Canadian Women's Foundation is a 3-star charity with a below-average results reporting grade. It is financially transparent and has overhead costs within Ci's reasonable range. 

Founded in 1991, Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) funds projects that help women move out of violence and poverty and into confidence and leadership. According to CWF, Canada ranked 40^th out of 156 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum in 2021. 10% of women in Canada live on low incomes. 28% of women-led households in Canada are in core housing needs. The rate at which girls are hospitalized for mental health problems is twice that of boys at the same age. According to Statistics Canada, about every six days, a woman in Canada was killed by her partner in 2021.

In F2022, CWF funded 521 programs. These include 12 in Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, 113 in British Columbia, 120 in the Prairies, 14 in Quebec, 66 in Atlantic Canada, and 196 in Ontario. These programs helped over 1 million people in total in F2022. CWF funds programs in five main categories: Out of Violence, Out of Poverty, Into Confidence, Into Leadership, and Northern Strategy. While program spending is provided for some individual programs, a breakdown is not provided by its main program categories.

Out of Poverty supports women of diverse backgrounds to achieve financial stability. It empowers participants to launch and develop their own businesses. It offers work opportunities and access to career sectors (technology, construction, mechanics, and electrical).

Out of Violence prevents violence by teaching youth how to recognize abusive behavior and build healthy relationships. CWF also paid services that help women and children who have experienced violence to rebuild their lives, including legal advice, counselling, safe housing, interest-free loans, and sexual assault response and care.

Into Confidence focuses on girls aged 9 to 13. The charity offers STEM education, sports and physical activity, media literacy, Indigenous culture and connection, and mentorship to girls.

Into Leadership provides opportunities for women and girls to practice leadership skills.

Northern Strategy supports projects that help Northern communities’ women gain life skills and connections.

Recent News: As of September 2022, the charity moved more than $93 million in emergency grants to gender violence prevention and intervention programs. This new fund serves about four million people all over the country.

Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) received donations and special events revenue of $4.1m in F2022. It also received $46.8m in government funding in F2022, representing 89% of revenues during the year. The majority of the almost $22m increase is because the charity will use $18.2m of government funding on specific program expenses in the future. In F2022, it used $31.8m to fund 521 programs all over Canada. Administrative costs are 1% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 18% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 19%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 81% cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

CWF has $40.8m in reserve funds. These reserve funds are CWF’s cash and investments. The charity can cover almost 1.3 years of its annual program costs with its existing reserves.

­Charity Intelligence sent an update of this report to Canadian Women’s Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 19, 2023 by Krystie Nguyen.