Calgary Poppy Fund is a 0-star charity with Low demonstrated impact. The charity is not financially transparent and its very poor results reporting grade reflects the fact that is does not report any of its programs or results on its website. The charity’s overhead costs are within Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending. Calgary Poppy Fund has $3.0m in reserve funds, which can cover six years and nine months of annual program costs. Before you give, read Charity Intelligence's report. 

Founded in 1967, Royal Canadian Legion Branch Poppy Fund, known as Calgary Poppy Fund, raises money through its annual Poppy Campaign to fund financial aid and non-financial aid programs for war veterans and their families. Calgary Poppy Fund is the largest Poppy Fund in Canada.

All information below is from a previous profile update as currently Royal Canadian Legion Branch Poppy Fund's website has no program information on it. Thus, the information is outdated.

Calgary Poppy Fund runs two major programs for eligible veterans: Veteran Assistance and Veteran's Food Bank [1]. Veterans must apply and are screened by City of Calgary’s City Links [2]. CPF's Veteran Assistance program helps veterans and their families through major assistance and bursaries. Calgary Poppy Fund spent $321k directly on veteran aid programs in F2017, down 64% from $892k in F2016. This includes help paying medical costs, first and last month rents, utility bills and other items, and also parking passes for local hospitals. Bursaries of $1,000 per student are disbursed to veterans, their children, their grandchildren, and even great grandchildren, as per the Legion manual. Calgary Poppy Fund also distributes cash to other charities. These grants totaled $109k, compared with F2016 when the Calgary Poppy Fund gave a $500k grant to Alberta Command Legion, $165k to Calgary Health Trust, $105k to Hospice Calgary, and other grants.

The Veteran's Food Bank is closing down, with the Calgary Food Bank supporting veterans in need of food. The Veteran’s Food Bank provides food hampers and food vouchers to veterans, ex-service persons, widows, and dependents in financial strain. Hampers contain only non-perishable food and food vouchers and other essentials [3].

News update: The Veterans Calgary Food Bank did not close down as previously announced. It is now being operated as Veterans Food Bank of Calgary with little information on its website. It is being operated by Calgary Veteran Services Society, a new charity founded in January 2020.

Going forward, operating decisions will be made at Alberta's Legion Command, also based in Calgary.

Calgary Poppy Fund is not financially transparent. It does not post its audited financial statements on its website. In F2021 and F2020, Ci received the charity’s audited financial statements from the CRA. In F2022, Ci used the charity’s financial information on its T3010 filing with the CRA.

Calgary Poppy Fund received $485k in donations in F2022. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues and fundraising costs are 4% of donations. For every dollar donated, 93 cents go towards the charity’s programs, which is inside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.  

Calgary Poppy Fund has $3.0m in reserve funds which can cover annual program costs for six years and nine months. This highlights that the charity is not in need of funding.

According to the CRA's T3010 filing, Calgary Poppy Fund had no full-time or part-time employees in F2022. 

Updated on August 10, 2023 by Victoria Allder.