FINCA Canada is a 4-star charity that is financially transparent, but late in posting its most recent financials. It has a slightly below-average results reporting grade of B- and overhead spending of 62% which is outside of Ci’s reasonable range.

Established in 2006, Foundation for International Community Assistance Canada (FINCA Canada) is a charity that works to reduce poverty in developing countries by providing low-income people with access to affordable loans and essential goods. FINCA Canada is affiliated with FINCA International (FINCA), which operates in 20 countries around the world. FINCA Canada’s main charitable programs are Financial Empowerment, Impact Investing, and Research & Data Science. The charity does not provide a spending breakdown of its programs on its website. In F2022, FINCA Canada spent $1.3m on its programs.

FINCA Canada is late in posting its F2023 financial statements, so Ci could only update F2022. FINCA Canada also has not released its F2023 annual report. Ci has mostly reported using FINCA Canada’s website, which is up to date, but has also taken information from the F2022 annual report.

Financial Empowerment: FINCA provides small loans and other financial services to low-income people in less developed countries. It reports that 1.7 billion adults worldwide lack access to basic financial services. FINCA Canada reports that it has loaned $693 million as of December 2023. 

Impact Investing: FINCA invests in entrepreneurs building small businesses that create products and services to help people overcome hardship, build resilience against poverty, and create prosperity for their families and communities. FINCA has invested in over 25 early-stage social enterprises, totalling more than $7 million. As of June 2023, FINCA has directly served over 7.1 million people, including retail customers, suppliers, and distributors.

Research & Data Science: FINCA uses cutting-edge technology to analyze data on customer needs and measure its results. In 2023, FINCA’s research team completed 32 survey projects and conducted over 29,149 client interviews.

FINCA Canada had donations of $1.5m in F2022.

The charity received $533k in government funding representing 26% of total revenues.

Administrative costs are 21% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 41% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 62%, which is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

FINCA Canada has $2.4m in reserve funds. These reserve funds are the charity’s cash and investments. The charity has one year and ten months of annual program costs covered by its current reserves.

In F2022, FINCA Canada paid external fundraisers $10k. These external fundraisers raised $7k in donations. This means it costs FINCA Canada $1.48 to raise $1 using external fundraisers. In F2021, it cost the charity $1.28 to raise $1, and $1.89 in F2020.

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

Updated on August 19, 2024, by Lily Ferguson.