Mercy Ships Canada
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
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.
Low
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.
71%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 71 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Mercy Ships Canada:
Mercy Ships Canada is a two-star financially transparent charity with a Low demonstrated impact rating. It has an A- results reporting grade, which is above average. For every dollar donated, 71 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
Founded in 1989, Mercy Ships Canada (MSC) is one of 16 national branches of Mercy Ships International. Mercy Ships International received US$213.8 million in revenues for 2023, of which Mercy Ships Canada's contribution of C$1.7 million is less than 1%. Mercy Ships International operates two hospital ships – Africa Mercy and Global Mercy – which provide medical aid and training for people primarily in coastal towns in West Africa. Mercy Ships specifically offers free maxillofacial, plastic, orthopedic, and other surgeries. MSC also offers medical training courses and mentoring opportunities for medical professionals in developing countries. According to the charity, five billion people across the world do not have access to affordable surgeries.
Mercy Ship Canada funds three programs: Direct Medical Services, Medical Capacity Building, and Hope Systems Relationship Development. While the charity provided a program spending breakdown in its annual report, it was not sufficient for Charity Intelligence to properly allocate resources for each program. It spent $1.7m on its international program costs in the fiscal year ending in December 2023 (2023).
All program work (surgeries, procedures, etc.) are reported for Mercy Ships International.
Direct Medical Services refers to various types of surgical procedures offered on the charity’s two hospital ships. In 2022, it completed 3,201 surgeries and 3,936 surgical procedures for 2,335 unique patients across four African countries. A surgical procedure is a specific medical service offered during a surgery, meaning that there are multiple surgical procedures during each surgery. MSC provided the following regional patient breakdown of this program’s operations: 1,557 in Togo, 695 in Niger, 47 in Ghana, and 36 in Senegal. The charity also completed 9,465 dental procedures for 3,560 unique dental patients in 2022.
Medical Capacity Building refers to the charity’s medical training and mentoring programs. According to the charity, this improves medical care quality within the countries it operates in. The charity offered 32 separate training programs and logged 224,359 training hours in 2022. MSC provided the following regional breakdown: 68,561 in Benin, 55,894 in Guinea, 51,255 in Senegal, 42,434 in Liberia, 3,948 in South Africa, 1,672 through online courses, and 695 in Togo. 2,545 people were enrolled in these training courses in 2022.
Health Systems Relationship Development refers to the charity’s advocacy and relationship building work. MSC establishes partnerships with local governments and other stakeholders. It also pushes for policy changes related to safe and affordable healthcare. In 2018, Mercy Ships Canada entered into a partnership with the Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Guinea. The charity also renovated this university’s medical department, adding one new classroom, a new simulation lab, and three new office spaces in 2020.
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Results and Impact
Mercy Ships Canada completed 3,201 surgeries and 3,936 surgical procedures for 2,335 unique patients in 2022. This means that each patient received an average of 1.37 surgeries and 1.69 procedures.
The charity also reported that thanks to its funded renovation of the Gamal Abdel Nasser University’s medical program, four nurses successfully graduated from the university in 2020.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not completely represent Mercy Ships Canada’s results and impact.
Ci has given Mercy Ships Canada a Low impact rating based on demonstrated impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: Low
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Finances
In 2023, Mercy Ships Canada had $3.7m in donations which is 69% of total revenues less investment income. This is a 17% decrease from $3.1m in donations reported in 2022. The charity received no government funding from 2021 to 2023. Administrative costs are 6% of revenues and fundraising costs are 23% of donations. This results in 29% total overhead spending, meaning that for every dollar donated, 71 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
In 2023, Mercy Ships Canada spent $1.7m on its international programs which is 45% of total revenues and a 22% decrease from $2.1m reported in 2022. The charity also had a $155k cash surplus in 2023.
At the end of 2023, Mercy Ships Canada had $2.1m in reserve funds (cash and HST rebates receivable) which covers 129% or around 15 months of its annual program spending.
Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on August 22, 2024. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 6.3% | 3.8% | 4.4% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 22.7% | 16.1% | 18.4% |
| Total overhead spending | 28.9% | 19.9% | 22.8% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 128.5% | 96.9% | 128.5% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 2,558,970 | 3,082,496 | 2,328,094 |
| Goods in kind | 1,098,510 | 1,688,800 | 554,189 |
| Investment income | 65,634 | 19,353 | 4,008 |
| Other income | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total revenues | 3,723,114 | 4,790,649 | 2,886,291 |
| Program costs - International | 1,660,291 | 2,132,951 | 1,447,142 |
| Program costs - Canada | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Donated goods exp | 1,098,510 | 1,688,800 | 554,189 |
| Administrative costs | 229,014 | 179,456 | 127,374 |
| Fundraising costs | 579,693 | 496,516 | 428,283 |
| Other costs | 190 | 328 | 465 |
| Total spending | 3,567,698 | 4,498,051 | 2,557,453 |
| Cash flow from operations | 155,416 | 292,598 | 328,838 |
| Capital spending | 768 | 4,830 | 2,032 |
| Funding reserves | 2,133,406 | 2,065,832 | 1,858,993 |
Note: AMORTIZATION: To show donors all financial information on a consistent basis, Ci backed out amortization on a pro-rata basis from program, administrative, and fundraising costs. CAPITAL LEASE INTEREST: Ci also backed out interest related to its capital lease obligation from program, administrative, and fundraising costs on a pro-rata basis. 2023 T3010 FILINGS: The charity’s 2023 T3010 filings with the CRA have not been updated at the time of this update. Ci will have the opportunity to update this profile’s salary information when this becomes publicly available.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
2 |
$40k - $80k |
6 |
< $40k |
1 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Comment provided by Mercy Ships Canada on August 30, 2024 and added verbatim:
Many Mercy Ships' global neighbours experience a complex system of poverty, disempowerment, often combined with broken relationships, leading to marginalization or exclusion from society. Thus, Mercy Ships endeavours to promote unity among individuals, communities, and organizations that affirms the intrinsic worth of every person, our mutual interdependence, and the value of working together for the common good. Thus, an essential element of addressing healthcare injustice requires consideration of qualitative factors that influence the process of transformation that cannot be adequately captured by social impact per dollar spent measurement.
As we start to incorporate more outcome-based measures, Mercy Ships Canada's reporting of results in the coming year will be enhanced for the direct surgical services provided free to our patients in underserved areas of Africa. The measurements are:
Mercy Ships' partnership with the host nation's government gives us a opportunity to help address systemic issues in the local healthcare delivery system and advocate for healthcare improvement nationwide. Thus, we invest in strengthening local healthcare systems through education, training, mentoring, and targeted infrastructure projects, including quality improvement interventions.
Mercy Ships' Education, Training, and Advocacy (ETA) efforts to strengthen the healthcare systems in the African countries where we are invited are a longer-term commitment that extends beyond the reporting cycle of an annual report. This underscores the complexity of the task and our dedication to making a lasting impact. Mercy Ships is initiating two research projects that will eventually contribute to our enhanced measurement of Education, Training, and Advocacy outcomes. The first project is a nationwide enumeration of Guinea's surgical and dental workforce, while the second project focuses on determining the prevalence of surgical and dental problems among Guinea's population. These projects will provide us with valuable data to assess our impact.
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 1-866-900-7447