Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada

2 Lansing Square, Suite 804
Toronto, ON M2J 4P8
President & CEO: Louis J. DeGennaro
Board Chair: Gilles Legault

Website: www.llscanada.org
Charitable Reg. #: 10762 3654 RR0001

Sector: Health - Cancer

Operating Charity

Charity Rating

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Donor Accountability

Grade: B-

The grade is based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.

Financial Transparency

Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity's website [ Audited financial statement for most recent year ]

Need for Funding

donor
endowed

Funding Reserves Program Costs

Spending Breakdown

Full-time staff #53

Avg. Compensation $80,162

Top 10 Staff Salary Range

$350k +	0
$300k - $350k	0
$250k - $300k	0
$200k - $250k	1
$160k - $200k	1
$120k - $160k	1
$80k - $120k	7
$40k - $80k	0
< $40k	0

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2015

About Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada:

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) was founded in 1955. The charity works to find cures for all forms of blood cancer and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. To achieve its mission, the LLSC has three main programs: research, patient support services, and education services. Both research and educational programming were 38% of program costs in 2015, while patient support programming was 25%.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada has established partnerships with various organizations to propel its programs, including a long-standing partnership with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The UFCW runs fundraising events to provide funds for the LLSC’s research, patient support and educational programs.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada’s research programs provide grants for a total of 28 Canadian research projects annually. These projects investigate new treatments and possible cures for blood cancers. The Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP) accounts for a large portion of LLSC research funding. This program funds clinical research projects run by companies that focus on improving the quality of care that blood cancer patients receive. One company that received funding from TAP is Celator Pharmaceuticals. The company is developing a drug called VYXEOS, designed to improve the survival rate of patients living with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In May 2016, clinical trial results showed that the drug significantly improves the survival rate of AML patients.

The First Connection Program is one of the patient services programs offered by LLSC. The program connects patients at any stage of diagnosis with a volunteer who has gone through the same challenges of living with blood cancer – the LLSC website reports that over 300 matches are available for patients. The LLSC also runs Family Support Groups that provide patients and their families with a place to share information, support, knowledge and feelings in a friendly environment. There are currently 15 groups stationed across Canada.

Financial Review:

With donations of $13.2m in F2015, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada is a ‘big-cap’ charity. Administrative costs are 10% of revenues and fundraising costs are 32% of donations. Combined, this falls outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending, with $0.42 of every donated dollar being used to cover overhead expenses. The Canadian average is $0.26.

LLSC’s funding reserves of $6.9m (of which $1.9m are donor-endowed) cover 94% of annual program costs. When donor-endowed funds are omitted, LLSC’s funding reserves cover 69% of annual program costs.

This charity report is an update that is currently being reviewed by LLSC. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 3, 2016 by Katie Khodawandi.

Financial Ratios Fiscal year ending June	2015	2014	2013
Administrative costs as % of revenues	10.0%	9.6%	7.6%
Fundraising costs as % of donations	31.5%	39.6%	34.8%
Program cost coverage (%)	94.2%	71.2%	52.9%

Summary Financial Statements All figures in $000s	2015	2014	2013
Donations	13,293	14,309	15,035
Investment income	265	335	222
Other income	23	25	84
Total revenues	13,582	14,669	15,341
Program costs	4,809	5,250	6,709
Grants	2,493	1,929	1,736
Administrative costs	1,327	1,381	1,156
Fundraising costs	4,192	5,669	5,237
Cash flow from operations	761	441	504
Funding reserves	6,875	5,113	4,470

Note: The audited financial statements report direct research expenses and allocated research expenses. Direct research expenses are reported as grants expenses and allocated research expenses are included in program costs. The audited financial statements include direct event fundraising costs as a reduction in revenue. Ci has made adjustments to include this cost in fundraising expenses. As a result, both revenues and expenses increased by $938k in F2015, $1.6m in F2014 and $1.7m in F2013. The audited financial statements report net realized gain on sale of investments as a non-cash item. Ci made adjustments to remove this figure from investment income, decreasing revenue by $14k in F2015, $25k in F2014 and $2k in F2013. Amortization has been removed from program costs, administrative costs and fundraising costs based on % of total expenses.

Comments added by the Charity:

Below are comments added by the charity for a past profile. New comments made by the charity for this updated profile may be forthcoming.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) expanded its mission in 2005 to include patient education, support and programs in addition to the research projects that had been funded since our inception in 1955. This effort, which included the addition of Social Workers and/or Oncology Nurses to support patients to our staff team, has gradually spread out across Canada and continues to grow to this present day. At the same time, it was decided that LLSC should increase its geographical reach outside of Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto so we could offer support coast-to-coast. In the last few years, we have added in stages staffed offices in Montreal, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Quebec City and Halifax (as of January, 2011) to meet this mandate. LLSC has also made a concerted effort to provide all materials and programming in both official languages, which were previously only available in English. These projects involve large expenditures up front, but were deemed crucial to our ability to properly meet our mission across Canada. We are proud LLSC is now truly a national organization that can help Canadians coast-to-coast through their journey with blood cancer and also give them hope for a healthy future by funding top-notch research.