Easter Seals Ontario is a 2-star charity. It has an above-average results reporting score and is financially transparent. However, the charity has high overhead spending and low demonstrated impact per dollar spent.  

Founded in 1922, Easter Seals Ontario (ESO), formally called Ontario Society for Crippled Children, supports youth living with physical disabilities. Its vision is to enable disabled youth to live their lives to the fullest. ESO aims for these youth to be independent, confident, and socially connected with their peers. This charity is the Ontario-specific branch of Easter Seals Canada. 

Easter Seals Ontario runs three main programs: Support to Children & Families, Camp, and Public Education & Awareness.    

In F2022, Support to Children and Families accounted for 40% of program spending. This program provides financial aid to families with disabled children so they can buy accessibility and mobility devices. In F2022, Easter Seals Ontario covered 1,101 funding requests worth a total of $2.0 million.  

The Camp program made up 35% of programing costs in F2022. The charity runs two accessible summer camps for youth living with physical disabilities. These camps allow disabled children to participate in adjusted recreational activities. While at camp, children also gain independence and grow their social skills. In F2022, Easter Seals Ontario ran 12 in-person camp sessions with 322 campers. This year was the first year that these camps were in person since 2019 due to the pandemic.  

In F2022, Public Education and Awareness received 25% of program spending. This program works to make sure laws and policies represent disabled people. In F2022, there were 29 school boards in Ontario that included volunteers from Easter Seals’ Special Education Advisory Committee volunteers. These volunteers advocate for school policies that support disabled students. In F2022, ESO also distributed $31,490 in post-secondary scholarships to 22 young adults with disabilities.  

Finally, ESO administers two programs on behalf of the Ontario government: Incontinence Supplies Grant and Top Up Program. These programs provide funding or resources for youth with disabilities that result in incontinence or retention issues.

Easter Seals Ontario had donations of $9.6m in F2022. It also received $327k in government funding, which was reported to be primarily covid-19 relief. Administrative costs are 6% of revenues and fundraising costs are 39% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 45%. For every dollar donated, 55 cents go to the cause. This is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Easter Seals Ontario’s overhead spending has been outside of Ci’s reasonable range every year since F2015. 

Easter Seals Ontario has $8.5m in funding reserves, of which $798k is donor endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity could cover around 1.5 years of annual program costs using its reserves.   

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Easter Seals Ontario for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on June 16, 2023 by Clive Stevens.