Royal Canadian Legion Branch Poppy Fund

15 Street NW
Calgary, AB T2M 3N8
Board President: Brian Grewcutt
Treasurer: Gladys Marks

Charitable Reg. #:10683 0961 RR0001

STAR RATING

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

[Charity Rating: 0/5]

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

Audited financial statements available only through official request for information from Charities Directorate.

F

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.

93%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 93 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Royal Canadian Legion Branch Poppy Fund:

Calgary Poppy Fund is a 0-star charity with Low demonstrated impact. The charity is not financially transparent and its very poor results reporting grade reflects the fact that is does not report any of its programs or results on its website. The charity’s overhead costs are within Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending. Calgary Poppy Fund has $3.0m in reserve funds, which can cover six years and nine months of annual program costs. Before you give, read Charity Intelligence's report. 

Founded in 1967, Royal Canadian Legion Branch Poppy Fund, known as Calgary Poppy Fund, raises money through its annual Poppy Campaign to fund financial aid and non-financial aid programs for war veterans and their families. Calgary Poppy Fund is the largest Poppy Fund in Canada.

All information below is from a previous profile update as currently Royal Canadian Legion Branch Poppy Fund's website has no program information on it. Thus, the information is outdated.

Calgary Poppy Fund runs two major programs for eligible veterans: Veteran Assistance and Veteran's Food Bank [1]. Veterans must apply and are screened by City of Calgary’s City Links [2]. CPF's Veteran Assistance program helps veterans and their families through major assistance and bursaries. Calgary Poppy Fund spent $321k directly on veteran aid programs in F2017, down 64% from $892k in F2016. This includes help paying medical costs, first and last month rents, utility bills and other items, and also parking passes for local hospitals. Bursaries of $1,000 per student are disbursed to veterans, their children, their grandchildren, and even great grandchildren, as per the Legion manual. Calgary Poppy Fund also distributes cash to other charities. These grants totaled $109k, compared with F2016 when the Calgary Poppy Fund gave a $500k grant to Alberta Command Legion, $165k to Calgary Health Trust, $105k to Hospice Calgary, and other grants.

The Veteran's Food Bank is closing down, with the Calgary Food Bank supporting veterans in need of food. The Veteran’s Food Bank provides food hampers and food vouchers to veterans, ex-service persons, widows, and dependents in financial strain. Hampers contain only non-perishable food and food vouchers and other essentials [3].

News update: The Veterans Calgary Food Bank did not close down as previously announced. It is now being operated as Veterans Food Bank of Calgary with little information on its website. It is being operated by Calgary Veteran Services Society, a new charity founded in January 2020.

Going forward, operating decisions will be made at Alberta's Legion Command, also based in Calgary.

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Results and Impact

Charity Intelligence did not find any quantified outcomes on Calgary Poppy Fund’s website. This may not be a complete representation of Calgary Poppy Fund's results and impact.

Charity Intelligence has given Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Fund a Low impact rating for demonstrated impact per dollar.

Impact Rating: Low

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Finances

Calgary Poppy Fund is not financially transparent. It does not post its audited financial statements on its website. In F2021 and F2020, Ci received the charity’s audited financial statements from the CRA. In F2022, Ci used the charity’s financial information on its T3010 filing with the CRA.

Calgary Poppy Fund received $485k in donations in F2022. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues and fundraising costs are 4% of donations. For every dollar donated, 93 cents go towards the charity’s programs, which is inside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.  

Calgary Poppy Fund has $3.0m in reserve funds which can cover annual program costs for six years and nine months. This highlights that the charity is not in need of funding.

According to the CRA's T3010 filing, Calgary Poppy Fund had no full-time or part-time employees in F2022. 

Updated on August 10, 2023 by Victoria Allder.

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending September
202220212020
Administrative costs as % of revenues 2.8%1.6%1.6%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 3.7%0.0%0.0%
Total overhead spending 6.6%1.5%1.6%
Program cost coverage (%) 682.5%268.0%223.0%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $s
202220212020
Donations 485,371883,949960,213
Special events 621,62000
Investment income (133,958)10,47593,445
Total revenues 973,033894,4241,053,658
Program costs 89,11723,80619,815
Grants 350,000937,350752,063
Administrative costs 31,37513,65915,371
Fundraising costs 41,20300
Other costs 06,1140
Total spending 511,695980,929787,249
Cash flow from operations 461,338(86,505)266,409
Capital spending 0037,500
Funding reserves 2,996,9292,575,7251,721,018

Note: In F2022, Ci reported program, administrative and fundraising costs from the charity’s T3010 filing with the CRA. The charity does not report its grants on its T3010 filing with the CRA. In F2022, Ci reported other costs as grants for consistency with the grants and program cost coverage ratios from previous years. Amortization was allocated to program, administrative and fundraising costs on a pro-rata basis.

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 0

Avg. compensation: $0

Top 10 staff salary range:

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

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

Charity Contact

Website: www.calgarypoppyfund.com
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: (403) 265-6304

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