2018 Result Highlights
Ci's results for the year ending June 2018
77% of donors say that reading a Charity Intelligence report increased their confidence in giving and they gave 32% more. This is exactly the impact we hoped for. A 2016 Statistics Canada donor survey found that 30% of Canadian donors are not giving more to charities because they believed their money will not be used efficiently or effectively. With unanswered questions and uncertainty, we estimate about $2.7 billion in Canadian giving is “on the sidelines”. If we could address this donor uncertainty, bridge the information gaps, donor confidence would rise and money would flow …. And donations would flow to more cost-efficient and effective (impact) charities. From Google Analytics and StatsCan, we estimate Charity Intelligence informed $74.1 million in Canadian giving, with an operating cost of $195,000.
Unique website visitors 348,500, 13% year-over-year growth – 85% of these unique visits are Canadian. During fiscal 2018, we crossed the "1% population penetration" milestone: one percent of Canadians visit our website. These visitors read 1.3 million web pages. Ci is tracking a pattern similar to how American donors use charity ratings at Charity Navigator in the US. Since beginning charity ratings in 2002, Charity Navigator is nearly at 3% population penetration. If Canadians continue to mirror this trend, Ci’s website visits will be tripling over the next 5 years to 3% population penetration, approaching 1 million unique visitors.
Charity Intelligence's website is used across Canada with fairly representative weighting. Ontario visits are 11% over-represented, Alberta and British Columbia are balanced, and Quebec visits are 4% under-represented. Millennials remain the largest segment of visitors, accounting for over a third of total visits. Charity Intelligence is like an 'on-line school', educating Canada's Next Generation of donors in intelligent giving.
Charity reporting improved 2.4% in the summer of 2018 compared to the previous year, a steady but slower improvement in charity donor accountability than hoped for. Since 2013 when we began grading charity reports, charity accountability grades have improved 18%. Canadian charities still lag British and Australian charities by a wide margin by our estimates: average Canadian charities scored 95, British charities are estimated to be at 120 and Australian charities may be higher still. To be better informed, donors need Canadian charities to better report their results. This is going to be a long haul objective.
November 1, 2018 set a new high in website visits with the release of the 2018 Top 10 Impact Charities, followed the next day by the second-highest visits ever. Charity Intelligence's Top Impact charities report remains the most popular article on the website, followed by 4-star rated charities. New this fall, Charity Intelligence released its Top 100 Highest Rated Charities to continue to spotlight outstanding charities to donors.
The 2017 Top Impact Charities report receiving $32.2 million in new funding, partially attributable to being recognised by Charity Intelligence.
Financial review: Charity Intelligence is a small charity with donations of $244k in F2018. The largest cost is staff salaries to do charity research reports and impact analysis. Administrative costs are 9% of total revenues (allocation of rent, bookkeeping costs, and audit fees), and fundraising costs are 2% of total donations. For every dollar you donate, 89 cents goes to the cause. Charity Intelligence has funding reserves of $109k that cover 6 months of research. See Charity Intelligence's audited financial statements and review of Charity Intelligence.
Huge thanks to our amazing donors whose funding made these results possible.
Additional information about Charity Intelligence is posted in frequently asked questions.