Boundless School
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.
High
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.
90%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 90 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Boundless School:
The Boundless School was founded as an outdoor adventure centre in 1984, working with at-risk youth. Since becoming a charity in 1989, The Boundless School has worked to motivate 20,000 students to succeed academically, physically, and socially. The charity can award high school credits, allowing teens to achieve academic success in an “exquisite” non-traditional learning environment. Boundless has two buildings on 600 acres of land in Palmer Rapids, Ontario. The property includes 3,000 feet of Madawaska River shoreline.
A Charity Intelligence 2020 Top 10 Canadian Impact Charity
In F2020, The Boundless School worked with 271 high schoolers from low-income families who were not on pace to graduate on time. Of these students, 96% had experienced long-term school interruptions and 98% struggled with diagnosed mental illness or learning challenges.
The charity’s boarding school program operates between September and March. Students participate in 30-day (2 credits) or 40-day (3 credits) sessions, working to earn the 30.0 credits needed to graduate high school. The sessions cost $250 per day but students with diagnosed learning, behavioural or mental health issues can deduct tuition fees as a medical expense. In F2020, 122 boarding school participants earned 472 high school credits in math, English, history, science, art, and electives such as writer’s craft and outdoor education.
During the summer, Boundless runs 13-day sessions where teens can earn a credit in outdoor education, leadership, healthy active living, English, or science. This program costs $2,750 per session. In F2020, there were 286 students who earned a total of 274 credits through summer programs. Sessions involve instruction and assignments but also incorporate camping, high ropes, crafts, music, hiking, and whitewater rafting.
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Results and Impact
Compared with their public school marks, the grades of students who completed Boundless programs improved an average of 26% in English, 31% in math, 19% in history, and 24% in science. In F2020, 77 students completed their high school diploma through the charity.
Charity Intelligence has evaluated The Boundless School and found the charity to have High impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: High
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Finances
The Boundless School is a Small charity, receiving $753k in donations in F2020. The charity also received $1.0m in tuition fees (40% of revenues) and $729k in government funding (29% of revenues). Administrative costs are 3% of revenues and fundraising costs, retrieved from the charity's T3010 filing with the CRA, are 7% of donations. For every dollar donated, 90 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Funding reserves of $1.5m can cover 8.5 months of annual program costs.
This charity report is an update that has been sent to The Boundless School for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on August 28, 2020 by Tenzin Shomar.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 3.3% | 2.9% | 3.4% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 6.9% | 7.0% | 6.3% |
| Total overhead spending | 10.2% | 9.9% | 9.7% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 70.9% | 61.3% | 50.7% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 752,755 | 907,120 | 695,622 |
| Government funding | 728,760 | 660,774 | 641,399 |
| Fees for service | 1,007,876 | 1,072,112 | 841,192 |
| Investment income | 13,621 | 11,449 | 10,086 |
| Other income | 2,789 | 1,709 | 9,352 |
| Total revenues | 2,505,801 | 2,653,164 | 2,197,651 |
| Program costs | 2,062,925 | 2,154,605 | 1,890,381 |
| Administrative costs | 82,321 | 75,300 | 73,743 |
| Fundraising costs | 52,200 | 63,500 | 44,000 |
| Other costs | 130 | 164 | 1,417 |
| Total spending | 2,197,576 | 2,293,569 | 2,009,541 |
| Cash flow from operations | 308,225 | 359,595 | 188,110 |
| Capital spending | 191,318 | 133,706 | 891,445 |
| Funding reserves | 1,462,952 | 1,320,836 | 958,473 |
Note: Ci has adjusted for deferred revenue from capital contributions and Ministry of Children and Youth Services, affecting revenues by ($30k) in F2020, ($33k) in F2019, and ($22k) in F2018. Administrative costs may be understated as Ci cannot accurately allocate expenses with the provided information, of note is no allocation of salary or employee benefits. Fundraising costs are as reported on the charity’s T3010 filing and have been removed from program costs for F2019 and F2018.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
1 |
$80k - $120k |
2 |
$40k - $80k |
6 |
< $40k |
1 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2019
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 416-951-7059