HelpAge Canada is a 4-star charity with a below-average results reporting score. Its overhead costs are within Ci’s reasonable range, and it has reserve funds to cover program costs for six months.

HelpAge Canada is a founding member of HelpAge International, which supports community-based initiatives through its partnerships locally and abroad. The HelpAge Canada vision is a world where all older persons will lead secure, healthy, active and dignified lives. HelpAge Canada runs Canadian projects, international projects, and its Sponsor A Grandparent program.

In Canada, HelpAge Canada runs digital literacy programs, gives grants under its Age Better programs (formerly Seniors Can!), provides grants for Men’s Sheds, and works on F.A.S.T. Track, which aims to improve transportation to be age friendly.

HelpAge Canada supports digital literacy by providing access to devices and teaching older people how to use technology. In F2022, the BC Digital Learning Program ran 767 technology support sessions attended by 4,356 older individuals. HelpAge Canada’s Connected Elders & Youth program in Nunavut provided 250 data-enabled tablets to seniors in seven communities.

In F2022, HelpAge Canada spent $208,093 in grants through its Seniors Can! program. As a result of these grants, 1,934 seniors participated in innovative programming, 166 seniors received well-being services and mobility equipment, and 866 seniors benefitted from Emergency Relief grants.

HelpAge Canada also runs international projects. In response to the war in Ukraine, from March to May 2022, HelpAge Canada provided 200,000 meals and 3,100 hygiene vouchers to Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. It provided institutional hygiene kits to 45 refugee accommodation centres in Moldova. As of May 2022, 2,690 people in the Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine were receiving counselling calls from HelpAge volunteers. It also provided 1,714 hygiene kits to people in the Donetsk Oblast, which included adult diapers, personal protective equipment, and absorbent pads.

HelpAge Canada leads the Sponsor A Grandparent Program which provides older persons in six developing countries with grants to support health and wellbeing within their communities. For a minimum donation of $40 per month, donors can sponsor an older person in Dominica, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Kenya, and/or Sri Lanka. In F2022, 544 grandparents were sponsored through the program. In 2022, HelpAge Canada helped over 120 participants in the Sponsor A Grandparent program affected by the Haiti earthquake. It helped repair homes and provided emergency support to the sponsored individuals. In 2022, HelpAge Canada built nine new homes in Kenya for elders in the Sponsor A Grandparent program.

HelpAge Canada received $1.8m in donations in F2022.

Administrative costs were 6% of revenues (less investment income), and fundraising costs were 2% of donations. For each dollar donated, $92 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

HelpAge Canada has $1.0m in reserve funds of which $10k is donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity can cover 6 months of its annual program costs with its reserve funds.

In addition to its salaries, the charity paid $229k in professional and consulting fees in F2022 ($41k in F2021 and $16k in F2020).

Updated on June 5, 2023 by Kiara Andrade.