Calgary Homeless Foundation
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.
81%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 81 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Calgary Homeless Foundation:
Calgary Homeless Foundation is a 5-star, financially transparent charity with a High impact rating and an excellent A+ results reporting grade. Its overhead spending is within Ci’s reasonable range, and its reserve funds could cover annual program costs for just over seven months, also within Ci’s range.
A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 100 Rated Charity
A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 5 Impact Charity: Homeless Sector
Founded in 1999, Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF) distributes grants to its 26-member agency network of shelters and other Albertan charities that help the homeless. CHF also collects data on and tracks its agency members’ program performance through its Coordinated Access and Assessment database. According to the charity’s latest 2025 point in time study, 1 in 500 Calgarians are homeless. CHF’s only program is the grants it provides to its agency network and the programs these grants fund. It distributed $44.7m worth of grants to 26 organizations in the March 2026 fiscal year (F2026).
CHF's grants funded 64 programs and projects across its network. These included seven warming stations, the distribution of 99,680 winter clothing items, and 3,623 overnight transports to emergency shelters. Grants also supported 44 training sessions attended by 701 frontline staff, while the charity's Homeless Management Information System served 870 users.
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Results and Impact
In 2026, CHF reported that its funding and program support helped prevent 244 people from entering homelessness, diverted 927 people from the shelter system, and supported 270 people in moving from supportive housing to independent housing.
While Charity Intelligence (Ci) highlights this key result, it may not completely represent Calgary Homeless Foundation's full results and impact.
Ci has given Calgary Homeless Foundation a High impact rating based on its demonstrated social impact per dollar spent.
A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 5 Impact Charity: Homeless Sector
A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 5 Impact: Calgary Charities.
Impact Rating: High
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Finances
Calgary Homeless Foundation’s audited financial statements follow line-item costing as it does not separate its wages paid to employees by program, administrative, and fundraising activities. This is not a best practice.
In 2026, CHF received $989k in donations (2% of total revenue) and $47.6m in government funding (96% of total revenue). The charity spent $44.7m on its programs (grants to its agency network), which was 90% of its revenue. It ran a $1.7m deficit.
Administrative costs were $6.6m, which was 13% of revenue excluding investment income, and fundraising costs were 61k, representing 6% of donations. Total overhead was 19%, meaning that for every dollar donated, 81 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
At the end of 2026, CHF had $27.5m in reserve funds (cash and investments). These reserves could cover annual program costs for just over seven months, which is within Ci’s reasonable range.
Profile updated by Ava Anderson on July 27, 2026. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2026 | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 13.3% | 9.9% | 9.2% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 6.1% | 3.6% | 10.3% |
| Total overhead spending | 19.5% | 13.5% | 19.5% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 61.6% | 39.4% | 31.5% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2026 | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 989 | 1,058 | 1,630 |
| Government funding | 47,602 | 67,131 | 63,168 |
| Other income | 1,021 | 1,260 | 1,632 |
| Total revenues | 49,612 | 69,449 | 66,430 |
| Program costs | 0 | 0 | 4,912 |
| Grants | 44,666 | 60,510 | 64,185 |
| Administrative costs | 6,620 | 6,867 | 6,121 |
| Fundraising costs | 61 | 38 | 168 |
| Total spending | 51,346 | 67,416 | 75,386 |
| Cash flow from operations | (1,734) | 2,033 | (8,956) |
| Capital spending | 77 | 22 | 16 |
| Funding reserves | 27,508 | 23,861 | 21,790 |
Note: 1. PROGRAM COSTS: Since CHF’s audited financial statements do not separate program costs into grants and cash used in operations, Ci referred to its T3010 filings with the CRA when available to report non-grant program costs. 2. DEFERRED GOVERNMENT GRANTS: Since CHF follows deferred accounting, Ci adjusted deferred government grants to show donors the year-to-year movement of cash within the charity. This affected total revenue by ($1.7m) in F2026, $88k in F2025, and ($42k) in F2024.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
1 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
2 |
$120k - $160k |
6 |
$80k - $120k |
1 |
$40k - $80k |
0 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2025
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Comment added on July 23, 2025:
Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF) currently provides transparency by disclosing wages paid to employees for fundraising activities in Note 14 of the F2025 audited financial statements and wages paid to employees directly funded by government grants in our statement of Operations under the Systems Programs fund. CHF’s wages paid to employees under the Operating fund include a combination of wages paid to employees whose primary activities are related to the coordination, disbursement, monitoring, and evaluation of systems programs grants and implementation of strategic initiatives and wages paid to employees whose primary activities are related to leadership and administrative functions of the organization.
Added on March 18, 2026:
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 403-237-6456