Ottawa Humane Society

About Ottawa Humane Society:

Founded in 1888, Ottawa Humane Society (OHS) protects animals in the Ottawa-Carleton area by sheltering animals in need of a home, investigating cases of animal cruelty, running veterinary clinics for animals in need of medical care and educating the community about humane treatment practices.

Ottawa Humane Society's largest program is its Animal Shelter activities, which made up 57% of program costs in F2015. According to the charity's current annual report, OHS took in 9,589 animals in 2014/15. The majority of animals were from pet-owner surrenders. Ottawa Humane Society found homes for 4,158 animals in 2014/15, equal to 43% of total animals taken in during the year. Adoptions related to special needs animals – animals requiring additional care and treatment – totalled 243 and grew by 50% compared to last year.

Ottawa Humane Society's volunteer and outreach programs made up 18% of program costs in F2015. As a part of its humane education efforts, OHS runs school presentations that teach kids about the importance of animal kindness and how to take care of a pet responsibly. OHS made 395 school presentations in 2014/15, up by 106% from the year before. These presentations reached 9,724 students.

Ottawa Humane Society's cruelty investigations and rescue activities made up 11% of program costs in F2015. The charity's 2014/15 annual report states that OHS's Rescue and Investigation Services team conducted 1,225 investigations in the year, with 377 reports of dogs left in hot cars as the top investigation type. The team's investigation activities saved 1,521 animals throughout the year, of which 1,154 were wild animals. OHS reports that the number of wild animals saved in 2014/15 grew by more than 10% compared to last year.

Ottawa Humane Society also has veterinary clinics that perform procedures such as neuters, dental work and x-rays. Clinics made up 10% of program costs in F2015. OHS's 2014/15 annual report states that within the year, veterinarians performed 4,233 surgeries, including 3,062 spay or neuter procedures. OHS clinics also recently adopted a new "High Volume Spay and Neuter" technique that enables veterinarians to go from performing only 15 cat spay procedures to 29 cat spay and 14 cat neuter procedures in a four-hour surgical block, which increases clinic output performance by over 200%.

Financial Review:

Ottawa Humane Society is a Big-cap charity with total donations and special events revenues of $5.1m in F2015. Administrative costs are 10% of revenues and fundraising costs are 33% of donations. $0.43 of every donated dollar goes toward overhead costs, which falls outside Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending. Fundraising costs have increased steadily from F2013 to F2015.

Ottawa Humane Society's funding reserves of $3.8m can cover only 82% of annual program costs, indicating a funding need.

This charity report is an update that is currently being reviewed by Ottawa Humane Society. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 18, 2016 by Katie Khodawandi.