Focus on the Family Canada is a 2-star charity that is financially transparent with Low impact. It has a C+ results reporting grade which is below average. For every dollar donated to the charity, 72 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

Founded in 1983, Focus on the Family Canada (FFC) supports Canadian families with Christian resources and counseling. It aims to strengthen families by providing practical guidance based on Christian principles. FFC’s mission is to educate and support families, with the vision of seeing every family transformed by love, faith, and hope. Its approach is Christ-centered, focused on education and inspiration, and offers personalized support. Since its founding, the charity has helped Canadian families through more than 700,000 phone calls, 530,000 emails and almost 1 million cards and letters.

Every weekday morning, FFC staff gathers to pray for struggling Canadians. Clients can request prayers online or by phone. Families facing challenges like mental illness or abuse can receive free counseling and referrals to local Christian counselors. FFC publishes newsletters, magazines, podcasts, and online articles providing guidance on four main topics: marriage, parenting, faith and culture, and life challenges. FFC does not provide a spending breakdown on its programs.

Marriage

Focus on the Family offers marriage advice and support for couples at all relationship stages, from preparing for marriage to considering divorce. The charity reports that in our communities, for every three couples, one will go through separation or divorce. Focus on the Family Canada provides numerous marriage counseling, conference and retreat options for a fee. The charity reports that 20% of calls to its counselling and care team are about marriage issues, and 17,900 people receive its free monthly Focus on Marriage e-newsletter.

Parenting

Focus on the Family offers parenting advice and best practices on topics including bullying, mental health, school, chores, discipline, and gender dysphoria. Various programs offer lesson plans for parents of young children, magazines with age-appropriate content, and media reviews to help parents make wise choices for their children. FFC reports that 17,981 parents receive its free monthly Focus on Parenting e-newsletter, and over 7,900 children receive Clubhouse or Clubhouse Jr. magazines.

Faith and Culture

Focus on the Family Canada supports families to continue living as Christians even when their faith is challenged. The charity creates a faith and culture newsletter, online articles, documentaries, and DVD Bible study series about people seeking to do God’s work. FFC offers more than 3,300 biblically based resources on its online store.

Life Challenges

Focus on the Family Canada aims to help families work through life challenges including addiction, grief, adoption, mental illness, unplanned pregnancy, finding a work-life balance, and healing from abuse. FFC offers free PDF booklets on these topics and many more, providing “biblically based and psychologically sound advice for mental health and relationships”. FFC reports more than 10,000 prayer requests were prayed for and over 4,000 hours of phone counselling were received by families in the last year.

Focus on the Family Canada received donations of $9.1m in F2023. It received $2.1m in revenues from sales, events and subscriptions, which accounted for 18% of total revenues. Administrative costs are 10% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 18% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 28%. For every dollar donated, 72 cents are available to go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range of 65 to 95 cents for overhead spending. In F2023, FFS reports $8.5m in program costs, which is 72% of total revenue. FFC does not provide a spending breakdown by program.

Focus on the Family Canada has $4.6m in total funding reserves, which could cover 7 months of program costs. In F2023, FFC has a surplus of $457k, which is 4% of total revenues. In F2023, the charity spent $5.0m on capital expenditures (43% of total revenue), which includes purchases of land and buildings.

Focus on the Family Canada used external fundraisers in F2023. The charity paid $123k to raise $183k from external fundraisers for a cost of 67 cents per dollar raised.

Ci has sent this profile update to Focus on the Family Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 18, 2024 by Alexia Tudose