Niagara Health Foundation is a 2-star charity with a below average results reporting grade and reasonable overhead spending. With its current reserves, the charity can cover just under seven years of annual program costs.

Founded in 1991, Niagara Health Foundation (NHF) raises funds for medical equipment, capital projects, patient care, education, and research at Niagara Health’s hospitals. Niagara Health oversees five hospital sites in St. Catharines, Welland, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, and Port Colborne. The five hospital sites serve the over 480,000 residents in the Niagara area. In F2022, the charity reports that the hospitals received 172,174 emergency and urgent care visits.

In F2021, the NHF granted $3.7m to Niagara Health. The charity does not provide a spending breakdown of the grants.

NHF’s grants went to capital development projects, which includes the maintenance and upgrade of hospital facilities within the Niagara Health network. In December 2021, NHF launched the It’s Our Future Campaign. The charity hopes to raise $40 million for the construction of a new site in Niagara Falls. The hospital will be 1.3 million square feet; it will have 469 new private beds and 8 operating suites. The hospital will accommodate 20,000 more emergency room visits.

Niagara Health Foundation’s grants also went to buying medical equipment for the hospitals. In F2022, NHF reports funding the purchase of five ECG machines, a CT simulator, four birthing beds, five operating room lifts, four pediatric immobilizers, two bladder scanners, and an operating room tray. Among the five hospitals, 66,365 ultrasounds and 22,126 MRI scans were performed in F2022.

NHF supports patient care, research, and scholarships at Niagara Health’s hospitals. In F2022, NHF reports that doctors performed 71,477 cancer care and oncology procedures, 862 cardiac care procedures and 774 stroke care procedures. In F2021 the charity spent $33k in scholarships and bursaries.

Niagara Health Foundation had not yet posted its F2022 audited financial statements at the time of this profile.

Niagara Health Foundation had donations of $8.1m in F2021. Administrative costs are 11% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising are 11% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 22%. For every dollar donated, 78 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

In Note 6 of its F2021 audited financial statements, Niagara Health Foundation reports that it has committed $6.2m of raised funds to the purchase of an additional MRI machine. It has also committed $3.5m to purchase various other pieces of equipment for Niagara Health.

NHF had $25.6m in reserve funds in F2021. These are the charity’s cash and investments. The charity reports $1.0m in endowed funds, however it does not separate donor-endowed from board-endowed funds. As such, no deduction for endowments is made to funding reserves. The charity has six years and 11 months of annual program costs covered by its current reserves.

NHF’s funding reserves earned investment income of $2.1m in F2021 ($223k in F2020). This represents an annual return on investment of 18% compared with investment returns of 2% in F2020. The average annual return on investment for the past three years is 9%.

This charity report has been sent to Niagara Health Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on  July 14, 2023 by Alessandra Castino.