Founded in 1972, Downtown Mission of Windsor (Downtown Mission), formerly known as United Church Downtown Mission of Windsor, is a Christian charity that works to help poor and homeless people in Windsor, Ontario. The charity states that approximately 200 people are homeless in Windsor-Essex every night. Downtown Mission runs five main programs: sanctuary, food support, wellness, education and employment, youth services, and addiction recovery.

In F2020, Downtown Mission allocated 56% of total program spending to its Sanctuary Program. The sanctuary provides emergency overnight shelter for homeless people. During their stay, residents are offered free showers, clothing, and hygiene supplies. In F2020, Downtown Mission provided 18,703 overnight stays and 12,782 showers for men, women, youth, and families. In F2020, 16,454 adults and 1,012 youth received clothing and hygiene supplies.

Downtown Mission’s Food Support services represented 17% of program spending in F2020. Food Support services include hot meals, a food bank, and the FRESH program. The FRESH program rescues produce from local farmers and grocery stores and delivers it to schools, food banks, and other organizations. In F2020, Downtown Mission saved 1,322,449 pounds of food and distributed it to 16 schools and agencies. The charity also served 188,981 hot meals and provided 222,450 meals through its food bank.

In F2020, Downtown Mission allocated 16% of program spending to education and employment services through its Enterprise Program. The Enterprise Program enables participants to target their career goals, receive training, and develop employment skills. The charity reports that it helped 87 individuals become “job-ready” in F2020.

Downtown Mission allocated the remaining program costs to its Youth Centre and Wellness Program. The Windsor Youth Centre accounted for 8% of program spending and supported 2,933 youth in F2020. Downtown Mission allocated 2% of program spending to its Phoenix Recovery Program, which supports people with drug addictions. In F2020, Downtown Mission assisted 165 adults and 21 youth during their recovery.

In F2020, Downtown Mission had total donations of $3.2m. The charity also received $2.4m in donated goods in kind, $60k in rental revenue, and $121k in business activities. Administrative costs are 11% of revenues and fundraising costs are 9% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 21%. For every dollar donated, 79 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Downtown Mission has $128k in funding reserves, after accounting for $481k of debt. Excluding debt, Downtown Mission could cover 22% of annual program costs with reserves, indicating a need for funding.

­­In F2019, Windsor Downtown Mission paid external fundraisers $60k to raise $1.9m, resulting in a cost of 3 cents per dollar raised.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Downtown Mission of Windsor for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 21, 2021 by Sydney Olexa.