Bissell Centre is a two-star charity with reasonable overhead spending and funding reserves that can cover less than one year of program costs. Although the charity has an above average results reporting grade, it is not financially transparent resulting in a rating of two stars.

Founded in 1975, Bissell Centre (BSC) is a charity that wants to end poverty in Edmonton. Specifically, the charity wants to create a community where everyone has sustainable jobs, access to secure housing, and can meet their basic daily needs. It reports that approximately nine out of every 100 children born in Canada are affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).  BSC has three main program areas: Individual, Family, and Community. In F2021, the charity spent $15.4m on its programs. Bissell Centre did not provide a spending breakdown of its programs on its website.

BSC’s programs for Individuals offer a variety of services to people including housing services, employment services, and support for people with FASD.  The Community Bridge eviction support service helps stop evictions and foreclosures by providing interest-free loans to people and helping them budget for the future. The Workforce Development program provides 14 weeks of skills development and 12 weeks of work exposure to people looking for a job. In F2021, the charity helped 5,155 people get job placements. The Fetal Alcohol Spectrum program provides short-term income support to people with FASD and assigns mentors to pregnant women who are at risk of delivering a child exposed to drugs and alcohol. 

The Family programs offer two main services to families: childcare and emergency assistance. Bissell Centre’s Early Childhood Development program provides full-time childcare to families for a fee. It also offers free temporary childcare to low-income families. In F2021, 159 children attended childcare. The emergency assistance service helps poor families meet their daily basic needs. In F2021, 620 families were supported. The Community program mainly provides wellness, arts, educational, and recreational activities for inner-city youth at the Bissell Centre.

In F2021, Bissell Centre received $2.8m in Canadian donations. It also received $15.7m in government funding (72% of total revenue), $1.3m in fees for service (6% of total revenue), and $866k in business activity income (4% of total revenue).

Administrative costs are 2% of total revenue. Fundraising costs are 29% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 31%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 69 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Bissell Centre does not report administrative expenses separately on its audited financial statements or T3010 filing with the CRA. Ci reported office and general expenses as an administrative expense. As a result, administrative expenses may be underreported for all years of analysis. 

Bissell Centre has $7.4m in net funding reserves which can cover annual program costs for around six months.

This is a new charity profile that has been sent to Bissell Centre for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on July 26th, 2022 by Arjun Kapur.