SOS Children's Villages Canada is a 1-star charity. It has reasonable overhead costs and an average results reporting grade. However, it is not financially transparent and has Low demonstrated impact. Before you give, read Charity Intelligence's report.

Founded in 1969, SOS Children’s Villages Canada (SOS Canada) is the Canadian branch of SOS Children’s Villages. Based in Austria, SOS Children’s Villages provides loving homes for abandoned, orphaned, and vulnerable children across 134 countries. It establishes Children’s Villages, which are safe communities that provide food, health services, shelter, and education to children and their new families. SOS Canada reports that it helps to fund more than 550 Children’s Villages around the world.

In F2020, SOS Children’s Villages Canada spent 59% of program costs in sub-Saharan Africa, 21% in Asia, 9% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 5% in the Middle East and North Africa, and 5% in North America and Europe. SOS Canada runs several core programs, including Children’s Villages, Family Strengthening Programs, Emergency Relief, Schools, Kindergartens, Youth Facilities, and Medical Centres. It does not provide a program spending breakdown for F2020.

Each Children’s Village consists of 10 to 15 houses of SOS mothers and children. SOS mothers are local women trained to provide constant long-term care for five to ten children. Each SOS family receives a home where children can safely live according to their own cultures and religions. SOS Canada aims to prevent economic hardship and keep families together through Family Strengthening Programs, which provide job skills and small business training at its villages. Since one out of every four children lives in a country affected by conflict or disaster, SOS also runs Emergency Relief projects. In emergency situations, SOS works to reunite families, provide education and health services, and distribute food aid.

SOS Children’s Villages Canada reports that it provided health services to 271,200 people and education to 198,600 children in F2020. It also reached 347,000 people through Family Strengthening Programs during the year. Through its Emergency Relief efforts, SOS Canada reports that it helped 240,000 people. In Somalia, SOS Children’s Villages Canada established a new covid-19 treatment centre and funded expansions of the SOS Mother and Child Hospital. The SOS Hospital is the second-largest hospital in the country, providing more than 120,000 health services to patients each year.

These are results for SOS Children's Village's global operations and SOS Canada contributes 4% of SOS Children's Village's global budget. 

This is the most recent report on SOS Children's Villages Canada. Charity Intelligence contacted SOS Children's Villages for its most recent information for 2021 but this information has not been provided. Information in this report reflects the F2020 financial statements and annual report.

August 4, 2022.

SOS Children’s Villages Canada received donations of $6.9m in F2020. It also received $1.7m in international donations and grants from UNICEF USA (19% of revenues) and $150k in government funding (2% of revenues). Administrative costs are 10% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 22% of Canadian donations. This results in total overhead spending of 32%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 68 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. The charity was previously outside of this reasonable range. However, its fundraising ratio decreased in F2020 mainly due to a 10% increase in donations.

SOS Children’s Villages Canada has $5.3m in total funding reserves. The charity can cover 97% or less than one year of annual program costs with its existing reserves.

According to its most recent available filing with the Charities Directorate in F2019, SOS Children’s Villages Canada uses external fundraisers. It paid $1.0m to raise $160k through external fundraisers in F2019, at a cost of $6.50 per dollar raised.

SOS Canada’s financial statements disclose transactions with three related parties. Its grants in F2020 included $28k to SOS British Columbia, $1.7m to SOS International, and $1.9m to SOS Sponsorships.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to SOS Children’s Villages Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 15, 2021 by Eric Zhao.