Welcome Hall Mission

About Welcome Hall Mission:

Founded in 1892, Welcome Hall Mission aims to restore hope through programs that will improve the lives of vulnerable populations in Montreal and reintegrate them into society. It works with the homeless, young and at-risk mothers, families, and youth. It offers 11 programs across 5 buildings, including an emergency shelter, food bank, thrift store, educational and employability counselling and workshops, a free dental clinic, transitional housing programs, and youth-specific programs.

Welcome Hall Mission’s emergency shelter provides 187 beds to homeless men nightly. In the winter months, the Mission increases the number of beds to 250 to accommodate additional people during colder nights. The shelter’s meal service has 200 seats and provided an average of 4,700 meals per week in F2016.

The Mission’s food bank was redesigned as Marché Bon Accueil, a free grocery store that operates like a food bank, but with a more approachable and independent layout. The Mission reports that each week, over 2,263 people benefit from food received at the grocery store. Clients can shop for fruits, vegetables, canned, and non-perishable foods, depending on what was received from different partners and food suppliers.

Receiving more than 2,000 bags of new and used items per month, La Boutique is a thrift store open to all Montrealers. In addition to being a thrift store, the Boutique provides a training environment for clients in the Education and Employability program as part of their 20 hours/week of social and professional skills training. Other training tasks can include sorting, distribution and repackaging food at the food bank, and cafeteria and kitchen work.

Welcome Hall Mission has 76 studio and transitional apartments available for rent, including 5 wheelchair accessible apartments. Since 2015, Welcome Hall Mission has helped 183 homeless men move into furnished apartments.

Financial Review:

Welcome Hall Mission is a big-cap charity with $5.9m in donations in F2016. Administrative costs were 5% of revenues and fundraising costs were 24% of donations. For every $1 donated, 71 cents went to the cause. This falls within Charity Intelligence’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

The charity has negative funding reserves due to its $6.6m in mortgages payable at the end of F2016. Because the majority of the charity’s funding comes from government sources, accounting for 41% ($7.4m) of total revenue, program coverage of (14%) does not threaten the continuance of programs and services of Welcome Hall Mission.

This charity report is an update that is currently being reviewed by Welcome Hall Mission. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated August 8, 2017 by Juliana Badovinac.