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.

92%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 92 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Indspire:

Indspire is a 5-star rated charity with high impact and an above-average results reporting grade. Its overhead costs are within Ci’s reasonable range and it has reserve funds to cover program costs for a year and two months.

Founded in 1985, Indspire helps Indigenous students in Canada complete their education by providing funding and other resources. The charity’s head office is in Ohsweken, Ontario. Overall, 44% of Indigenous students complete post-secondary credentials compared with 63% 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.

Building Brighter Futures (BBF) is Indspire’s largest program, representing 81% of program costs in F2022. Indspire grants bursaries, scholarships and awards to Indigenous students needing financial aid to complete post-secondary education. In F2022, BFF awarded over $23m to 6,612 students. Building Brighter Futures represents the largest scholarship and bursary program for Indigenous students in Canada after the Government of Canada. The three most popular areas of study for students receiving funding were health, business, and education.

Indspire Awards represented 7% of program costs in F2022. In F2022, 12 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis individuals received awards for their outstanding achievements.

The Student Success program represented 10% of program costs in F2022. This program was created in F2020, following the completion of Indspire’s K-12 Indspire Institute program. Included is Rivers to Success, an Indigenous student mentorship program that offers support, skill-development workshops and resources to students. The program had over 2,000 participants in F2022. In F2022, the charity also held its National Gathering for Indigenous Education. The charity states that this event is an annual conference for educators and others who work with K-12 Indigenous students to improve their educational outcomes. In F2022, the event was held virtually for the second time and had 1,280 attendees. The charity also hosted its Virtual Summit in F2022, which featured three plenary sessions and three roundtable discussions on improving Indigenous education. The summit was attended by over 400 participants.

Soaring is Indspire's annual Indigenous Youth Career Conference, which educates high school students on career and education options. The conference made up 3% of program costs in F2022 and was attended by 978 students.

The Research Knowledge Nest (RN) hopes to create Indigenous participation in research and data science. The charity reports an absence of tracked post-secondary and workplace data for Indigenous students in Canada. RN hopes to fill this gap by analyzing and reporting indigenous education outcomes in Canada. Indspire reports that RN is the first Indigenous research program of its kind in Canada. In F2022, RN created seven new reports.

The data used above reflects Indspire's most recent 2022 Annual Report, while the financial analysis below reflects F2023 financial information.

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Results and Impact

The charity reports that Research Nest produced seven key reports detailing Indigenous post-secondary and post-graduation experience.

The charity reports that approximately 90% of students that have received financial aid have graduated from a post-secondary institute. Approximately 85% of these graduates have obtained employment and approximately 45% 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 2022 Top 10 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

Impact Rating: High

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Finances

In F2023, Indspire received $23.7m in donations. The charity received $18.4m in government funding, representing 42% of total revenues.

Administrative costs are 4% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 4% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 8%. For every dollar donated, 92 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. The charity’s T3010 filings for F2023 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 F2023.

Indspire has reserve funds of $44.2m which could cover just over a year and two months of annual program costs. 

In F2022, Indspire paid external fundraisers $78k to collect $45k in donations meaning it costs Indspire $1.75 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 August 17, 2023 by Kiara Andrade.

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending March
202320222021
Administrative costs as % of revenues 3.7%6.9%9.3%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 4.4%11.1%13.3%
Total overhead spending 8.1%18.0%22.6%
Program cost coverage (%) 117.9%163.6%170.3%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $000s
202320222021
Donations 23,67720,26712,662
Goods in kind 31684419
Government funding 18,38013,28615,218
Business activities (net) 4506500
Investment income 5054,577521
Other income 725227177
Total revenues 44,05339,09128,997
Program costs 9,9075,4154,019
Grants 27,54923,15120,013
Administrative costs 1,6172,3842,648
Fundraising costs 1,0372,2471,688
Total spending 40,11033,19828,368
Cash flow from operations 3,9435,894629
Capital spending 4720221
Funding reserves 44,16946,74240,922

Note: Ci adjusted for restricted fund donations and investment income, affecting revenue by $1.2m in F2023, $4.7m in F2022, and $921k in F2021. Ci included unrealized gains (losses) on investments, affecting revenues by ($25k) in F2023, ($325k) in F2022, and $395k in F2021. Ci also included unrealized gains (losses) on investments in the restricted fund, affecting revenues by ($356k) in F2023, ($4.2m) in F2022, and $5.3m in F2021. Ci could not break out changes in government vs. non-government deferred contributions and therefore adjusted for deferred revenues in Other income, affecting revenues by $503k in F2023, $1.7m in F2022, and $2.8m in F2021. Ci reported program, administrative, and fundraising costs from the charity’s T3010 filings with the CRA. Ci backed out awards and scholarships of $23.1m in F2022 and $20.0m in F2021 from program costs and included these amounts in grants. At the time of this report, the charity's F2023 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: 48

Avg. compensation: $91,933

Top 10 staff salary range:

$350k +
0
$300k - $350k
1
$250k - $300k
0
$200k - $250k
3
$160k - $200k
1
$120k - $160k
4
$80k - $120k
1
$40k - $80k
0
< $40k
0

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

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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