Distress Centres of Greater Toronto
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.
B+
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.
87%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 87 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Distress Centres of Greater Toronto:
Distress Centres of Greater Toronto is a 4-star charity with average demonstrated impact. It has an above average results reporting grade and it is financially transparent.
Founded in 1967, Distress Centres of Greater Toronto (DCGT) operates several 24-hour hotlines for crisis intervention, emotional support, and suicide prevention. These supports are also available through online chat and text. DCGT’s programming is largely delivered by trained volunteers who are supervised by professional staff. DCGT merged with Brampton-based Spectra Community Support Services in May 2019, which allowed DCGT's services to expand to include multilingual language lines, enhanced support for isolated seniors, and a transitional support program for those aged 16+. The charity reports that approximately 4,000 people take their own life by suicide in Canada each year, and for every suicide loss, there are an estimated 20-25 attempts made.
The charity has multiple helplines tailored to clients in varying levels and categories of distress. DCGT also runs outreach programs, that call isolated seniors and at-risk individuals to check-in. No breakdown of spending by program was provided by the charity. In F2022, DCGT provided over 160,000 helping interactions, down from 186,000 in F2021.
408-Help Line is Distress Centres of Greater Toronto's biggest helpline, receiving 35,630 calls in F2022. This program covers a broad range of support services, including mental health support, crisis intervention, family violence response, and suicide prevention. In F2022, 55% of callers were provided with emotional support and distress management and 12% of callers were provided with mental health support.
Multilingual Lines is DCGT's second-biggest helpline, providing support in eight languages: English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. The program answered 25,751 calls related to loneliness/social contact (66%), relationships (52%), isolation (38%), self-esteem/self-worth (34%), and other issues.
The charity also runs other helpline services. Talk Suicide, which focuses on individuals at risk of suicide, answered 14,471 texts and calls in F2022. Partnership Lines, a program that works with the TTC to encourage anyone contemplating suicide to contact DCGT, answered 1,787 calls.
DCGT also runs outreach programs that call clients to provide safety check-ins, medication reminders, and emotional support. Tele Check and Caller Reassurance Program supported 414 and 98 seniors in need respectively in F2022. Touching Base program provids similar supports to 269 Clients with mental health concerns in F2022.
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Results and Impact
Distress Centres of Greater Toronto reports that 25% of 408-Help Line callers experienced a decrease in isolation and loneliness and 37% reduced emotional intensity following the conversation with DCGT staff in F2022. DCGT's Multilingual Lines Service helped 162 calls (0.6%) deescalate an immediate crisis and 277 calls (1%) decrease harmful intentions.
Of DCGT’s Talk Suicide calls, 8,992 (62% of total interactions) said yes to thoughts of suicide and 2,960 said yes to the current plan for suicide. Of those, 1,307 plans were disabled safely and 311 emergency interventions were made.
Charity Intelligence highlights these key results. They may not be a complete representation of DCGT's results.
Charity Intelligence has given Distress Centres of Greater Toronto an Average impact rating based on demonstrated impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: Average
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Finances
In F2022, Distress Centres of Greater Toronto received $1.3m in cash donations. The charity received $396k in consulting income (14% of total revenue) recorded as fees for service. DCGT received $1.0m in government funding in F2022, representing 37% of total revenue.
Administrative costs are 5% of total revenue and fundraising costs are 8% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 13%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 87 cents go to the cause. This falls within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.
Distress Centres of Greater Toronto has $1.0m million in reserve funds. These reserve funds are DCGT’s cash and investments and can cover program costs for five months.
This charity report is an update that has been sent to Distress Centres of Greater Toronto for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on May 29th, 2023 by Brenleigh Jebb.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 5.0% | 6.1% | 5.7% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 8.3% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Total overhead spending | 13.3% | 12.1% | 10.9% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 42.8% | 59.9% | 50.4% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 1,346,634 | 1,158,143 | 1,556,502 |
| Government funding | 1,038,369 | 637,466 | 717,841 |
| Fees for service | 395,940 | 463,775 | 0 |
| Special events | 0 | 0 | 36,526 |
| Investment income | 0 | 0 | 4,205 |
| Other income | 31,631 | 31,217 | 25,853 |
| Total revenues | 2,812,574 | 2,290,601 | 2,340,927 |
| Program costs | 2,363,267 | 2,067,765 | 1,998,897 |
| Administrative costs | 140,047 | 140,496 | 132,404 |
| Fundraising costs | 111,909 | 68,619 | 83,277 |
| Total spending | 2,615,223 | 2,276,880 | 2,214,578 |
| Cash flow from operations | 197,351 | 13,721 | 126,349 |
| Capital spending | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Funding reserves | 1,010,679 | 1,239,602 | 1,007,323 |
Note: Distress Centres of Greater Toronto does not disclose government vs. non-government deferred contributions therefore Ci could not adjust for deferred donations. As the charity did not allocate wages and benefits by activity, Ci used the charity's T3010 filing to report program, administrative and fundraising costs for all three years. Amortization was removed from program, administrative and fundraising costs on a pro-rata basis.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
1 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
2 |
$40k - $80k |
7 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
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