Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation is a 1-star charity. It has a below average results reporting grade and its overhead costs are outside of Ci’s reasonable range. The charity has $10.9m in reserve funds, which can cover six months of program costs. The charity is not financially transparent. The CRA has redacted all it statements since F2015.

Founded in 2001, Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation (EOCF) supports education, health and hockey programming for youth in Alberta. It aims to build strong and safe communities through grants to other charities and hockey-centred programs.

Since 2001, EOCF reports donating $86m to more than 2,900 charities and hockey programs in Alberta.

The Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation runs a 50/50 lottery. In F2022, this lottery was responsible for 88% of the charity’s revenue ($14.5m of $16.4m). In F2021, it was 96% ($21.4m of $22.3m) and in F2020, it was only 38% ($1.7m of $4.4m). There has been a drastic increase in 50/50 participation and revenue.

Grants to charitable organizations – 98% of program spending in F2022

Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation granted $20.7m to charities in F2022. The biggest grant was $2.0m to KidSport Canada. This donation will go towards the Hockey Assist Program and Free Play for Kids initiatives. EOCF granted $1.5m to Hockey Alberta Foundation. The money will support the Every Kid Every Community Grant Program, to make minor hockey more accessible. The charity granted $847k to Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation. This will go towards purchasing a PET/CT scanner.

Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation also supports Edmonton’s Food Bank. In 2020, it reports collecting more than 21,000lb of food. It adds that since the start of EOFC’s partnership with the Food Bank, EOFC has donated over 84,000lb of food creating more than 59,000 meals.

Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation also granted money to the Inner City High School, the Dave Semenko Legacy Project and the Edmonton Oilers Ambulatory Clinic.

Hockey programs – 2% of program spending in F2022

Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation runs hockey-centred programs for children in Alberta. The ICE School, dubbed “Incredibly Cool Education”, lets schools book the classroom in the Edmonton Oilers Arena for a week of hands-on learning. During the 2021-2022 school year, 580 students participated in ICE school. The Seats for Kids program distributes unused game tickets to children in the Edmonton Area. The Youth Hockey program offers low-cost hockey programs. One of these, the Colby’s Kids program, had 170 participants this season. The Hockey Helps Kids program was paused in F2022 due to covid-19.

Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation is not financially transparent. It does not post its financial statements online. The CRA has redacted all its financial statements since F2015.

Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation received $1.6m in donations and special events fundraising in F2022. Administrative costs were 4% of revenues and fundraising costs were 40% of donations. This means that for every dollar donated, 56 cents are available for programs. This is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. EOCF has funding reserves of $10.9m which can cover program costs for six months. Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation received $0.2m worth of donated hockey tickets from individuals and businesses.

In its T3010 filing with the CRA, the Foundation did not report any full-time or part-time employees in F2022.

The charity runs a 50/50 lottery. Prior to F2021, the net lottery revenues did not exceed $3.5m. They were $14.5m in F2022 (88% of revenue) and $21.4m in F2021 (93% of revenue). This drastic increase means that EOCF’s funding reserves went from $3.5m in F2020 to $23.3m in F2021, covering close to two years of program costs. After paying out prize money and licensing fees, EOCF only had $14.5m of the $74.1m lottery revenue in F2022. This is only 20% of lottery revenues going to programs.

In F2022, the charity’s operating cash flow (revenues – expenses + non-cash expenses) was ($6.3m). It was $8.6m in F2021 and ($257k) in F2020. The increase from F2020 to F2021 is mostly due to lottery revenue (increased by $19.7m). The decrease from F2021 to F2022 is partly due to an increase in grants to charities (increased by $8.1m).

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 2, 2023 by Victoria Allder.