Shepherds of Good Hope

About Shepherds of Good Hope:

Founded in 1983, Shepherds of Good Hope provides shelter, food, clothing and support services for men and women in need in Ottawa, Ontario. Its mission is to create community for all through acceptance, compassion and care. The shelter reports serving 700,000 meals from its Soup Kitchen annually.

Major programs of Shepherds of Good Hope include transitional shelter services, supported living, support services, and social enterprises. In F2016, transitional shelter services provided a safe place and bed to 1381 men and 607 women. The average age of clients was 43.2 years. Each person stayed on average 4.5 nights at the shelters for a total of 84,581 nights.

Supported living includes 4 housing facilities. Hope Living is the largest supportive housing facility with 99 beds for people with mental health and physical challenges. The Oaks facility is a partnership with Ottawa Inner City Health Inc. and the Canadian Mental Health Association. It houses one of the managed alcohol programs. Here, Shepherds of Good Hope has 58 beds with 24/7 care and frequent visits from medical and mental health care professionals. Shepherds of Good Hope also operates St. Andrew’s and Brigid’s Place, which collectively have an additional 48 beds.

The level of resident independence and availability of support services vary across all supportive housing facilities, depending on the needs of the resident. The Oaks facility has 24/7 staff, an on-site nurse and weekly rounds by a mental health practitioner. Hope Living also has on-site nursing staff. St. Andrew’s and Brigid’s place focus on independent living with support staff available on a needs-basis.

Shepherds of Good Hope has 2 social enterprises: Good Day Workshop and Rick’s Tuck Shop. Good Day Workshop gives clients skills in furniture repairs and refinishing. Rick’s Tuck Shop is a coffee, pop and snack bar where participants learn about selling goods, managing inventory and customer service. The goal of these programs is to provide clients with employable skills that will help them enter the workforce.

Shepherds of Good Hope is in year 2 of its 3-year strategic plan: Beyond a Soup Kitchen. This plan aims to create innovative programs, improve staff impact, and increase community outreach.

Financial Review:

Shepherds of Good Hope is a medium-sized charity with $2.4m in donations in F2016. Government funding accounts for 63% of total revenues at $7.5m dollars. Additional funding comes from the charity’s social enterprises, investments, and special events at $1.7m (15%) and $182k (2%), respectively. The charity also reports other revenue of $95k, which is <1% of total revenue.

In F2016, administrative costs were 5% of revenues and fundraising costs were 26% of donations. For every $1 donated, 69 cents go to the cause. This falls within Charity Intelligence’s reasonable range of overhead spending. With funding reserves of $7.6m, the charity can only cover 8 months of program costs. This shows that Shepherds of Good Hope needs funding. 

This charity report is an update that is currently under review by Shepherds of Good Hope. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 7, 2017 by Juliana Badovinac.