Engineers Without Borders
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
B+
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
n/r
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.
52%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 52 cents are available for programs.
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Programs
About Engineers Without Borders:
Founded in 1999, Engineers Without Borders (EWB) fights poverty by investing in people and ventures. Sub-Saharan Africa has 250 million people working in 17.7 million small and growing businesses, but it is difficult for these entrepreneurs to access capital, talent, and business networks. EWB believes that strategic support of small businesses can increase a community’s education, housing infrastructure, employment opportunities, food supply, and access to financing.
In F2019, Engineers Without Borders supported eight small and growing businesses, three evolving engineering ventures, and three governance ventures. Ventures receive access to business professionals and investments of up to $100,000.
In F2019, Engineers Without Borders invested $50,000 in MPost, which provides a digital address to people with no formal postal address in Kenya. The digital address has helped students receive university enrollment paperwork and helped remote villagers purchase goods. Since its founding in 2016, MPost has given close to 50,000 individuals a formal address, engaged more than 4,000 delivery agents, and has moved 30,000 letters and parcels. EWB has also supported Tibu Health, a telemedicine service that provides patients with flexible care from a health care professional. Patients can book an at-home appointment with a doctor, which reduces the fixed costs of traditional health care facilities and improves wait times.
Engineers Without Borders runs fellowship programs where university students and business professionals spend up to a year in Africa. Fellows support local businesses by providing expertise on hiring staff, appealing to investors, and managing finances. Fellows come from 40 chapters across Canada, with many of the chapters associated with a university. People pay a fee of $40 (or $20 for students) to become a chapter member. Membership fees partially offset the cost of running leadership and career development workshops in Canada. Chapter members also participate in EWB advocacy efforts, calling for the Canadian government to administer foreign aid more effectively. During the 2019 Canadian federal election, EWB’s public engagement efforts resulted in 76 candidates issuing public statements of support to increase Canada’s official development assistance ratio to 0.7% of donors’ national income.
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Results and Impact
FarmDrive is a business in Nairobi that uses data analytics to connect farmers with financial institutions and credit. Farmers use mobile phones to create a financial profile of their farming operation. Financial institutions can then use the data to decide whether or not to approve loans. Since 2016, FarmDrive has contributed loan portfolios of more than $25,000 to smallholder farmers who had never received credit. Also, M-Shule is an adaptive technology that provides personalized lessons to students through SMS and provides data to relevant stakeholders. During the 2017 pilot project, M-Shule helped improve student exam scores by 23%. Students also reported greater self-confidence in their learning.
According to Engineers Without Borders, venture investments have impacted 11 million people. Further, ventures can raise $18 for every $1 EWB invests.
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Finances
Engineers Without Borders is a Medium-sized charity, receiving $2.1m in donations in F2019. The charity also received $2.4m in government funding (46% of revenues) and $576k in venture generated revenue (11% of revenues). Administrative costs are 14% of revenues and fundraising costs are 34% of donations. For every dollar donated, 52 cents go to the cause. This is not within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Funding reserves of $894k can cover three months of annual program costs.
In F2018, Engineers Without Borders paid external fundraisers $8k. The charity did not report how much revenue was collected by fundraisers.
This charity report is an update that has been sent to Engineers Without Borders for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on July 13, 2020 by Tenzin Shomar.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending October
|
2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
---|---|---|---|
Administrative costs as % of revenues | 13.8% | 8.0% | 6.0% |
Fundraising costs as % of donations | 33.8% | 34.9% | 20.4% |
Total overhead spending | 47.6% | 42.8% | 26.3% |
Program cost coverage (%) | 21.6% | 56.9% | 15.4% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
---|---|---|---|
Donations | 2,057 | 2,545 | 3,129 |
Government funding | 2,385 | 1,870 | 1,459 |
Fees for service | 576 | 1,040 | 655 |
Business activities (net) | 177 | 262 | 302 |
Other income | 42 | 3 | 78 |
Total revenues | 5,237 | 5,721 | 5,623 |
Program costs - International | 3,198 | 3,277 | 2,832 |
Program costs - Canada | 934 | 1,276 | 1,599 |
Grants | 0 | 25 | 0 |
Administrative costs | 723 | 457 | 334 |
Fundraising costs | 695 | 887 | 638 |
Total spending | 5,551 | 5,922 | 5,403 |
Cash flow from operations | (314) | (201) | 220 |
Capital spending | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Funding reserves | 894 | 2,604 | 681 |
Note: Ci has removed amortization from administrative costs and is listed as a separate, non-cash expense.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
6 |
$40k - $80k |
4 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2018
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
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