Jays Care Foundation is a 5-star, financially transparent charity. It has a strong results reporting grade and its overhead spending is within Ci’s reasonable range. The charity has $18.0m in reserve funds, which can cover a year and ten months of annual program costs.

Founded in 1992, Jays Care Foundation (Jays Care) promotes baseball as a tool to teach children essential skills such as teamwork, leadership, and resiliency. The Foundation is affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club. Jays Care recognizes that there is an unlevel playing field for youth across Canada. In F2022, the charity reports that 46,148 children participated in its programs across 794 programming sites.

Inclusion, diversity and gender equity programs

Jays Care Foundation strives to fight against discrimination, inequities and sexism in sport.

The charity’s Challenger Baseball program is designed for children with cognitive disabilities, to help them build skills such as teamwork and communication. Jays Care reports that, according to ParticipACTION, 0% of children with disabilities met all recommendations in the Canadian 24h-Hour Movement Guidelines in 2020. In F2022, 9,013 children participated in the Challenger Baseball program across 283 programming sites. Jays Care Foundation runs programs that encourage the involvement of Indigenous communities in sport, to strengthen inter-community relationships. In F2022, 4,699 children participated in Indigenous programming across 154 sites. The charity also provided participants with 235,684 healthy meals and snacks. Jays Care states that, according to Canadian Women & Sports, one in three girls across Canada drop out of sports by the time they reach age 13. Jays Care’s Girls at Bat program provides girls with the opportunity to get involved in sport in an empowering and inclusive environment. In F2022, 8,205 girls participated in the program across 257 programming sites. The charity’s L.I.T. girls virtual leadership program had 289 participants in seven provinces and territories. Jays Care Foundation also runs the Top Of The First program which provided diversity and equity training to 205 coaches and leaders in F2022.

Rookie League

Jays Care’s Rookie League day camp is a summer camp for children from underserved communities. Jays Care partners with Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) to run the camps, in hopes to get more children from low socio-economic backgrounds involved in sports. In F2022, 1,455 children from 21 Toronto Community Housing sites went to camp and 154 youth staff were hired to run the program.

Field of Dreams

Every year, communities can apply for a grant to design, refurbish, or build baseball diamonds to make sports more accessible to youth. The goal is for youth to increase their physical activity levels and develop life skills. The charity completed 16 projects in 16 areas in 2022 and has completed 116 projects since 2013.

The remaining program spending is split amongst community initiatives, the Take me out to the Ball Game program, and the Home Run Scholars program. In F2022, the charity provided 2,583 Winter Hampers across Canada as part of its Winter Hampers Initiative. It also provided over 6,000 meals to 426 families living in Toronto Community Housing for its Family Night at Home Initiative. In addition, it donated 280,000 books to 1,080 educators in Ontario and British Columbia for its Turn the Page initiative. 2,874 youth attended 79 Blue Jays games in the Jays Care Community Clubhouse suite as part of the Take me out to the Ball Game program.

Jays Care Foundation is financially transparent. Its audited financial statements are publicly available on its website.

Jays Care Foundation received $8.9m in donations and special events revenue in F2022. The charity also received $8.4m in net lottery revenue, up 66% from $5.0m in F2021. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues and fundraising costs are 21% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 24%. For every dollar donated, 76 cents are available for programs. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

The charity has $18.0m in reserve funds, of which $50k is donor endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, these reserves can cover a year and ten months of annual program costs.

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

Updated August 30, 2023 by Victoria Allder.