Good Shepherd Centre Hamilton is a one-star charity with reasonable overhead spending but low demonstrated impact. The charity has a low results reporting grade and is not financially transparent. Read Charity Intelligence's report before you give. 

Founded in 1961, Good Shepherd Centre Hamilton (GSCH) is a charity that provides housing and health services to people in Hamilton, Ontario. GSCH is the largest provider of social services in the Greater Hamilton area. The charity reports that in 2015, 11.6% of families in Hamilton lived below the poverty line. It also reports that in 2018, 501,590 seniors used food banks in Ontario. Its main charitable programs are emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, general health, and youth mental health.

In F2021, Good Shepherd Centre Hamilton spent 49% of program spending on its emergency shelter program. GSCH runs five emergency shelters for homeless people in Hamilton. In F2021, its family centre emergency shelter assisted 103 families. Its family centre is Hamilton’s only emergency shelter specifically for homeless families. Overall, its shelters assisted 3,167 people in F2021. The charity also set up a 56-bed overflow shelter for women during the year.

The charity spent 25% of program spending on its homelessness prevention program in F2021. This program includes counselling services, community outreach services, and re-housing services. GSCH spent 19% of program spending on health programs in F2021. This includes hospice care, palliative care, assisted living for seniors, and health clinics. During the year, 101 patients passed away in hospice care. The charity spent the remaining 6% of program spending on its youth mental health program.

Ci had to request GSCH’s 2021 financial statements from the CRA, and was sent the summary financial statements, not the full audited financial statements. The financial analysis for F2021 and F2020 was done using the summary financial statements. The summary financial statements do not report capital spending.

In F2021, Good Shepherd Centre Hamilton received $3.6m in Canadian donations, and $6.3m in donated food. It also received $22.6m in government funding (64% of total revenue) during the year. This represents a 60% increase in government funding from F2020.

Administrative costs are 5% of total revenue. Fundraising costs are 23% of Canadian donations. This results in total overhead spending of 28%. For every dollar donated, 72 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

GSCH has $2.0m in net funding reserves ($4.4m in liquid assets less $2.4m in interest-bearing debts). Its net funding reserves can cover annual program costs for around one month.

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

Updated on June 16th, 2022 by Arjun Kapur.