Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS)

5060 74 Avenue SE, Calgary AB
Calgary, AB T2C 3C9
Executive Director: Deanna Thompson
President: Lisa Makinson

Charitable Reg. #:80718 8479 RR0001

STAR RATING

Ci's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics:

[Charity Rating: 5/5]

✔+

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.

A

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.

80%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 80 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS):

Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society is a 5-star rated, financially transparent charity. It has a strong results reporting grade and its overhead spending is within Ci’s reasonable range. The charity has $2.8m in reserve funds, which can cover just under 11 months of annual program costs.

Founded in 2006 and based in Calgary, Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) cares for homeless animals throughout the province. AARCS provides temporary, emergency, and quarantine shelter for animals in need. These animals might be abandoned, injured, living in dangerous conditions or handed over by their families who can no longer take care of them. Its Rescue & Transport team travelled 105,000km in F2022 to rescue animals. The charity has two locations: Safe Haven (Calgary) and North Haven (Edmonton). The Safe Haven shelter includes an in-house veterinary hospital with two surgical suites, a dental suite, a full-body X-ray machine, a laboratory, and a pharmacy. No adoptable animals are kept at this location. North Haven operates as a shelter and includes an adoption centre. In F2022, the charity reports helping over 5,000 animals.

A Charity Intelligence 2023 Top 100 Rated Charity

AARCS does not disclose how much it spends on each of its programs.

In F2022, AARCS’s shelters took in 1,455 dogs, 2,812 cats, and 147 critters. It transferred 45 dogs, 15 cats and 10 critters to other shelters to accommodate capacity needs. ARRCS also reports that 69 dogs, 92 cats and three critters died or were humanely euthanized. The charity highlights that it does not euthanize animals for space or time in care. These numbers represent all deaths in care, including euthanasia performed to end suffering, animals deceased on arrival and stillborn animals.

The shelter’s hospital performed 2,451 spays and neuters, 371 dental surgeries and 500 other surgeries in F2022. The clinic also administered 13,303 vaccines and 14,337 wellness exams. The charity’s Trap-Neuter-Return program neutered 347 cats in F2022. AARCS works with the University of Calgary to provide students with hands-on animal care experience. In addition, it held two ultrasound lab sessions in collaboration with Heska Canada, a veterinary technology company. Both sessions had 20 participants. In F2022, AARCS hosted its first post-covid canine blood draw, in which 11 dogs donated blood. This allowed the charity to identify some dogs with negative blood type, making them universal blood donors. The charity explains that this is valuable information for future adopters because this means their pets can help other dogs. AARCS hopes to host one blood drive every year from now on.

In F2022, the charity introduced a couple of new programs. Having noticed an increase in families surrendering pets to the shelter because they can no longer care for them, the charity established the Compassionate Care Pilot Project. This project provides support such as medical care, supplies and behavioural assistance in hopes that families will be able to keep their pets. In F2022, it helped 50 pets. In addition, AARCS introduced the Pet Food Bank program in Edmonton. It reports assisting over 800 households and over 1,000 pets.

In F2022, the charity hosted seven community events and two AARCS signature events. These include outreach and educational events with students in Alberta.

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Results and Impact

In F2022, AARCS reports a total of 3,420 animal adoptions. This includes 1,130 dogs, 2,154 cats and 136 critters. It adds that it returned seven dogs and eight cats to their owners.

While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of AARCS’s results and impact.

This charity is not yet rated on impact (n/r).  

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Finances

Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society is financially transparent. Its audited financial statements are publicly available on its website.

Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society has donations and special event revenues of $3.5m in F2022. The charity received $51k in government funding, representing 1% of revenues. Administrative costs are 10% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 10% of donations and special events. This results in total overhead spending of 20%. For every dollar donated, 80 cents are available for programs. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

AARCS has $2.8m in reserve funds. The charity could cover 89% or just under 11 months of annual program costs with current reserves.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on July 27, 2023 by Victoria Allder.

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending December
202220212020
Administrative costs as % of revenues 10.3%9.3%9.3%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 10.2%8.6%17.6%
Total overhead spending 20.5%17.9%26.9%
Program cost coverage (%) 88.7%86.5%121.2%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $s
202220212020
Donations 2,658,4672,634,7322,262,963
Goods in kind 10,1008,629126,870
Government funding 51,23813,60821,743
Fees for service 890,1131,013,154867,823
Business activities (net) 92,13786,060202,826
Special events 862,405453,067199,104
Investment income 21,65810,28219,415
Total revenues 4,586,1184,219,5323,700,744
Program costs 3,145,3102,691,2242,278,506
Administrative costs 467,769392,189343,202
Fundraising costs 360,465265,272432,249
Total spending 3,973,5443,348,6853,053,957
Cash flow from operations 612,574870,847646,787
Capital spending 82,441271,206753,210
Funding reserves 2,788,3912,326,9132,761,692

Note: Ci adjusted for deferred contributions and capital contributions affecting donations by ($295k) in F2022, $288k in F2021 and $355k in F2020. Ci reported merchandise sales as a business activity net of expenses. Cost of goods sold were adjusted, decreasing total revenues and expenses by $132k in F2022, $124k in F2021 and $4k in F2020. AARCS did not disclose government funding on its audited financial statements. Ci reported government funding from the charity’s T3010 filing with the CRA and removed the revenue from donations.

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 30

Avg. compensation: $50,444

Top 10 staff salary range:

$350k +
0
$300k - $350k
0
$250k - $300k
0
$200k - $250k
0
$160k - $200k
0
$120k - $160k
0
$80k - $120k
2
$40k - $80k
8
< $40k
0

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

The Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) operates an animal shelter and veterinary hospital in Calgary and an animal shelter and adoption centre in Edmonton. WIth over 2,000 volunteers province-wide the organization is assisting over 5,000 animals each year through multiple programs helping both people and pets. 

Programs include rescue and animal adoption, spay/neuter assistance, Trap-Neuter-Return(TNR), a pet food bank, compassionate care and animal disaster response. AARCS cares for 500 animals, on average, at any given time and relies on a network of volunteers and foster families to assist in caring for the animals. 

AARCS is proud to be an animal welfare leader in Alberta with values encompassing compassion for both people and animals, collaboration to serve our communities and a commitment to integrity and compassion. AARCS is a founding member of the Animal Welfare Coalition of Alberta and a voting member of Humane Canada. We embrace a duty of responsible resource stewardship and professionalism. Our dedication to continuous learning and contributing to knowledge-building within the sector exemplifies our goal to remain a leader in the area of animal welfare so that we can improve the lives of animals and build a more empathetic society.

Please visit aarcs.ca to learn more, sign up for our newsletter or find us on social media to find out how we, together, can achieve a Compassionate World For All Animals.

Charity Contact

Website: www.aarcs.ca
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 403-250-7377

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Charitable Registration Number: 80340 7956 RR0001