Founded in 1985, Indspire helps Indigenous students in Canada complete their post-secondary education by providing bursaries and scholarships. Indigenous people are under-represented in post-secondary education, with only 10% of Indigenous students completing university degrees compared to 27% of other Canadian students. Lack of funding is the most significant barrier to completing post-secondary education for indigenous people. The Centre for the Study of Living Standards estimates that greater achievement in higher education for Indigenous peoples would increase their annual income by $11,236 by 2031 and that closing the education gap for Indigenous students in Canada would cumulatively increase Canadian GDP by $261 Billion by 2031. The charity’s head office is in Ohsweken, Ontario.

A Charity Intelligence 2019 Top 10 Canadian Impact Charity

Building Brighter Futures (BBF) is Indspire’s largest program, representing 68% of program costs in F2018. Through BBF, Indspire grants bursaries, scholarships and awards to Indigenous students who need financial aid to complete their post-secondary education. BBF funded 4,942 students in F2018, up 31% from F2017, disbursing $14.2 million. Building Brighter Futures represents the largest scholarship and bursary program for Indigenous students in Canada aside from the Government of Canada. 37% of applicants were majoring in STEM, Education, or Humanities programs. The two most popular areas of study for students receiving funding were education and nursing. 

The K-12 Indspire Institute connects educators with programs, resources and tools to improve the educational outcomes of Indigenous students. There are more than 1,000 educational tools online for teachers, students and parents of the Indigenous community. K-12 Indspire Institute costs made up 16% of program costs in F2018. The charity also holds an annual National Gathering for Indigenous Education for educators and partners from across Canada to share experiences and strategies for educating Indigenous students. In F2018, the gathering took place in Montreal and had 912 attendees.  

Indspire runs two education mentorship programs for Indigenous students; Rivers to Success and Peer Support. In F2018, mentorship represented 13% of program costs. Rivers to Success is a national mentorship program for Indigenous students with two streams. The post-secondary stream matches Indigenous students with career professionals. The high school stream, launched in F2017, connects high school students with post-secondary students to encourage successful high school completions. Peer Support is a mentorship and coaching program for educators of Indigenous students. It connects teachers based on subjects they teach and offers online support through webinars. In F2018, the program had 344 participants.  

Soaring is Indspire's Indigenous Youth Career Conference program, which educates high school students about possible career and post-secondary education options. The conferences made up 3% of program costs in F2018 and hosted over 900 high school students and their chaperones. 

Indspire is a Large charity with total donations and goods-in-kind revenues of $9.6m in F2018. Administrative costs are 10% of revenues (excluding investment income), and fundraising costs are 13% of donations, excluding goods-in-kind. For every dollar donated, 77 cents go towards Indspire’s programs, which is within Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending. The charity holds funding reserves of $30.6m, of which $26.3m are donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, Indspire’s funding reserves can cover 5 months of annual program costs. 

Indspire reports using external fundraisers as part of its fundraising activities. In F2018, Indspire paid external fundraisers $13k that raised $29k. For every dollar Indspire raised from external fundraisers, it paid $0.44 to the third party. 

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

Updated on August 6, 2019 by Caroline McKenna.