Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation is a three-star charity with a high results reporting grade. It is financially transparent and has reasonable overhead costs. It has high funding reserves that can cover grant spending for over seven years. 

Founded in 1988, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation (CAMH Foundation) is the fundraising arm for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Ontario. CAMH is the largest mental health and addiction hospital in Canada. The charity reports that around 450 million people across the globe struggle with mental illness, making it the leading cause of disability worldwide. It reports that one in five Canadians experience mental illness. According to CAMH Foundation, 4,000 Canadians per year die by suicide, an average of almost 11 suicides per day. The charity gives grants to CAMH for five main areas: Research, Capital and Redevelopment, Programs, Education, and Public Awareness. In F2023 it also distributed grants to other charities. CAMH Foundation granted a total of $35.0m for F2023.

Research represented 65% of grant spending in F2023. The foundation funds mental health research in three areas: brain science, policy and prevention, and personalized care. The charity aims to revolutionize our understanding of mental illness through its research. In F2022, CAMH Foundation wrote 1,005 peer-reviewed articles. It also funded 23 research chair positions during the year.

CAMH Foundation spent 29% of grants on Capital and Redevelopment in F2023. The funding in this grant area goes towards the renovation of old facilities at CAMH. In F2021, CAMH opened two new hospital buildings: the McCain Complex Care and Recovery Building and the Crisis and Critical Care Building. Overall, these buildings add 600,000 square feet and 235 inpatient beds to CAMH. In February 2023, CAMH Foundation launched the No One Left Behind campaign. The foundation is planning to raise $500 million to support the building of a new Research & Discovery Centre.

Programs represented 4% of grants in F2023. CAMH offers a wide variety of clinical care services to patients including medical assessments, brief interventions, inpatient programs, outpatient programs, day hospital services, continuing care, and family support. In F2023, the hospital had 38,646 unique patients. It had 16,143 emergency department visits during the year. CAMH had 10,325 appointments for transcranial magnetic stimulation in F2023. This is a non-invasive brain stimulation used for treatment-resistant mental illnesses.

The remaining amount of grants is dispersed to other qualified donees (2%), Education (1%), and Public Awareness (1%). Other qualified donees include The Hospital for Sick Children Foundation, University of Toronto, and Workman Arts.

CAMH Foundation is a Major 100 charity, one of Canada’s largest charities in terms of donations. In F2023, it received $63.0m in donations and special events revenue. During the year, the charity earned $460k in investment income, representing a 0.2% annual return. Its average annual investment return since F2012 is 4%.

Combined administrative and fundraising costs are 32% of total revenue excluding investment income. For every dollar donated to the charity, 68 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

CAMH Foundation has $276.7m in net reserve funds, including $25.2m in donor-endowed funds. Reserve funds are the charity’s cash and investments. Excluding donor-endowed funds, CAMH Foundation’s net funding reserves can cover F2023 grant costs for around seven years and six months.

According to its most recent T3010 filing with the CRA in F2022, CAMH Foundation uses external fundraisers. It paid external fundraisers $2.7m to raise $5.0m in F2022, at a cost of $0.53 per dollar raised.

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

Updated on July 10, 2023 by Alessandra Castino.