Canadian National Institute for the Blind

About Canadian National Institute for the Blind:

Founded in 1918, Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) is a national charity supporting Canadians who are blind or partially sighted. Headquartered in Toronto, CNIB has over 50 offices across Canada. CNIB’s mission is that Canadians who are blind or partially sighted have the confidence, skills, and opportunities to fully participate in life and that Canadians don’t lose their vision to preventable causes. The charity estimates that 500k Canadians have significant vision loss that impacts their quality of life. Over 50k Canadians will lose their sight annually. CNIB estimates that 75% of cases are avoidable through prevention and treatment.  

Canadian National Institute for the Blind spends 39% of program dollars on vision loss rehab therapy. In F2017, CNIB provided 40k hours of training everyday skills to people who are blind. Each minute, three Canadians ask CNIB for information and support to overcome vision loss challenges.

Of its program costs, Canadian National Institute for the Blind spends 20% on community-based support services, 13% on technology and devices to assist daily living, 11% on deafblind services, 10% on accessible publishing and support to libraries, and 7% on public education, advocacy, and research. In F2017, CNIB provided 52k hours of group programs such as recreation and support groups, 30k hours of assistive technology services, 80k hours of deafblind services to Canadians with hearing and sight loss, and 2 research award grants. CNIB reports that it is Canada’s largest producer of accessible format literature for people who cannot read print format literature. Accessible formats include audio books, electronic text, and braille.  

Results and Impact: Legally blind Canadians living in Toronto can get a free CNIB TTC transit pass. Based on a survey, Canadian National Institute for the Blind learned that 50% of the pass users use the pass daily, 40% use it a few times weekly, and 2% use it once weekly. The reason for using the pass was found to widely vary from job-search activities to seeing relatives.

Financial Review:

CNIB is a Major 100 charity with $25.1m donations in F2017. CNIB's administrative costs were 4% of revenues and fundraising costs were 40% of donations. For every dollar donated, 57 cents go to the cause. This falls below Charity Intelligence’s reasonable range.

CNIB has funding reserves of $17.0m, including $9.9m in donor-endowed funds. Excluding donor-endowed funds, funding reserves cover 13% of annual program costs. This is only enough for a month and a half of program costs, indicating a need for funding.

The charity used external fundraisers in F2017. The charity paid $710k to raise $471k from external fundraisers for a cost of $1.51 per dollar raised.  As a result, donating directly to CNIB is more cost efficient.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Canadian National Institute for the Blind for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 24, 2018 by Joeyanne Cheung.