Canadian Hearing Society

About Canadian Hearing Society:

Founded in 1940, Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) works to improve the health, economic wellbeing, and social inclusion of people who are deaf and hard of hearing. CHS is the largest agency in Canada that specifically supports the needs of people with hearing loss. CHS delivers programs to people in Ontario and works with similar groups in other provinces to share expertise on hearing aids.

In F2017, CHS allocated 47% of program spending to hearing health and wellbeing. People who are deaf or hard of hearing can have their hearing tested, consult experts to find appropriate hearing aids, and access counselling services.

Communications programs received 40% of spending in F2017. CHS provides translation, captioning, and interpretation services. American Sign Language (ASL) classes are offered for $195, plus $135 for a workbook. In F2017, over 1,700 people took ASL classes with CHS, more than twice as many as F2016.

Canadian Hearing Society reports that more than half of deaf families in Canada live below the poverty line. In F2017, CHS allocated 10% of program spending to employment services and 3% to corporate support services. The charity provides career planning, résumé editing, and interpretation services for job interviews for people with hearing loss. CHS will fill position openings for interested employers and provide training on employing people with hearing loss.

Results and Impact: In F2017, almost 1,000 people accessed CHS’s employment services and 250 found jobs through the charity. CHS reports that 96% of its clients receive satisfactory hearing aids.

Financial Review:

Canadian Hearing Society is a medium-sized charity, with donations of $2.4m in F2017. The charity received $7.1m from the sale of goods and services and $21.7m in government funding. Combined, these two sources represent 91% of total revenues.

Administrative costs are 8% of revenues and fundraising costs are 16% of donations. For every $1 donated, 76 cents go to the cause, falling well within Ci’s reasonable range. CHS has funding reserves of $8.8m, of which $549k is donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity could cover almost 4 months of programming with reserves.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Canadian Hearing Society for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 11, 2018 by Madison Kerr.