Mustard Seed Street Church

625 Queens Ave
Victoria, BC V8T 1L9
Executive Director: Stephen Bell
Board Chair: Neil Hanson

Charitable Reg. #:11924 6213 RR0001

STAR RATING

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

[Charity Rating: 3/5]

✔+

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

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

C+

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.

89%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 89 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Mustard Seed Street Church:

Mustard Seed Street Church is a 3-star charity. It is financially transparent and has low overhead costs, however, the charity has a below-average grade in results reporting. 

Founded in 1975, Mustard Seed Street Church (MSSC) is a Christian charity that aims to break the cycle of poverty by helping people in the Greater Victoria Area overcome hunger, addiction and unemployment. The charity reports that 50,000 individuals, or 11% of the population, living in Capital Regional District of Vancouver Island are food insecure. MSSC runs Vancouver Island’s largest food bank as well as a Church, a Family Service program, and an Employment Training program. MSSC does not report a breakdown of spending on its programs. In total, the charity reports it has helped over 45,000 people in F2022.

Mustard Seed Street Church operates a food bank and food rescue project. As part of the food rescue project, MSSC works with local retailers and grocers to redistribute foods that would have otherwise been wasted. The Mustard Seed Street Church received 2.1 million pounds of food in F2022, a 62% increase over 1.3 million in F2021. The food is distributed to over 60 social service agencies that go on to feed 40,000+ people.

The charity's Foodbank had 13,806 visits and gave out 1,200+ hampers of food per month in F2022. The Food Bank also gives out free lunches and coffee daily along with weekly dinners. In F2022, MSSC gave out 2,500 meals and 4,300 cups of coffee a month.

MSSC aims to help families in need by providing school supplies and Christmas gifts. In F2022, the charity gave out 500 school kits (filled with school supplies, shoes, and grocery gift cards) and 1,200 Christmas hampers (filled with food and toys).

MSSC also operates the Hope Farm Healing Centre, which grows produce for its food banks and hosts an addictions recovery program and employment training program. In F2022, the Farm had 24 job trainees.

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Results and Impact

Mustard Seed Street Church provided food for 45,000 individuals who were food insecure. The charity also distributed 2.1 million pounds of food.

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

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

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Finances

Mustard Seed Street Church received $3.2m in donations in F2022. MSSC received $194k in revenue from its Hope Farm program, which is recorded as fees for service. The charity received $351k in government funding, representing 9% of total revenues. MSSC fails to disclose government funding on its audited financial statements. Charity Intelligence sourced this material funding from its T3010 filing.  

Administrative costs are 5% of revenues and fundraising costs are 5% of donations. This means that MSSC spent 11% on overhead in F2022. For every dollar donated to the charity, 89 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending.

Mustard Seed Street Church has gross funding reserves of $4.3m and a $1.8m mortgage, leaving $2.5m in net funding reserves. These reserve funds are MSSC’s cash and investments and can cover program costs for almost 11 months. 

Charity Intelligence has sent an update of this report to Mustard Seed Street Church for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 26th, 2023 by Brenleigh Jebb.

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending March
202220212020
Administrative costs as % of revenues 5.4%3.6%4.9%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 5.2%3.2%6.9%
Total overhead spending 10.6%6.9%11.8%
Program cost coverage (%) 90.4%82.4%54.3%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $s
202220212020
Donations 3,232,7284,948,7033,021,564
Government funding 350,813359,227297,161
Fees for service 194,094121,521130,147
Other income 65,74846,75418,655
Total revenues 3,843,3835,476,2053,467,527
Program costs 2,723,5042,177,4362,284,934
Grants 12,80013,2008,710
Administrative costs 206,798199,545170,904
Fundraising costs 167,410159,580208,643
Total spending 3,110,5112,549,7612,673,191
Cash flow from operations 732,8722,926,444794,336
Capital spending 146,242216,2102,014,970
Funding reserves 2,474,8341,804,9721,244,866

Note: To report on a cash basis, Ci adjusted for deferred revenues, deferred capital contributions, and deferred government funding affecting revenues by $111k in F2022, $51k in F2021, and $171k in F2020. Ci reported government funding from the charity’s T3010 filing with the CRA and removed the revenue from donations in all three years. MSSC does not report activity-based costing on its audited financial statements. As a result, Ci took program, administrative, and fundraising costs from the charity’s T3010 filings with the CRA in all three years. The T3010 total expenses were overstated by $13k in F2022, $13k in F2021 and $29k in F2020 compared to the audited financials. Ci reported amortization separately and removed the expense from program, administrative and fundraising expenses on a pro-rata basis.

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 16

Avg. compensation: $53,600

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:

Mustard Seed Street Comment provided May 25, 2023

The Mustard Seed Street Church has been essential in fighting hunger and restoring faith to people living in greater Victoria since 1975.

Our operations are nearly 100 percent community funded; these include the region’s largest and most accessible Food Bank; the Food Security Distribution Centre rescues 2.5 million tonnes of food and redistributes it to 60+ local community service organizations in the capital region bringing nutritious food to the 45,000 food insecure individuals across the region; Family back-to-school supplies are offered to 600 children and Christmas supports are provided to 1200 individuals and families; Hospitality programs including 3200 hot meals per month, support referrals and programs as well as haircuts & healthcare; addiction recovery services and job training are provided at Hope Farm Healing Centre; and traditional Church services are held.

Charity Contact

Website: www.mustardseed.ca
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

250-953-1575



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Charitable Registration Number: 80340 7956 RR0001