Indspire is a 5-star charity with high impact and best practices in financial transparency. It has an A results reporting grade, which is above average. For every dollar donated to the charity, 91 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Founded in 1985, Indspire supports the education of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis students and educators in Canada. Based in Ohsweken, Ontario, the charity provides financial awards, programs, and resources to help individuals in remote, rural, and urban communities. It aims to boost graduation rates from kindergarten to post-secondary education. Overall, 69% of Indigenous students complete high school or higher compared with 87% of non-Indigenous students. For Indigenous students, lack of funding is one of the biggest barriers to completing post-secondary education. The Centre for the Study of Living Standards estimates that higher education for Indigenous peoples would increase their average annual income by $11,236 by 2031. Closing the education gap for Indigenous students in Canada by 2026 could increase Canadian GDP by more than $400 billion. Since 1996, Indspire has provided over $248m to Indigenous students through more than 75,000 scholarships and bursaries.

A Charity Intelligence 2023 Top 10 Impact Charity

Building Brighter Futures (BBF) is Indspire’s best-known program, representing 80% of program costs in F2024. It grants bursaries and scholarships to Indigenous students who need financial help for post-secondary. In F2024, Indspire disbursed over $30.1m to more than 8,300 students. The three most popular areas of study for students receiving funding were health, business, and education. BBF is Canada’s largest scholarship program for Indigenous students after the Government.

Indspire Awards made up 10% of program costs in F2024, and marked 30 years in May 2023. These awards are the highest honor given by the Indigenous community to its own people. In F2024, 12 Indigenous individuals received awards for their outstanding achievements.

The Student Success program represents 6% of program costs in F2024. Included is Rivers to Success, a mentorship program offering workshops and more than 230 resources to Indigenous students. In F2024, Indspire hosted over 50 virtual events, engaging 5,300 participants with 1,300 mentor-mentee pairs. Included is also the National Gathering for Indigenous Education, an annual conference for educators and partners to learn and improve their educational outcomes. This hybrid event hosted over 1,100 individuals in-person and virtually, through 49 workshops and 50 booths in the tradeshow.

Soaring is Indspire’s annual Indigenous Youth Career Conferecnce, to educate high school students on career and education options. This year was the first in-person gathering since March 2020. The conference made up 3% of program costs in F2024, and was attended by over 1,500 students and chaperones.

The Research Knowledge Nest (RKN) promotes Indigenous roles in research and data sciences, addressing a lack of data on Indigenous education and work in Canada. Indspire reports that RKN is the first Indigenous research program of its kind in Canada. In F2024, RKN released four new research reports and commenced four research projects. 

In F2024, Indspire received $27.1m in donations and $466k in goods in kind. It also received $18.8m in government funding, representing 33% of total revenues. The charity spent $43.5m on its program costs and grants in F2024, which represents 77% of revenues. Administrative costs are 3% (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 5% of donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, 91 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range of 65 to 95 cents for overhead spending.

The charity’s T3010 filings for F2024 were not yet available at the time of this report. Therefore, Ci allocated administrative costs and fundraising costs from the charity’s audited financial statements as best as possible. The charity’s administrative and fundraising ratios therefore are likely understated for F2024. The F2023 values were updated in 2024 using the charity's T3010 filings and are now accurate.

In F2024, Indspire has reserve funds of $54.3m, which means the charity can cover one year and three months of annual program costs. Indspire has a surplus of $9.8m, which is 17% of total revenues.

In F2023, Indspire paid external fundraiser $84k to collect $53k in donations, meaning it costs Indspire $1.58 to raise $1 using external fundraisers.

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

Updated on July 14, 2024 by Alexia Tudose.