Canada Company

About Canada Company:

Honorary Colonel Blake Goldring founded Canada Company in 2006 to support Canadian military, their families, and Canadian veterans. Based in Toronto, Canada Company educates Canadians on military matters, celebrates the Canadian Armed Forces for their service, and facilitates exchange of knowledge between the corporate world and military leaders. The charity’s current major programs include the Scholarship Program, the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) III Monument program, and Strategic Knowledge Exchange. Past programs include Canada Company’s Military Employment Transition (MET) program.

Canada Company’s Scholarship Program offers financial help for children of fallen Canadian soldiers who are pursuing post-secondary education. The charity established its Scholarship Fund in 2007 and it currently holds $3.2 million. In its most recent 2017 annual report, Canada Company reports funding 121 students across Canada to date.  14 children received scholarships in 2017, down from 16 in 2016. F2017 spending on this program totaled $113k, of which $50k was distributed to students and $63k was spent on the annual Scholarship Ceremony that takes place in Toronto.

The LAV III Monument program started in 2014 to pay tribute to the 40,000 Canadian Armed Forces who served and the 162 Canadians who died in Afghanistan. Through this program, Canada Company provides communities with full-size replica tanks created from decommissioned vehicles donated by the Government of Canada. The charity states each monument costs $17,500 and installation costs $10,000 per unit. Communities receiving monuments are responsible for transport. To date, there are 23 inaugurated monuments across Canada and 10 are in progress, with the goal of having 33 monuments installed by 2019. Monument spending totaled $160k in F2017.

The Strategic Knowledge Exchange (SKE) program consists of an annual round-table forum that brings together senior military leaders, defense specialists, and business leaders. Canada Company runs these events to promote issues-focused and cross-sector conversation on current and future strategic approaches for important military matters. Canada Company held its 2017 SKE forum on June 22^nd – the forum focused on gender and diversity issues in the Canadian Armed Forces, and 50 Canadian business and military leaders attended.

The Military Employment Transition program started in 2013 to help veterans find meaningful jobs in Canada after serving. Canada Company partnered with Employment and Social Development Canada in 2016 to invest $1.1 million into a project called MET Pathfinder, a digital platform to help military members and veterans find civilian jobs. In December 2017, the Government of Canada assumed the responsibility of providing this digitalized service to veterans directly[1]. Shortly after – as of April 1, 2018 – Veterans Affair Canada took responsibility of all military employment services, ending Canada Company’s MET program initiative. While the MET program was active, Canada Company reports having over 9,541 members, and 528 employer partners and affiliates. The charity helped 2,575 veterans and 273 spouses find jobs cumulatively, including 437 veterans and 212 spouses in 2017. F2017 spending included $609k in technology costs, estimated to represent costs associated with developing the MET Pathfinder app.

Financial Review:

Canada Company is a medium-sized charity with donations of $1.8m in F2017, a 27% decrease compared to F2016. The charity also received $1.1m in government funding in F2017, $958k more than it received in the previous year. Charity Intelligence reports Canada Company’s marketing costs from its audited financial statements as fundraising costs in the following financial analysis, but the charity reports spending $0 on fundraising activities in F2017 on its T3010 CRA filing. Administrative costs are 28% of total revenues and fundraising costs are 5% of donations. Per dollar donated to the charity, $0.67 goes towards its programs and grants, which falls within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Canada Company has funding reserves of $4.3m, including $3.2m in scholarship funds that are held by a separate private foundation and kept off the charity’s balance sheet. Excluding the scholarship fund, Canada Company’s funding reserves can cover annual program and grant costs for less than 8 months, indicating a need for donations.

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

Updated on August 23, 2018 by Derek Houlberg. Donor accountability grading updated on October 23, 2018 by Katie Khodawandi.