5399 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite 105
Etobicoke, ON M9C 5K6
Executive Director: Shaun McKenna
Board Chair: Michael Medline

Charitable Reg. #:12697 6711 RR0001

STAR RATING

Ci's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics:

[Charity Rating: 3/5]

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

Most recent Audited financial statements available on the charity’s website.

B+

RESULTS REPORTING

Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.

Fair

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.

91%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 91 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Grocery Foundation:

Grocery Foundation is an average 3-star charity with fair impact on its school breakfast program. The charity has a slightly above average grade in results reporting and has low overhead costs. 

Founded in 1979, Grocery Foundation fundraises and provides grants for school nutrition programs (SNPs). The charity states that at least one in three Canadian children lives in a home struggling with food insecurity. To address this problem, Grocery Foundation funds programs that offer breakfast to all students in a participating school. Grocery Foundation operates in Ontario and Western Canada but has recently expanded to Atlantic Canada. In F2021, Grocery Foundation raised $7.2m in donations and gave away $3.3m to 23 Canadian charities. Its three largest grant recipients were Kids Help Phone ($811k), Breakfast Club of Canada ($235k), and Toronto Foundation for Student Success ($182k).

Grocery Foundation runs a School Breakfast Program to address child hunger. The charity also operates two fundraising campaigns: Toonies for Tummies and the Night to Nurture gala dinner.

The School Breakfast Program provides vouchers to Ontario schools that are redeemable for discounted breakfast foods. Grocery Foundation partners with various grocery stores to offer coupons, including Sobeys, FreshCo, Foodland, Metro, Food Basics, and Longo's. According to the charity, since the program's inception, its vouchers have helped schools save over $5m on their food costs. The Grocery Foundation currently supports over 5,000 student nutrition programs that provide food access to 1,104,962 students daily.

Grocery Foundation's main fundraising event is the Night to Nurture gala dinner, which features a silent auction and live entertainment. In partnership with Kids Help Phone, the F2021 gala raised $2.2m, up from $1.7m in F2020. Grocery Foundation donated 40% (50% in F2020) of proceeds from the gala to Kids Help Phone, its largest grant recipient in F2021.

The Toonies for Tummies fundraising campaign encourages shoppers at participating grocery stores to donate $2 at checkout. Donations collected by the campaign are given to local SNPs as gift cards redeemable at participating grocery stores. The charity partners with Breakfast Club of Canada and Student Nutrition Ontario.

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Results and Impact

Charity Intelligence rates Grocery Foundation as Fair impact based on demonstrated impact per dollar spent.

According to the charity, students who regularly eat breakfast experience a 17% improvement in graduation rates compared to their peers. In February 2019, Grocery Foundation supported new research by the C. D. Howe Institute on the impact of student nutrition programs. The study found that nutrition programs offer short-term benefits of alleviating hunger, but it did not find sufficient evidence to link nutrition programs to improvements in students’ learning ability.

While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of Grocery Foundation’s results and impact.

Impact Rating: Fair

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Finances

Grocery Foundation received donations of $7.2m in F2021. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues (less investment income), and fundraising costs are 7% of donations. This means that total overhead spending is 9%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 91 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending. Grocery Foundation has funding reserves of $7.3m which can cover just under 2 years of annual program costs.

Grocery Foundation only posts summarized audited financial statements on its website. Grocery Foundation's auditor notes that these summarized statements do not contain all disclosures required by Canadian accounting standards for charities and are not a substitute for the complete audited statements. As such, Charity Intelligence has scored Grocery Foundation as transparent, but not fully transparent on its financials.

In its annual filings with the Charities Directorate, Grocery Foundation has not reported any full-time or part-time employees since F2016. Grocery Foundation paid $389k in professional and consulting fees in F2021 (down from $415k in F2020).

This report is an update that has been sent to Grocery Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated June 2, 2022 by Ann Lei.

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending June
202120202019
Administrative costs as % of revenues 2.5%3.0%3.3%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 6.6%22.2%33.8%
Total overhead spending 9.0%25.2%37.1%
Program cost coverage (%) 192.5%162.7%129.9%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $000s
202120202019
Donations 7,2206,6805,454
Fees for service 937837778
Investment income 8888111
Other income 12625
Total revenues 8,2467,6316,368
Program costs 1,7501,6751,408
Grants 2,0191,6881,491
Donated goods exp 2,3958941,150
Administrative costs 199227204
Fundraising costs 4761,4821,845
Total spending 6,8395,9656,098
Cash flow from operations 1,4071,666271
Capital spending 0191
Funding reserves 7,2545,4723,765

Note: Ci included costs associated with the gala dinner and as a part of fundraising costs. Ci reported grants to qualified donees from the charity's T3010 CRA filings. Ci reported amortization from CRA filings and backed the amounts out of program, administrative, and fundraising costs on a pro-rata basis. Ci reported donation commitments less gifts to qualified donees as donated goods used in programs. Ci adjusted for the difference between donation commitments reported and deferred grant contributions affecting spending by ($923k) in F2021, ($1.7m) in F2020, and ($345k) in F2019.

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 0

Avg. compensation: $0

Top 10 staff salary range:

$350k +
0
$300k - $350k
0
$250k - $300k
0
$200k - $250k
0
$160k - $200k
0
$120k - $160k
0
$80k - $120k
0
$40k - $80k
0
< $40k
0

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2021

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

No comments have been added by the charity.

Charity Contact

Website: www.groceryfoundation.com
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: (416) 515-8165

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Charitable Registration Number: 80340 7956 RR0001