Compassion Canada is a top-rated 5-star charity with good impact. This excellent charity has reasonable overhead spending and an above average results reporting grade. 

Founded in 1963, Compassion Canada (COMP) is a charity that aims to eliminate child poverty in the name of Jesus Christ. COMP is a branch of the charity Compassion International, which has affiliated chapters across the world. Compassion International partnered with over 8,000 churches to assist over 2 million children across 25 different countries in F2021. Compassion Canada mostly receives funding through sponsorships, or arrangements where donors commit to supporting individual children over the course of their education. Other than child sponsorships, COMP’s programs are disaster relief, survival, clean water, education, and health. In F2021, Compassion Canada spent $60.5m on its program activities.  

In F2021, Compassion Canada spent 86% of total program spending on child sponsorship. COMP’s sponsorship program aims to provide education, healthcare, food, religious teaching, and personal guidance to children in poor communities. The charity distributed 15,996,050 food packs to children and their families between April 2020 and June 2021. In F2021, COMP bought cows for 86 families of sponsored children in Rwanda to provide them with food and an income source. During the year, it also helped 1,030 Colombian families establish home gardens and raise small livestock. The charity provided 803 of these families with 30 hens each.

The charity spent the remaining 14% on its various other programs. In F2021, Compassion Canada provided temporary shelter for 12,000 families in Haiti after an earthquake had destroyed their homes. It also distributed 2,508 emergency food packets to those families.

Compassion Canada is a Major 100 charity, one of the largest charities in Canada by donations. In F2021, it received $73.9m in Canadian donations. Administrative costs are 6% of total revenue excluding investment income. Fundraising costs are 8% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 14%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 86 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Compassion Canada has funding reserves of $18.7m, which can cover annual program costs for around 4 months. It has no interest-bearing debts. This low program cost coverage reflects Compassion Canada’s high dependency on continued sponsorship from individual donors. In F2021, child sponsorships represented 86% of total revenue.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Compassion Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 10th, 2022 by Arjun Kapur.