Easter Seals Canada

40 Holly Street
Toronto, ON M4S 3C3
CEO: Dave Starrett
Board Chair: Stan Lautsch

Charitable Reg. #:12903 1118 RR0001

STAR RATING

Ci's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics:

[Charity Rating: 2/5]

✔+

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.

B

RESULTS REPORTING

Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.

Low

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.

56%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 56 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Easter Seals Canada:

Founded in 1922, Easter Seals Canada (ESC) aims to enhance the quality of life and independence of Canadians living with disabilities. The charity notes that one in five Canadians aged 15 or older is living with some form of disability that affects their everyday life. More than four in ten Canadians with disabilities have a severe or very severe disability. Easter Seals Canada and the 10 Easter Seals provincial charities provide programs for both children and adults with varying physical, intellectual, sensory, and learning disabilities. Some services ESC offers include job training, financial assistance for assistive technology, summer camps, residential programs, sports programs, and scholarships. ESC’s headquarters is in Toronto.

The national organization helps support numerous fundraising and awareness campaigns for the provincial Easter Seals organizations. New in 2020, Easter Seals Canada launched a national campaign called Red Shirt Day which will take place annually on the Wednesday of National AccessAbility Week. Red Shirt Day works to highlight disability issues and promote a culture of inclusion by encouraging others to wear a red shirt in support. Easter Seals Canada also newly hosted a Community Conference at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, in March 2020. The conference had over 170 community members and representatives from 70+ organizations participate.

Grants: In F2020, 90% of program spending went to campaign disbursements to Easter Seals' provincial affiliates. These funds are used in the local Easter Seals' programs. For example, funding provided to regional Easter Seals organizations allows over 6,000 kids living with disabilities to attend one of ESC's 14 specialized, fully accessible camps located across Canada every year.

Access 2 Entertainment: Easter Seals Canada runs one program at the national level, the Access 2 Entertainment program. This program accounted for 10% of annual program spending in F2020. It is a partnership between Easter Seals and over 500 movie theatres, cultural attractions, entertainment venues, and recreation facilities across Canada. The program allows people with a disability to receive free admission for their support person at any of the Access 2 Entertainment partners' establishments. The card itself costs participants either $20 for a 3-year card or $30 for a 5-year card. In 2020, the 100,000th Access 2 Entertainment card was issued and 121 new venues joined the program.

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Results and Impact

Charity Intelligence gives Easter Seals Canada a Low impact rating based on demonstrated impact per dollar spent.

According to a survey conducted by Easter Seals and Queen’s University, 86% of respondents said that the Access 2 Card helped them get out more and be more active.

Through a partnership with RBC, ESC offers a self-directed, online course for youth with disabilities. The course teaches "21st-century skills" such as critical thinking and media literacy. Its goal is to allow youth with disabilities to build employability and life skills from the comfort of their own homes. A pilot of this program was run to test efficacy. Following the pilot, 83% of participants agreed that they would be able to apply the skills they gained in their own lives.

Charity Intelligence highlights these key results. They may not be a complete representation of ESC's results.

Impact Rating: Low

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Finances

Easter Seals Canada had donations of $2.1m in F2020. This includes $1.9m from corporations (90% of total donations), which was distributed to provincial Easter Seals organizations. Administrative costs are 17% of revenues and fundraising costs are 26% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 44%.

Per dollar donated to the charity, $0.56 goes toward its programs and grants, which falls outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Funding reserves of $2.4m can cover just under 14 months of annual grants and program costs.

This report is an update that has been sent to Easter Seals Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated June 16, 2021 by Rachel Leteta.

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending March
202020192018
Administrative costs as % of revenues 17.4%16.1%16.0%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 26.2%29.7%26.2%
Total overhead spending 43.6%45.8%42.2%
Program cost coverage (%) 113.0%117.0%115.3%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $s
202020192018
Donations 2,129,7002,151,6052,122,760
Fees for service 595,261541,811439,714
Investment income (121,764)43,12267,390
Other income 793,723745,408801,738
Total revenues 3,396,9203,481,9463,431,602
Program costs 244,489198,711186,225
Grants 1,883,0531,839,6411,782,270
Administrative costs 613,328554,662536,521
Fundraising costs 558,298639,094556,968
Total spending 3,299,1683,232,1083,061,984
Cash flow from operations 97,752249,838369,618
Capital spending 5,68814,8130
Funding reserves 2,404,8322,384,2232,270,402

Note: Ci reported assessments revenue from provincial organizations and program funding as other revenue. Ci reported all of the Easter Seals Fundraising Committee costs as fundraising costs, which is similar to the amount recorded on the charity's T3010 CRA filing. Ci reported general expenses as administrative costs (excluding $1.5k for fundraising), which is similar to the amount recorded on the charity's T3010 CRA filing. Amortization was taken out of administrative costs. Investment counsel fees reported net on revenues were removed from investment income and administrative expenses. This affected revenues by ($22k) in F2020, ($21k) in F2019 and ($20k) in F2018.

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 8

Avg. compensation: $96,243

Top 10 staff salary range:

$350k +
0
$300k - $350k
0
$250k - $300k
0
$200k - $250k
0
$160k - $200k
1
$120k - $160k
0
$80k - $120k
2
$40k - $80k
3
< $40k
2

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2020

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

No comments have been added by the charity.

Charity Contact

Website: www.easterseals.ca
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 416-932-8382

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Charitable Registration Number: 80340 7956 RR0001