Amnesty International is a 3-star, financially transparent charity. Its results reporting grade is a C, which is below average. Its overhead costs are 45%, which is outside Ci’s reasonable range. Its reserve funds can cover six months of annual program costs. 

Founded in 1974, Amnesty International Canada (AIC) is the Canadian arm of Amnesty International (AI), a global movement of over 10 million people in 150 countries working to protect and promote human rights. Its mission is to research and prevent or end significant abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.  

AIC calls attention to human rights abuses by writing messages, influencing legislation and policy, and running national campaigns. The charity notes that the state of human rights globally has regressed to the standards of 1948. Within Canada, AIC states that there are ongoing issues of Indigenous rights, gender-based violence, systemic racism, and climate change, among others. 

It operates four main programs: International programs, Communications & Marketing, Action Strategies, and Grassroots Activism.  

International Programs was 51% of program spending in F2023. These fund research, investigations, and reports on international human rights abuses. Amnesty International reported that increasing conflict, authoritarianism, and climate change are among the most pressing international concerns. The charity works with other international organizations, like the United Nations, to research human rights violations. In F2023, AIC conducted a report into US-made missiles used by the Israeli military to target civilians in the Gaza strip.  

Communications and Marketing was 19% of program spending in F2023. This program operates the website, social media, and public service announcements. AIC hosted a webinar about digital misogyny and violence in 2023.  

Action Strategies was 18% of program spending in F2023. It operates crisis response programs, primarily writing letters to perpetrators.  

Grassroots Activism was 13% of program spending in F2023. It funds community youth groups, networks, and fieldworkers.  

In F2019, a review of Amnesty International's workplace culture was conducted following the death by suicide of two of its employees. This review characterized AI's workplace culture as “toxic,” with prevalent bullying, public humiliation, sexism, and other abuses of power. AI's response can be found here. Following this report, Amnesty International's Secretary-General, Kumi Naidoo, resigned. In 2021, another review of AI found it had a culture of white privilege, with incidents of overt racism. 

In July 2021, Amnesty International Canada commissioned an equity and diversity review of its workplace environment and practices after many incidents reported by employees. The reviewers found that there is a “prevalence of systemic racism and other forms of oppression” within AIC. In November 2021, AIC added an Equity, People and Culture Director to its staff. 

In 2022, AI released a press release entitled “Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians.” It was criticized for blaming the Ukraine military for the civilian death toll. In response, Amnesty International conducted an internal review. The review panel determined that the analysis was “not sufficiently detailed and reasoned.” AI subsequently apologized.  

Amnesty International Canada received $15.5m in donations and special events revenue in F2023. Administrative costs are 13% of total revenues, less investment income. Fundraising costs are 32% of donations. This creates total overhead spending of 45%. For every dollar donated, 55 cents go to the cause. This is outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending and has been for every year of Ci’s analysis of AIC. This is primarily due to the charity’s consistently high fundraising costs.  

AIC has $5.1m in reserve funds in F2023. These funds can cover six months of annual program costs.  

AIC uses external fundraisers to gather donations. Amnesty International reports paying external fundraisers $3.0m to raise $3.6m in F2023. This creates a cost of 83 cents per dollar raised. Donors wishing to avoid these high costs should donate directly to Amnesty International rather than through external fundraisers. 

In F2023, Amnesty International Canada allocated $4.2m to Amnesty International Limited, a separate entity based in London, England. These funds were designated for action strategies, grassroots activism, and marketing. Ci has subtracted this amount from domestic program costs and re-allocated it to international program costs. 

At the time of this report, AIC's T3010 filing with the CRA for F2023 is unavailable. This may lead to minor inconsistencies. 

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Amnesty International Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on July 18, 2024 by Stellar Zhang.