Inn from the Cold
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
A+
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
Average
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
72%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 72 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Inn from the Cold:
Inn from the Cold Society is a 5-star charity with an above-average results reporting grade of A+. For every dollar donated, 72 cents are available to go towards the cause. Its reserve funds can cover almost 1 year and 8 months of annual program costs.
Founded in 1997 and operating in Calgary, Inn from the Cold (IFTC) provides families with comprehensive housing support. This includes emergency housing, meals, case management, and financial subsidies. The charity reports that approximately 3,000 individuals in families are experiencing homelessness, representing 20% of the city’s total homeless population. Children under 18 make up over 60% of those affected. It is estimated that an average of 200 families experience homelessness on any given night in Calgary.
In fiscal 2024 (year ended March), IFTC served 4,662 unique individuals of which 2,607 were children and housed a total of 172 families. In F2024, Inn from the Cold spent $5.8m on its programs: Family Shelter, Supportive Housing, Family Community Services, and Prevention & Diversion.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 100 Rated Charity.
Family Shelter was 56% of F2024 program spending. In F2024, Inn from the Cold provided 25,433 shelter bed nights to 94 families. The average length of stay was 82 days, which is a 46% increase from 56 days in F2023. The charity served a total of 76,359 meals to families in F2024. It also completed 758 referrals to external community partners.
Supportive Housing was 26% of F2024 program spending. Supportive Housing includes the charity’s Recovery Supports, Moccasin Pathways, and Affordable Housing initiatives. In F2024, Supportive Housing served 134 families total of which 42% were Non-Indigenous Canadians, 40% were Indigenous, and 18% were newcomers. The charity completed 1,084 community referrals for its Recovery Supports program. Affordable Housing had an average length of stay of 320 days and a 97% occupancy rate.
Family Community Services was 14% of F2024 program spending. This service offers health and wellness support to families accessing the charity’s main programs. In F2024, IFTC had 1,739 health & wellness support, 3,687 child & youth support, and 1,688 Indigenous Engagement support interactions and activities. This includes wellbeing checkups, mental health support, and domestic violence support.
Prevention and Diversion was 4% of F2024 program spending. The program’s goal is to help stabilize familes' financial, health, or relationship challenges to prevent homelessness.
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Results and Impact
In F2024, Inn from the Cold redeveloped its Evaluation Framework for its programs and introduced the Family INNsights survey. Some of the results are as follows:
95% of families felt safe while accessing support from The Inn.
97% of families were satisfied with the support received from The Inn.
100% of families said the Inn met their health and wellness needs.
90% of families reported decreased stress levels after accessing support from The Inn.
For its Supportive Housing program, 92% or 124 families successfully maintained their housing throughout the year. In F2024, 15 families successfully graduated to independent housing.
In May 2023, Constellation Consulting Group conducted a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis of IFTC and calculated an SROI value of $6.79. This means that for every $1 spent by the charity, it generated $6.79 worth of economic and social value.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not completely represent Inn from the Cold's results and impact.
Ci has given Inn from the Cold an Average impact rating based on demonstrated social impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: Average
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Finances
Inn from the Cold’s audited financial statements follow activity-based costing, which is a best practice. This means it clearly discloses which expenses relate to program, administrative, and fundraising activities.
In F2024, Inn from the Cold received $7.0m in donations (64% of total revenue) and $3.0m in government funding (27% of total revenue). The charity also reported an investment income of $338k. Administrative costs are 20% of total revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 8% of donations. For every dollar donated, 72 cents are available to go towards the cause. In F2024, IFTC spent $5.8m on its programs which is 51% of total revenues.
Inn from the Cold has $9.4m in its reserve funds. These reserve funds can cover around one year and eight months of annual program costs.
Profile updated on June 17, 2025 by Abby Stout.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 19.6% | 15.6% | 18.5% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 8.2% | 7.4% | 6.3% |
| Total overhead spending | 27.8% | 22.9% | 24.7% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 163.7% | 67.6% | 139.4% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 6,959 | 7,940 | 6,628 |
| Goods in kind | 141 | 56 | 50 |
| Government funding | 3,005 | 1,679 | 2,077 |
| Business activities (net) | 131 | 76 | 44 |
| Investment income | 338 | 138 | 32 |
| Other income | 0 | 692 | 10 |
| Total revenues | 10,574 | 10,582 | 8,841 |
| Program costs | 5,753 | 7,929 | 4,826 |
| Administrative costs | 2,005 | 1,629 | 1,628 |
| Fundraising costs | 568 | 583 | 415 |
| Total spending | 8,327 | 10,141 | 6,868 |
| Cash flow from operations | 2,247 | 441 | 1,973 |
| Capital spending | (1,827) | 934 | 66 |
| Funding reserves | 9,416 | 5,357 | 6,728 |
Note: DEFERRED CONTRIBUTIONS: IFTC uses deferred accounting. To show donors this information on a consistent basis, Ci adjusted donations for changes in deferred revenue. This affected revenues by $545k in F2024, ($441k) in F2023, and $1.8m in F2022. AMORTIZATIN OF DEFERRED CAPITAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Ci adjusted revenues for the recognition of revenue associated with its deferred capital contributions account. This reduced revenues by $302k in F2024, $348k in F2023, and $1.3m in F2022. THRIVE FUND EXPENSES: The charity’s audited financials listed Project Thrive as a negative revenue line item. This has been moved to program expenses, affecting expenses by ($nil) in F2024, $2.7m in F2023, and ($nil) in F2022.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
1 |
$120k - $160k |
1 |
$80k - $120k |
6 |
$40k - $80k |
2 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2024
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Inn from the Cold Society added the following comment on the 2023 profile:
Helping families overcome the obstacles that can lead to a cycle of homelessness — that’s what we strive to do with every family that asks Inn from the Cold for help. For over 25 years, Inn from the Cold has supported families in finding stability during times of crisis. We foster independence and empower resiliency, guided by our belief that every child and family should have a safe and stable place to call home.
On any given night, approximately 120 families will sleep under an Inn from the Cold ‘roof’ through our shelter and housing programs, with many others receiving support through our prevention and diversion program. At Inn from the Cold our three main programs include:
For families accessing our main programs, we offer a range of holistic supports to strengthen families, create hope and achieve stability. Our family support team creates individualized plans to address each family’s specific needs for housing and social supports and help set them up for success on their journey to housing independence. Some of the supports we provide include child and youth programming, childcare, mental health and wellbeing support, Indigenous and cultural programming, employment and career counselling and legal aid and system navigation and community referrals.
In November 2022, we relocated our operations and opened the doors on our new home, Neoma in the heart of downtown Calgary. Neoma is an innovative purpose-built and trauma-informed designed facility that provides families and individuals experiencing a housing crisis with access to emergency shelter, integrated support services, and affordable housing all under one roof. Neoma is the first office-to-affordable-housing conversion in Canada and is an innovative and partner-orientated delivery of services to address the critical housing needs in Calgary.
On average we support 2,500 family members facing a housing crisis in a year, where half of the individuals we serve are children. Demand for our services have been through the roof with the number of families reaching out, doubling over the past year. With the current affordability crisis and a lack of affordable housing more families are being pushed to the brink of homelessness and are in need of support. We anticipate this trend to continue over the next year. At Inn from the Cold, we rely on the generosity of the community to fund approximately 60% of our operations, with Government support covering the remaining 40%.
Learn More: 2022-2023 Report to the Community
Constellation Consulting Group SROI Report: Social Return on Investment (SROI) Analysis of Inn from the Cold
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 403-512-0769