United Way Ottawa
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.
n/r
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.
82%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 82 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About United Way Ottawa:
Founded in 1933, United Way Ottawa merged with three smaller United Ways: United Ways of Prescott-Russell, Lanark County, and Renfrew County in 2017. It formally changed its name to United Way East Ontario (UWEO) in 2019. The charity aims to bring people together to build strong, healthy and safe communities. Grants fit into three focus areas: All That Kids Can Be, From Poverty to Possibility, and Healthy People, Strong Communities. In response to the covid-19 pandemic, UWEO launched Local Love in a Global Crisis, a program aimed to provide emergency support. Besides grants to charities in the Greater Ottawa area, UWEO also spends money in-house on community initiatives, research projects, and partnerships.
United Way East Ontario spent $9.0m on programs and grants in Ottawa, $302k in Prescott-Russell, $283k in Lanark County, and $259k in Renfrew County in F2021. UWEO’s F2021 annual report provides key results for the period from July 1, 2019 to December 30, 2020. The charity takes roughly two months to analyze social results data from its partner agencies. As a result, the activity data is reported for F2020. UWEO reports it granted to 87 charities and supported 100 programs in F2020, reaching 90,605 people. UWEO reports a breakdown of spending on its three focus areas for F2020. Using the latest breakdown on spending by program, UWEO spent 47% of program costs on granting and programs in Ottawa.
Healthy People, Strong Communities represented 21% of granting in Ottawa in F2020. The program focuses on breaking down barriers faced by vulnerable people including seniors and people struggling with mental health or addiction. In F2020, UWEO funded 36 programs and 31 charities that reached 53,710 clients in Ottawa. This includes 43,007 people who received crisis support.
All That Kids Can Be accounted for 19% of granting in Ottawa in F2020. The program aims to prepare children for kindergarten and give youth a safe place to go after school. In F2020, UWEO funded 47 programs and 39 charities that reached 31,194 children and youth in Ottawa. 7,573 youth took part in school and community activities and 655 families received training and resources.
From Poverty to Possibility accounted for the final 6% of granting in F2020. The program focuses on getting homeless youth off the streets and helping new immigrants and people with disabilities get jobs. Its goal is to help people become financially independent and stable. In F2020, UWEO funded 16 programs and 17 local charities that reached 5,701 people in Ottawa.
Granting and programs in Prescott-Russell, Lanark, and Renfrew County accounted for 5% of program spending in F2020.
Local Love in a Global Crisis and other emergency response programs represented the other 49% of program spending in F2020. UWEO reports it spent $6.0m on covid-19 support from March to December 2020. This program is funded primarily through the Canadian government's Emergency Support Fund. UWEO reported its covid response program separately, providing key results for March 2020 to March 2021. Within its covid-19 program, UWEO granted to over 150 organizations reaching over 113,000 people. 503 people received mental health counselling, 16,383 seniors received support, and 6,003 check-in calls were made in eastern Ontario.
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Results and Impact
United Way East Ontario reports outcomes for each of its three programs in Ottawa and surrounding regions.
The Healthy People, Strong Communities program provided 42,007 people with crisis support in F2020. 77% of these people felt supported and had their stress levels reduced. An additional 1,040 seniors reported feeling less isolated.
The All That Kids Can Be program helped 920 children and youth maintain or improve their academic competencies in F2020. 460 children and youth showed improved mental health outcomes. 273 youth reported a decrease in how often they used drugs.
The From Poverty to Possibility program helped 466 new Canadians, 231 people with disabilities and 84 youth got jobs in F2020. An additional 4,659 people received job skills training.
United Way East Ontario also reported 58,136 meals were given to those in need during the covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, essential supplies such as 10,773 food vouchers and 535,000 masks were distributed.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of UWEO's results and impact.
This charity is not yet rated on impact (n/r).
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Finances
United Way East Ontario is a major 100 charity with donations of $25.5m in F2021. The charity received $9.2m in federal government funding, representing 25% of total revenues. This number may be under reported as provincial government funding is not reported on the charity's audited financial statements.
Administrative costs are 3% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 15% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 18%. For every dollar donated, 82 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.
United Way East Ontario has $16.8m in funding reserves, of which $448k is donor endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity could cover 112% or just over a year of annual program costs with current reserves.
Not including grants given through the covid emergency fund, some of UWEO’s largest grants in F2020 went to Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa ($310k), Family Services Ottawa ($188k), John Howard Society of Ottawa ($171k), Patro d’Ottawa ($139k), and World Skills Employment Centre ($135k).
This charity report is an update that has been sent to United Way East Ontario for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on July 15, 2021 by Brenleigh Jebb.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 3.1% | 5.7% | 4.1% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 14.8% | 19.9% | 21.9% |
| Total overhead spending | 17.8% | 25.6% | 26.0% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 111.8% | 114.6% | 79.8% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 25,491 | 23,587 | 23,964 |
| Government funding | 9,206 | 494 | 506 |
| Investment income | 1,133 | (152) | 312 |
| Other income | 590 | 834 | 434 |
| Total revenues | 36,421 | 24,763 | 25,216 |
| Program costs | 10,109 | 3,301 | 3,716 |
| Grants | 4,533 | 4,940 | 6,231 |
| Donor-designated donations | 9,353 | 9,381 | 9,796 |
| Administrative costs | 1,077 | 1,420 | 1,020 |
| Fundraising costs | 3,759 | 4,692 | 5,238 |
| Total spending | 28,831 | 23,733 | 26,002 |
| Cash flow from operations | 7,589 | 1,031 | (786) |
| Capital spending | 186,167 | 187 | 38 |
| Funding reserves | 16,787 | 9,866 | 8,379 |
Note: Ci has reported admin costs as the general and administrative costs allocated to programs. Ci gathered government funding from the charity’s T3010 CRA filings and backed the amounts out of donations in F2020 and F2019. The F2021 T3010 filing was not available at the time of this update. Ci reported emergency support fund and emergency wage and rent subsidy as government funding. Ci removed emergency support grants from donations and reported emergency wage and rent subsidy in revenues, increasing revenues by $2.2m in F2021. Ci included unrealized gains (losses) in investment income, affecting total revenue by $918k in F2021, ($361k) in F2020, and $199k in F2019. Fundraising cost recoveries from designated charities of $1.4m in F2021, $1.4m in F2020, and $1.1m in F2019 are reported as donations instead of a reduction in fundraising costs, increasing total revenues and expenses accordingly. As a non-cash item, amortization of capital assets has been backed out of program, administrative and fundraising costs on a pro-rata basis.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
1 |
$160k - $200k |
1 |
$120k - $160k |
3 |
$80k - $120k |
5 |
$40k - $80k |
0 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2020
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 613.228.6700