There is no easy way to compare charities, because not all of them agree with how the Canada Revenue Agency requires them to report their fundraising and administration expenses.
I still think using the tax return information available on the CRA website (see my last post) gives donors a good place to start. However, make sure you follow up by asking the charity to explain their fundraising and admin costs – what’s included and not included in that amount? Just because a charity has low fundraising costs doesn’t mean they’re doing it better than another charity with higher costs. But if you don’t ask, you won’t know.
Here are a few of the charities that we compared with their most recent tax returns available, using my method detailed in the previous post (total fundraising and admin costs as a percentage of total expenditures).
Get breaking National news
BC Cancer Foundation 32%
BC Children’s Hospital Foundation 19%
Canadian Cancer Society (BC/Yukon Division) 41%
Heart and Stroke Foundation (BC Division) 36%
Power to Change 12%
Rick Hansen Foundation 40%
SPCA 21%
Terry Fox Foundation 20%
VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation 45%
United Way of the Lower Mainland 15%
Greater Vancouver Food Bank 32%
Red Cross (of Canada) 14%
Salvation Army of BC 12%
Union Gospel Mission 25%
Canadian Diabetes Association 28%
Share Society 16%
St James Community Service Society 13%
VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation 45%
Comments