facial deformity. Up to 93% of children with an un-repaired cleft die before their 20^th birthday. By providing free surgeries, Operation Smile reduces the social isolation, speech impediments, and difficulty eating experienced by children with clefts.

Operation Smile sends volunteer teams of medical professionals on 2-week trips to developing countries. During this time, each team sees up to 500 children and approves 100-150 children for surgery. The Post-Operative Care Program continues to monitor the child’s health and speech following surgery. Within the last year, 67% of missions were local medical missions, meaning that the volunteers were from the communities being served. Having local volunteers reduces the cost of providing care.

Operation Smile funds training and education which have made local medical missions possible. Select international healthcare professionals spend time educating up to 100 healthcare workers in developing countries. These local professionals can then participate in future missions. Operation Smile also funds research into the causes of clefts. There is currently a specific interest in finding a possible genetic cause.

Results and Impact: Operation Smile has sent medical missions to Honduras since 1997. In F2017, it was announced that there were almost no adults, teens, or children with untreated clefts in the country. The only people remaining in Honduras with clefts are newborns who will receive treatment when they are old enough.

Operation Smile has partnered with the American Heart Association to provide life support training in developing countries. From a survey of recent program participants, 85% said they had saved a life with the information learned.

Financial Review:

Operation Smile Canada is large, with donations of $9.9m in F2017. Administrative costs are 10% of revenues and fundraising costs are 50% of donations. For every dollar donated, 41 cents go to programs, falling outside Ci’s reasonable range.

OSCF has total funding reserves of $4.3m, resulting in a program cost coverage ratio of 990%, meaning that the charity could fund its F2017 programs for almost 10 years given current reserves. However, using F2016 program spending, reserves would only cover 7 months of spending. The charity granted only $430k in F2017 down from $7.2m in F2016 and added $3.5m to its reserves. OSCF is holding $2.9m in funds to be used in future programs and $500k in a stability fund. OSCF provides an explanation for the changes attached as the first page of the financial statements.

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

Updated on June 4, 2018 by Madison Kerr.