Founded in 1999, War Child Canada (WCC) helps children and women affected by war access education programs, economic opportunities, and legal services. It works directly with war-affected communities to help families recover from conflict and reports that 99% of its staff are hired locally. War Child International is a global network of three main charities: War Child Canada, War Child Holland, and War Child UK. The three charities share a common mission and brand identity, but were each founded and operate independently. Each also receives funding from one or two affiliated War Child charities, with War Child USA affiliated with Canada, War Child Germany and Sweden affiliated with Holland, and War Child Australia and Ireland affiliated with the UK.

A Charity Intelligence 2020 Top 10 Impact Charity

In F2020, War Child Canada spent $16.0m on international programs and $515k on program support costs in Canada. It worked in six regions, including Afghanistan (49% of program spending), Uganda (17%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (14%), Sudan (12%), South Sudan (7%), and the Middle East (1%). WCC groups its programs into three main pillars: Education, Poverty Reduction, and Legal Protection. It does not provide a spending breakdown along these pillars.

War Child Canada’s Education programs aim to promote access to schooling and innovative teaching methods in conflict areas. For instance, it helps to repair damaged school buildings, provide books and school supplies, and set up safe spaces for children to learn and play. In the DRC, War Child Canada provides radio-based education programs to help thousands of children learn safely from home. In 2019, the charity reports that it helped to educate 230,000 children.

WCC’s Poverty Reduction programs provide job training, small business support, and farming programs to help people recover from the effects of conflict. The charity aims to help young adults, particularly women, create their own businesses and develop a sustainable income. In 2019, WCC reached 132,000 people through its poverty initiatives.

War Child Canada’s Legal Protection programs aim to combat gender-based violence and discrimination. WCC operates registered legal clinics that provide free legal representation to women and children who have experienced abuse. It also runs public awareness programs to teach families about gendered violence and how to access legal aid. At a community level, WCC trains local leaders to advocate for the rights of women and children. In 2019, it helped 137,000 people access legal services or learn about their rights.

War Child Canada receives a significant amount of funding from both international sources and government grants each year, which it fails to disclose in its audited financial statements. Ci instead reports international donations and government funding from the charity’s annual filings with the Charities Directorate. However, WCC’s F2020 filing was not available at the time of this report. As such, Ci was unable to separate these funding sources from Canadian donations, and fundraising ratios are likely understated for F2020.

War Child Canada received donations and special events revenues of $20.9m in F2020. It received $379k in donated goods and $546k in wage subsidies from the federal government, likely in addition to other government funding only reported on the charity’s annual filing. WCC also receives some of the donations collected by War Child USA, which collects less than $200k each year. Transactions between related parties are not disclosed in WCC’s financial statements.

Administrative costs are 4% of revenues and fundraising costs as a percentage of all Canadian, international, and government contributions are 4%. In F2019, the most recent year that War Child Canada’s annual filing was available, administrative costs were 4% of revenues and fundraising costs were 25% of Canadian donations and special events revenue. This resulted in 29% overhead spending. For every dollar donated to the charity, 71 cents went to the cause. This was within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

WCC has $4.7m in total funding reserves. The charity can cover around 28% or between three and four months of annual program costs with its existing reserves.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to War Child Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 28, 2021 by Eric Zhao.