SEVA Canada
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
A
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
Good
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
69%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 69 cents are available for programs.
My anchor
Programs
About SEVA Canada:
Founded in 1982, Seva Canada Society (Seva) works to prevent and reverse blindness in developing countries. An estimated 36 million people around the world are blind, and another 217 million have significant vision trouble. About 80% of blindness is preventable or treatable, including cataracts, which are the leading treatable cause. Seva treats vision issues by offering glasses, medicine, and surgery to those in need. In F2018, Seva-funded eye care programs helped 1,593,890 people. Cataract surgeries, specifically, were performed on 114,864 people.
Seva operates in 13 countries: Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, Congo-Brazzaville, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, Madagascar, Malawi, Nepal, Tanzania, and Tibetan areas of China. Seva partners with people in remote areas to create and staff Community Eye Centres. Scholarships encourage local doctors to learn more about eyes, and staff are trained in modern surgery procedures such as those performed to treat glaucoma and cataracts. Most patients pay a small amount for surgery. The money collected allows the eye centres to provide free care to the poorest 10% of patients, and to operate self-sufficiently. The fees for service are not collected by Seva Canada because they are used by the individual eye centres in continued operations.
Seva Canada Society recognizes that there is almost no difference in the rate that men and women go blind, but women are significantly less likely to access eye care. Among children with treatable blindness, two-thirds are girls. The charity’s initiative, Equal Right to Sight, works with local women’s groups to help the eye centres reach out to women.
My anchor
Results and Impact
People with restored sight, including the 115,000 who received cataract surgeries this year, have restored dignity, productivity, and independence. Up to 75% of people with visual impairment need help from someone to complete everyday tasks. By allowing someone to see, Seva increases their own productivity, but also the productivity of those who were acting as caregivers. Children with restored sight can return to school and eventually work. Without these opportunities, they would be unable to escape poverty.
Charity Intelligence has given Seva a Good impact rating based on demonstrated impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: Good

My anchor
Finances
Seva Canada Society is a medium-sized charity with donations and special events revenues of $1.4m in F2018. Administrative costs are 13% of total revenues and fundraising costs were 19% of donations. For every dollar donated, 68 cents go to Seva’s programs, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Seva has total funding reserves of $229k in F2018, for a program cost coverage ratio of 20%. This means that the charity’s reserves can cover annual program costs for about 2.5 months.
This charity report is an update that has been sent to Seva Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated June 14, 2019 by Caroline McKenna.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending June
|
2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
---|---|---|---|
Administrative costs as % of revenues | 12.8% | 10.1% | 7.5% |
Fundraising costs as % of donations | 18.7% | 15.0% | 12.5% |
Total overhead spending | 31.5% | 25.1% | 20.0% |
Program cost coverage (%) | 20.2% | 23.8% | 24.8% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
---|---|---|---|
Donations | 1,326,139 | 1,461,831 | 1,688,988 |
Goods in kind | 45,833 | 2,746 | 1,243 |
Government funding | 0 | 0 | 191,358 |
Special events | 61,183 | 55,108 | 45,025 |
Investment income | 8,995 | 10,434 | 11,490 |
Total revenues | 1,442,150 | 1,530,119 | 1,938,104 |
Program costs - International | 1,135,713 | 1,382,228 | 1,603,522 |
Administrative costs | 182,915 | 152,991 | 144,230 |
Fundraising costs | 259,933 | 228,017 | 216,057 |
Total spending | 1,578,560 | 1,763,240 | 1,963,810 |
Cash flow from operations | (136,411) | (233,117) | (25,705) |
Capital spending | 3,174 | 9,473 | 13,490 |
Funding reserves | 229,354 | 329,085 | 397,016 |
Note: Special events revenue includes net merchandise sale of greeting cards, t-shirts, and calendars that the charity sells online. Ci has reported revenues net of cost of goods sold, affecting revenues by ($1.3k) in F2018, ($5.6k) in F2017, and ($7.4k) in F2016. Ci has removed amortization from administrative and fundraising costs on a pro-rata basis. Program specific amortization was reported by the charity and removed from program costs.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
2 |
$40k - $80k |
3 |
< $40k |
1 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2018
My anchor
Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.