Canadian Constitution Foundation
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
B
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
n/r
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
95%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 95 cents are available for programs.
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Programs
About Canadian Constitution Foundation:
Founded in 2002, Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) works to protect the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through education, communication, and litigation. The charity defends constitutional rights in courts of law and public opinion. CCF works to ensure that all Canadians have the knowledge to protect their constitutional rights. Outside of CCF’s main litigation program, it also runs education, and communication programs.
Through its Litigation program, Canadian Constitution Foundation brings cases to court in defense of constitutional freedoms. In F2018, CCF secured a victory on behalf on Maggie and Terry Reilly, in their fight against the Ontario government for the unjust seizure of two rental properties. Additionally, the Supreme Court of Canada decided in the Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witness v. Wall case that courts do not have the jurisdiction to review the membership and internal disciplinary beliefs of private volunteer associations, another victory for the foundation in F2018. In F2018, CCF lost the ruling of the Comeau case; however, not long after the decision, Justin Trudeau called a meeting to discuss reducing internal trade barriers. CCF reports that it is optimistic as even though it lost the case, the underlying issue of internal free trade has since become a topic on the national agenda. Lastly, CCF’s on-going Healthcare Freedom case which seeks to allow patients to take more control of their own healthcare and implement a system with increased patient choice will continue in F2019.
Through its Education program, CCF hopes to inform Canadians on their constitutional rights and freedoms. On June 29, 2018, CCF published Not Admitted Free, a report detailing Canada’s interprovincial barriers to trade in alcohol. This report also makes the legal and economic case for free trade within Canada. Another component of this program is the Runnymede Society, a program that ensures free speech and intellectual diversity remain a part of Canadian law schools through on-campus debates and discussions. The Runnymede Society hosted more than 20 events in F2018.
The charity's communication program focus is on discussing constitutional rights and freedoms with Canadians. In F2018, CCF published a series of short videos promoting its on-going cases. Additionally, the charity's staff took part in numerous interviews featured on national and regional television and radio.
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Finances
Canadian Constitution Foundation is a large charity with donations of $5.0m in F2019. Its administrative costs are 4% of revenues and its fundraising costs are 1% of donations. The charity’s T3010 filing was not yet available for F2019, as such admin and fundraising costs are potentially understated as all “staff salaries and benefits” were allocated to programs. For every dollar donated to the charity, 95 cents go to CCF’s programs. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. The charity has funding reserves of $1.7m. Reserves can cover program costs for 4 months.
This charity report is an update that has been sent to Canadian Constitution Foundation. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on August 29, 2019 by Stefan Tetzlaff.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
---|---|---|---|
Administrative costs as % of revenues | 4.4% | 12.6% | 25.9% |
Fundraising costs as % of donations | 0.7% | 0.3% | 2.5% |
Total overhead spending | 5.1% | 12.9% | 28.4% |
Program cost coverage (%) | 38.5% | 24.4% | 61.3% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
---|---|---|---|
Donations | 5,054 | 4,712 | 1,960 |
Investment income | 8 | 2 | 2 |
Other income | 15 | 3 | 5 |
Total revenues | 5,077 | 4,716 | 1,967 |
Program costs | 4,311 | 3,854 | 1,156 |
Administrative costs | 225 | 595 | 508 |
Fundraising costs | 34 | 13 | 50 |
Other costs | 0 | 0 | 9 |
Total spending | 4,569 | 4,462 | 1,723 |
Cash flow from operations | 508 | 254 | 244 |
Capital spending | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Funding reserves | 1,658 | 941 | 708 |
Note: Ci removed realized loss from expenses, reducing total expenses by $18k in F2019. Ci removed amortization from program costs in F2018 and F2017. Ci used the charity's T3010 filing to allocate expenses in F2018 and F2017. This information was not yet available for F2019 and as such program cost may be overstated, and fundraising and admin may be understated due to Ci allocating all of salaries and benefits to programs. The charity's audited financials disclose $150k in donations from the Willard Garfield Weston Foundation, of which Mark Mitchell is a director and is also a director of the foundation. CCF also received $51k in donations from other directors during the year. Ci was unable to determine how much was recognized during the year.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
1 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
1 |
$40k - $80k |
3 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2018
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 888.695.9105