Founded in 1922, Easter Seals Canada aims to enhance the quality of life, self-esteem and self-determination of Canadians living with disabilities. The charity notes that according to the Ontario Disability Employment Network, more than 5.3 million Canadians (16% of the population) are living with some form of disability. Easter Seals Canada and the 10 Easter Seals provincial organizations provide a wide range of programs and services to both children and adults with varying physical, intellectual, sensory and learning disabilities. Programs offered include financial assistance, summer camps, sport programs, job training and scholarships. Easter Seals Canada’s headquarters is in Toronto.

The national organization helps support numerous fundraising and awareness campaigns for the provincial Easter Seals organizations. New in 2016, Easter Seals Canada launched a national campaign called unstoppABLE which featured the accomplishments of three young people who grew up with support from Easter Seals. Other fundraising campaigns include Drop Zone, where brave individuals across Canada fundraise and rappel from downtown skyscrapers (raised over $1 million in 2016), and the Paper Egg campaign, which raised over $700,000 nationally from shoppers who purchased colourful Easter Seals paper eggs at the checkout for $2.

Easter Seals Canada also runs one program at the national level, the Access 2 card program. This is a partnership between Easter Seals and over 500 movie theatres, cultural attractions, entertainment venues and recreation facilities across Canada where people with a disability receive a free admission for their support person. In 2017, more than 12,000 membership cards were processed.

Easter Seals Canada is a medium-sized charity with donations of $2.3m in F2017. This includes $1.9m from corporations (82% of total donations) such as Safeway Foods and Century 21, which was distributed to provincial Easter Seals organizations. Administrative costs are 15% of revenues and fundraising costs are 44% of donations. Per dollar donated to the charity, $0.41 goes toward its programs and grants, which falls well outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Funding reserves of $1.9m can cover less than 11 months of annual grants and program costs, indicating a need for donations.

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

Updated June 27, 2018 by Derek Houlberg.