Girl Guides of Canada

About Girl Guides of Canada:

Founded in 1912, Girl Guides of Canada (GGC) runs Guiding programs for 83,000 girls and young women across Canada. Its Guiding programs include a variety of activities, including the arts, sciences, outdoor challenges and global awareness. GGC’s mission is to “enable girls to be confident, resourceful and courageous, and to make a difference in the world.”

Girl Guides of Canada runs Guiding programs for girls aged 5 to 17. The programs are broken out by age group, with Sparks for girls 5 to 6, Brownies for girls 7 to 8, Guides for girls 9 to 11, Pathfinders for girls 12 to 14, Rangers for girls age 15 to 17, and Extra Ops for girls age 12 to 17. These programs teach life and career skills, with the girls participating in standard activities to earn badges. In F2015, GGC’s Girl Programming makes up 59% of its program spending, and its Adult Member Support makes up 32% of its spending. GGC also reports that it had 74,340 girl members and 19,882 adult members. In F2015, GGC’s members reported that its members earned 961,813 badges, 2,848 Lady Baden-Powell Awards, and 366 Chief Commissioner’s Gold Awards.

Girl Guides of Canada’s International Guiding programs (making up 3% of its program spending) include international travel opportunities, connecting with youth in other countries, and participation in the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. The international programs allow Canadian members to engage in activities and discussions surrounding issues affecting girls around the world.

Girl Guides of Canada is well known for its Girl Guide cookies. GGC reports that the income generated from cookie sales are used for a variety of activities that girls participate in to fulfil their branch badge requirements. In F2015, members sold 6 million boxes of cookies.

Financial Review:

Girl Guides of Canada is a medium-sized charity, with donations of $4.3m in F2015. The charity reports that cookie fundraising revenues and donations are included in its fund development revenues, which is included in donations in this report. However, it does not explicitly report the cookie revenues or costs in its audited financial statements. The charity’s administrative costs are 16% of revenues and its fundraising costs are 16% of donations. For every $1 donated to the charity, 68 cents is put towards its programs, falling within Ci’s reasonable range. Girl Guides of Canada’s funding reserves of $23m include $1.4m in donor-endowed funds. This results in a program cost coverage ratio, excluding donor-endowed funds, of 262%. This means that it can cover 2.6 years of its annual programs using its existing reserves.

This charity report is an update that is being reviewed by Girl Guides of Canada. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 29, 2016 by Lynn Tay.