International Development and Relief Foundation

About International Development and Relief Foundation:

Founded in 1988, International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF) works to empower disadvantaged people across the world. It conducts its programs based on Islamic principles and helps all people in need. IDRF partners with local experts, grassroots organizations and international NGOs and states that its projects are initiated by these partners. In F2016, IDRF reported working on 35 projects: ten in Pakistan, eight in India, four in Palestine, three in Lebanon, three in Guyana, three in Canada, one in Ecuador, one in Myanmar, one in Lesotho, and one in Turkey. The charity’s six major program buckets are emergency response, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), health, education, economic development, and food security & nutrition.

The Emergency Response program focuses on helping communities affected by natural disasters and conflicts – IDRF runs both immediate response and long-term recovery projects for these communities. The charity’s seven Emergency Response projects in F2016 helped over 32,800 people in five countries. This included responses to the earthquake in Ecuador, the Syria conflict in Lebanon and Turkey, and the earthquake in Pakistan.

The WASH program improves access to safe water, clean washrooms, and handwashing stations, and offers hygiene education to keep families healthy and break the poverty cycle. IDRF worked on four WASH projects in F2016 that helped over 72,561 people in Palestine, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Pakistan faces a severe water crisis due to droughts and lacks clean water and sanitation facilities – Tharparkar District is a seriously affected region. IDRF reports constructing 69 deep hand pumps and 140 shallow hand pumps across 34 villages in the region to mitigate the crisis. It also constructed 80 latrines in 28 villages and educated 30 villages on preventative health practices, such as the importance of hand washing before handling food and after bathroom use, and proper waste management techniques.

IDRF’s Health program offers accessible, high-quality and essential health services and trained healthcare workers to families who would not otherwise have access. The charity’s seven Health projects helped 153,963 people in Zambia, Guyana, India, and Pakistan in F2016. Education programs give kids high quality education to improve their employability and long-term quality of life, as well as reduce poverty and poor health outcomes. IDRF worked on nine Education projects in F2016 that reached 153,963 kids in Canada, Guyana, Kenya, Turkey, Palestine, India and Pakistan.  The charity’s Economic development program helps people become self-reliant by investing in useful and applicable job skills training. In F2016, IDRF worked on two projects that helped over 1,342 people in Canada, Pakistan and Zambia. The Food security & nutrition program focus on improving food accessibility and educating people on improved food access to help reduce malnutrition in struggling areas. IDRF reports that it provided food aid to over 54,423 people in India, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Palestine, and Zambia in 2016.

Financial Review:

International Development and Relief Foundation is a medium-sized charity with total donations and fundraising revenue of $4.6m in F2016. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues and fundraising costs are 10% of donations. Per dollar donated to IDRF, $0.88 goes towards its programs, which falls well within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

IDRF reports in its most recent F2016 T3010 CRA filing that it granted $122k to Licenses to Learn, $86k to Reh’ma Community Services, $39k to Afghan Women’s Counselling & Integration Community Support, $29k to Calgary Food Bank, $13k to Muslim Welfare Centre of Toronto, $10k to the Sunatul Jamaat of Ontario Canada, $8k to Calgary Urban Project Society, and $5k to GlobalMedic. Ci could not reconcile total expenses reported in the T3010 with those reported in the audited financial statements, and as such did not reflect granting activities in the financial analysis. The charity reports the $122k grant to Licenses to Learn as a related party transaction in the audited financial statements.

Also reported in the charity's T3010 CRA filing for F2016 are international program costs of $2.7m. Again, since Ci was unable to reconcile T3010 figures with those in the audited financials, Ci's financial analysis does not break out Canadian and international program spending.

This charity report is an update that is currently being reviewed by International Development and Relief Foundation. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 30, 2017 by Katie Khodawandi.