50 Generations Drive, Box 5, Suite 100
Ohsweken, ON N0A 1M0
President & CEO: Mike DeGangé
Board Chair: Donald Worme

Charitable Reg. #:11883 4696 RR0001

STAR RATING

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

[Charity Rating: 5/5]

✔+

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.

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 Indspire:

Indspire is a 5-star charity with high impact and best practices in financial transparency. It has an A results reporting grade, which is above average. For every dollar donated to the charity, 91 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Founded in 1985, Indspire supports the education of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis students and educators in Canada. Based in Ohsweken, Ontario, the charity provides financial awards, programs, and resources to help individuals in remote, rural, and urban communities. It aims to boost graduation rates from kindergarten to post-secondary education. Overall, 69% of Indigenous students complete high school or higher compared with 87% of non-Indigenous students. For Indigenous students, lack of funding is one of the biggest barriers to completing post-secondary education. The Centre for the Study of Living Standards estimates that higher education for Indigenous peoples would increase their average annual income by $11,236 by 2031. Closing the education gap for Indigenous students in Canada by 2026 could increase Canadian GDP by more than $400 billion. Since 1996, Indspire has provided over $248m to Indigenous students through more than 75,000 scholarships and bursaries.

A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 10 Impact Charity.

Building Brighter Futures (BBF) is Indspire’s best-known program, representing 80% of program costs in F2024. It grants bursaries and scholarships to Indigenous students who need financial help for post-secondary. In F2024, Indspire disbursed over $30.1m to more than 8,300 students. The three most popular areas of study for students receiving funding were health, business, and education. BBF is Canada’s largest scholarship program for Indigenous students after the Government.

Indspire Awards made up 10% of program costs in F2024, and marked 30 years in May 2023. These awards are the highest honor given by the Indigenous community to its own people. In F2024, 12 Indigenous individuals received awards for their outstanding achievements.

The Student Success program represents 6% of program costs in F2024. Included is Rivers to Success, a mentorship program offering workshops and more than 230 resources to Indigenous students. In F2024, Indspire hosted over 50 virtual events, engaging 5,300 participants with 1,300 mentor-mentee pairs. Included is also the National Gathering for Indigenous Education, an annual conference for educators and partners to learn and improve their educational outcomes. This hybrid event hosted over 1,100 individuals in-person and virtually, through 49 workshops and 50 booths in the tradeshow.

Soaring is Indspire’s annual Indigenous Youth Career Conferecnce, to educate high school students on career and education options. This year was the first in-person gathering since March 2020. The conference made up 3% of program costs in F2024, and was attended by over 1,500 students and chaperones.

The Research Knowledge Nest (RKN) promotes Indigenous roles in research and data sciences, addressing a lack of data on Indigenous education and work in Canada. Indspire reports that RKN is the first Indigenous research program of its kind in Canada. In F2024, RKN released four new research reports and commenced four research projects. 

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Results and Impact

The charity reports that the Research Knowledge Nest produced four key reports in F2024, detailing Indigenous post-secondary and post-graduation experience. Indspire also posts many of its Research Knowledge Nest reports on its website, including the 2023 National Education Survey. This shares feedback from BBF recipients for the past six years on how they can better be supported.

The charity reports that approximately 89% of students that have received financial aid from the BBF program have graduated from a post-secondary institute. Approximately 88% of these graduates have obtained employment and approximately 72% of these employees work in fields that support Indigenous communities.

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

Charity Intelligence has rated Indspire as High impact based on its demonstrated impact per dollar spent. This charity is a Charity Intelligence 2024 Top Impact Charity. 

Read our report on Indspire's impact to learn about its return on investment and how we calculated it. Charity Intelligence estimates Indspire creates $5 of social value for every dollar spent

 Learn more about Indspire through its 2023-2024 Annual Report

Impact Rating: High

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Finances

In F2024, Indspire received $27.1m in donations and $466k in goods in kind. It also received $18.8m in government funding, representing 33% of total revenues. The charity spent $43.5m on its program costs and grants in F2024, which represents 77% of revenues. Administrative costs are 3% (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 5% of donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, 91 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range of 65 to 95 cents for overhead spending.

The charity’s T3010 filings for F2024 were not yet available at the time of this report. Therefore, Ci allocated administrative costs and fundraising costs from the charity’s audited financial statements as best as possible. The charity’s administrative and fundraising ratios therefore are likely understated for F2024. The F2023 values were updated in 2024 using the charity's T3010 filings and are now accurate.

In F2024, Indspire has reserve funds of $54.3m, which means the charity can cover one year and three months of annual program costs. Indspire has a surplus of $9.8m, which is 17% of total revenues.

In F2023, Indspire paid external fundraiser $84k to collect $53k in donations, meaning it costs Indspire $1.58 to raise $1 using external fundraisers.

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

Updated on July 14, 2024 by Alexia Tudose.

 

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending March
202420232022
Administrative costs as % of revenues 3.1%7.1%6.6%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 5.4%12.0%11.1%
Total overhead spending 8.5%19.1%17.7%
Program cost coverage (%) 124.7%129.2%163.6%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $000s
202420232022
Donations 27,08823,67720,267
Goods in kind 46631684
Government funding 18,75818,38013,286
Business activities (net) 350450650
Investment income 7,36850574
Other income 2,2857251,950
Total revenues 56,31644,05336,311
Program costs 12,6056,6445,415
Grants 30,90027,54923,151
Administrative costs 1,5013,0722,384
Fundraising costs 1,4732,8442,247
Total spending 46,47940,11033,198
Cash flow from operations 9,8373,9433,114
Capital spending 6614720
Funding reserves 54,26144,16946,742

Note: Ci adjusted for restricted fund donations and investment income, affecting revenue by $948k in F2024, $434k in F2023, and $4.2m in F2022. Ci included unrealized gains (loss) on investments, affecting revenues by $397k in F2024, ($25k) in F2023, and ($325k) in F2022. Ci also included unrealized gains (losses) on investments in the restricted fund, $5.1m in F2024, ($356k) in F2023, and ($4.2m) in F2022. Ci could not break out changes in government vs. non-government deferred contributions. Therefore, Ci adjusted for deferred revenues in Other income, affecting revenues by $2.1m in F2024, $503k in F2023, and $1.7m in F2022. At the time of this report, the charity's F2024 T3010 filings were not available. Therefore, Ci allocated office and general and professional fees to administrative costs, and advertising and public relations to fundraising costs. Ci removed amortization from program, administrative and fundraising costs on a pro-rata basis.    

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 56

Avg. compensation: $87,557

Top 10 staff salary range:

$350k +
0
$300k - $350k
1
$250k - $300k
0
$200k - $250k
3
$160k - $200k
0
$120k - $160k
6
$80k - $120k
0
$40k - $80k
0
< $40k
0

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2023

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

For inquiries please contact:

Cindy Ball, CFRE, Vice President, Development

Direct: 416-987-0251

1-855-INDSPIRE (463-7747) x0245

Charity Contact

Website: www.indspire.ca
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 1-855-463-7747

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Charitable Registration Number: 80340 7956 RR0001