Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society
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.
High
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.
84%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 84 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society:
Greater Vancouver Food Bank is a five-star financially transparent charity with a High demonstrated impact score. It has an A+ results reporting grade, which is excellent. For every dollar donated to the charity, 84 cents are available to go to the cause.
Founded in 1983, Greater Vancouver Food Bank (GVFB) collects, buys, and distributes food to those in need through both its own and agency network’s facilities. The charity distributes food to clients who live in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and North Shore. The charity also provides food and financial support to its 150 Community and Provincial Agencies. According to the charity, food banks across Canada face unprecedented demand, increasing pressure on GVFB’s food operations. The charity runs two programs: individual food distribution and agency support services (food and financial donations to its Agencies). The charity disclosed that 55% and 45% of food distribution goes to individuals and agencies respectively. Since all of the charity’s program spending relates to food distribution and similar activities (grants to agencies, food purchases, and facility operations), Ci used it as its program spending breakdown.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top Canadian Impact Charity.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 100 Rated Charity.
Food distributed to individuals was 55% of the charity’s program spending. In F2023, GVFB distributed 5.8m lb of food to 27,000 clients across 252,173 visits through its four facilities. Of these 27,000 clients, 60% were adults, 13% were seniors, and 27% were children. The charity also reported 9,940 new client registrations in F2023.
Agency support services was 45% of the charity’s program spending and included both food and financial support provided to its network. In F2023, GVFB distributed 3.3m lb of food and provided $380,745 grant funding to its 141 Community Agencies. The charity states that this helped over 15,000 clients across 143,478 visits. The GVFB also introduced 24 new Agencies to its network in F2023.
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Results and Impact
Greater Vancouver Food Bank distributed 5.8m lb of food during 252,173 visits in F2023 to its four facilities. This means that the charity provided 23.0 lb of food on average for each visit. The charity also reported serving 27,000 unique clients, meaning each unique client received an average of 215 lb of food over F2023.
Greater Vancouver Food Bank also distributed 3.3m lb of food to its 141 agency partners during 143,478 visits in F2023. This means that the charity provided 40.0 lb of food on average for each visit.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of Greater Vancouver Food Bank’s results and impact.
Charity Intelligence has given Greater Vancouver Food Bank a High impact score based on its demonstrated impact per dollar spent.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top Canadian Impact Charity.
Impact Rating: High
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Finances
Greater Vancouver Food Bank changed its auditor in F2023 and the Ci team completed a restatement of GVFB’s F2022 financial statement. Ci made a $82k adjustment to deferred donations. In F2023, GVFB received $18.4m cash and $16.2m food donations, a 22% and 30% respective increase from F2022. Administrative costs are 4% of revenues and fundraising costs are 12% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 16%. For every dollar donated, 84 cents are available to go to the cause.
In F2023, the charity spent $11.3m on its programs, which is 61% of revenues excluding investment income and donated food. The charity increased its program spend by $2.0m (21%) since F2022.
At the end of F2023, Great Vancouver Food Bank had $27.8m in funding reserves (cash and investments) which covers 245% or 2 years and 5 months of its annual program spending.
Profile updated June 6, 2024 by Julian Dranitsaris. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending June
|
2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 3.7% | 3.9% | 2.6% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 12.5% | 14.7% | 9.8% |
| Total overhead spending | 16.2% | 18.6% | 12.4% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 245.3% | 256.5% | 308.6% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 18,424 | 15,086 | 19,640 |
| Goods in kind | 16,244 | 12,535 | 12,892 |
| Government funding | 0 | 99 | 136 |
| Investment income | 1,286 | 81 | 171 |
| Total revenues | 35,955 | 27,800 | 32,840 |
| Program costs | 11,324 | 9,335 | 7,204 |
| Donated goods exp | 16,244 | 12,535 | 12,892 |
| Administrative costs | 1,289 | 1,078 | 837 |
| Fundraising costs | 2,304 | 2,217 | 1,924 |
| Total spending | 31,161 | 25,165 | 22,857 |
| Cash flow from operations | 4,794 | 2,635 | 9,983 |
| Capital spending | 774 | 655 | 897 |
| Funding reserves | 27,782 | 23,949 | 22,230 |
Note: 1. DEFERRED ADJUSTMENT: GVFB uses deferred accounting. To show donors this information on a consistent basis, Ci adjusted for these deferred revenues. This affected revenues by ($372k), ($1.2m), and ($1.3m) in F2023, F2022, and F2021 respectively. 2. CAPITAL ASSET DISPOSAL: Ci also removed gains on the disposal of capital assets from donations. This affected revenues by ($2k), ($50k), and ($9k) in F2023, F2022, and F2021 respectively. 3. UNREALIZED INVESTMENT INCOME: Ci also adjusted investment income for changes in fair investment value. This affected revenues by $209k, ($289k), and $16k in F2023, F2022, and F2021 respectively. 4. AMORTIZATION: Ci removed amortization on a pro-rata basis from administrative, program, and fundraising costs. 5. GOVERNMENT FUNDING: Ci recorded government funding from the charity's T3010 filings with the CRA and removed the amounts from donations. This affected revenues by ($nil), ($99k), and ($136k) in F2023, F2022, and F2021 respectively.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
1 |
$160k - $200k |
1 |
$120k - $160k |
1 |
$80k - $120k |
5 |
$40k - $80k |
2 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2023
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Comments provided by the charity added verbatim by Julian Dranitsaris on 31 December 2024:
About the GVFB
The GVFB provides healthy food to over 15,000 individuals and 150 agency partners weekly across
Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster and the North Shore.
In 2024, the GVFB distributed over 8.9 million lbs. of food, with 68% of all food distributed being fresh, perishable items, up 8% from the previous year.
Client Demographics
The GVFB served 27,474 unique lives in 2024 and 15,000 individuals on a weekly basis through their direct client distribution. Of these clients, 28.3% are children, 57.5% are adults and 14.2% are seniors. In 2024, over 7,000 new clients were registered. The top reasons clients visit the GVFB are cost of living expenses, loss of income, relocation internationally, and low wages or pension.
BC Farmer Tax Credit
The BC Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit is a non-refundable income tax credit, of 25%, to encourage farmers and farming corporations to donate certain agricultural products to registered charities. The GVFB works closely with local farmers to distribute healthy, nutritious foods that would otherwise be left in the field. From this initiative, the GVFB received over 2.7 million lbs. of food, which was distributed to both direct clients and agencies.
Agency Partners
Community Agencies
The GVFB supports 150 agency partners including housing agencies, neighbourhood houses, school
programs, transition houses, Indigenous centers and many others within the Greater Vancouver area. The program provides smaller food banks and organizations access to a weekly rotating menu of dry, fresh, frozen and non-food products that adequately serves their clients.
Provincial Agencies
With the influx of fresh produce being donated through the BC Farmers’ Tax Credit, the GVFB was able to provide over 290,000 lbs. of perishable foods to six of their Provincial Agency Partners. The Provincial Pallet Program became fully operational in 2024, allowing the GVFB to share the surplus of fresh foods around the province and aid other food banks. The program helps extend the GVFB’s support beyond the immediate local area, reaching across British Columbia.
Volunteers
Volunteers are the heart of our organization. In 2024, our volunteers contributed over 50,000 hours. This is equivalent to 25 full-time staff! The GVFB couldn’t operate at the level required to serve the community without the dedication of their volunteers.
Learn more about the GVFB here: 2024 Impact Report | Greater Vancouver Food Bank
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 604-876-3601