Lifewater Canada is a top rated 5-star charity and a top 10 impact charity. It has a high results reporting score and is financially transparent. The charity does not have large funding reserves and can cover less than 4 months of program costs. 

Founded in 1997, Lifewater Canada is a volunteer-based Christian charity that works to improve hygiene and provide safe drinking water to people in Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Haiti. It sends trained teams into communities without access to clean or safe water to build wells, water pumps, community toilets, and rainwater storage systems. It also teaches locals how to use and maintain this equipment.

Lifewater Canada reports that around 785 million people lack access to safe water and that 2.4 billion people lack access to toilets and hand-washing stations. Women and young girls are particularly affected by this crisis. Collectively, they spend 200 million hours per year gathering water. This leads to many young girls dropping out of school. Diseases like cholera, dysentery, and typhoid are transmitted through dirty water and kill 1.6 million people annually. This is equivalent to one person dying every 20 seconds. Most of these deaths are children under the age of five.

In F2022, Lifewater Canada helped 970,602 people through 2,093 clean water and sanitation projects. Including donated goods, it spent $3.1m on its programs. Ci estimates that the total program cost for each project is $1,485. 

Lifewater Canada spent $2.3m on projects providing safe water in F2022. This represents 73% of its program costs. In F2022, it built 355 new wells and fixed 314 wells. Lifewater Canada repaired 1,138 hand pumps, up from 588 in F2021. It also installed 268 rainwater collection tanks, an increase from 79 in F2021.

Lifewater Canada spent $523k on infrastructure improvements. This represents 17% of its program costs. This includes storage facilities and other equipment needed to carry out its projects. 

In F2022, it spent $202k on sanitation, health, and hygiene projects representing 6% of program costs. During the year, it held 658 health and hygiene workshops that reached 262,354 people. It also built 284 handwashing stations and 19 toilets.

It also spent $130k on disaster relief in Ukraine representing 4% of program costs.

Listen to CBC's November 2022 interview with Lifewater Canada's Lynda Gehrels on well drilling in Kenya, cost per well, pump repair updates in Liberia and 85 new water proposals per month in Nigeria. 

Lifewater Canada received $2.8m in Canadian donations and $64k in international donations in F2022. It also received $15k in donated goods-in-kind. It spent $3.1m on international programs, a 246% increase from $898k in F2021.

Administrative costs are 4% of revenues and fundraising costs are 1% of donations. Total overhead costs are 5%. For each dollar donated, 95 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Lifewater Canada has $945k in cash funding reserves, a 29% decrease from funding reserves of $1.3m in F2021. Its funding reserves can cover program costs at F2022 levels for 4 months. This shows that Lifewater Canada has a need for funding.

Lifewater now discloses compensation information on its T3010 filing with the CRA. This information was not available from F2015 to F2021.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Lifewater Canada for review. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 12, 2023 by Emily Downing.