Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation (DMRF) was founded in 1979 by community leaders who believed the Maritimes could and should be a leader in medical research. DMRF funds medical research at Dalhousie University Medical School and its related research facilities across the Maritimes. Dalhousie Medical School focuses its research on four key areas: cancer, cardiology, neuroscience, and inflammation, infection and immunity. DMRF has recently expanded into Ontario and aspires to attract board members from across Canada. DMRF highlights large historic projects it helped to fund: $2.1m into the Life Sciences Research Institute, $1.1m into Dalhousie’s Retina and Optic Nerve Lab, and $100,000 into the Centre for Functional Microbial Genomics and Host Defense.

In F2019, DMRF paid out $5.2m in capital equipment grants, scholarships, fellowships, studentships, research chairs, and recognition awards. DMRF’s 2019 financials are not yet posted and the financials will be updated as soon as they are available. 

Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation spent $3.4m (65% of total grants) on multi-disciplinary research grants in 2019. It also granted $491k (9% of total grants) to the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute and $310k (6% of total grants) to studentships. DMRF awarded eight fellowships to Student Talent for Immunotherapy and Cancer Research in F2018.

One of DMRF’s highlights is Dr. Berman’s cancer research using zebrafish. Since zebrafish are transparent, researchers can observe cancer cells growing in them and their response to different environments and drugs. This will result in more personalized cancer treatments for patients. DMRF is also funding research on the power of playing games, like Jenga, on children’s mental health.

Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation is a ­­­­medium-sized charity, with total donations of $3.4m in F2019. Administrative costs are 22% of revenues (excluding investment income) and fundraising costs are 34% of donations. Charity Intelligence calculates that DMRF spent 55% on overhead. This is outside Ci’s reasonable range. However, in 2013, DMRF "adopted a policy of funding operating expenditures through investment income," as noted in Financial Note 2 (see audited financial statements link above). DMRF's money earned from investments is available to offset overhead costs on donations (see charity's comment below).

Donors’ most asked question is, "how much of my donation goes to the cause?" For charities with large endowments, this is a tricky question. The financial statements do not tell how much of donations go towards research grants, "the cause," relative to the endowment's investment income.  Nor does one know how much of DMRF's $1.0m annual surplus (13% of revenues) in F2019 is donations or investment income. Furthermore, DMRF says that 100% of donations given to some appeals go to research. Different fundraising events and different appeals will have different costs. The CRA Charities Directorate requires charities to report using a global calculation.

Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation has total funding reserves of $88.0m, which include $87m (99%) of endowed funds. DMRF's audited financial statements do not disclose donor-endowed and board-endowed funds. As such, Charity Intelligence cannot break out donor-endowed funds from total funding reserves. Assuming a 5% annual return on DMRF’s endowment fund, annual granting activities can be covered indefinitely. 

DMRF's funding reserves earned investment income of $4.6m in F2019. This represents an annual return on investment of 5% compared with investment returns of 4% in F2018. As of F2019, the foundation holds its investments in stocks (60%) and bonds (38%), compared with stocks (78%) and bonds (18%) in F2018.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation for review. Charity Intelligence and DMRF management have discussed this report. Additional changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Edited on May 24, 2019 by Kate Bahen. Updated on June 25, 2019 by Lauren Chin.