Quest Outreach Society is a two-star charity that does not have full financial transparency. It has an Average demonstrated impact score and a C- results reporting grade, which is below average. For every dollar donated to the charity, 86 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.

Founded in 1992, Quest Outreach Society (Quest) sells donated food at five grocery markets located in British Columbia (BC). According to the charity, it sells this food at reduced prices compared to traditional grocery stores and only collects food that would have otherwise gone to waste. The charity states that nutritious food is becoming increasingly unaffordable. In fact, it costs the average BC family of four $1,263 each month. Quest runs the Market Appreciation Program, Repack Program, and Fresher-By-The-Day Program. It spent $2.1m cash on its programs in the fiscal year ending August 2023 (F2023).

Market Appreciation Program consists of Quest’s five BC Mainland markets located in Burnaby, Surrey, North Vancouver, East Vancouver, and Downtown Eastside. The charity distributes membership and gift cards to food insecure clients that allow them to shop at Quest’s discount markets. The charity reported that in F2021, it issued new clients 4,085 membership cards. It also reported 4,000 shoppers using its markets but did not disclose the year this occurred.

Repack Program is how Quest processes large food donations. The charity organizes and repackages bulk donations of different types of food into smaller retail packages that are then sold at its markets. According to the charity, this program helps them work with large food donations efficiently. Quest did not disclose any quantified metrics for this program.

Fresher-By-The-Day Program relates to how Quest manages existing and builds new partnerships with grocery retailers and farm producers. The charity negotiates both food donation and purchasing agreements with its partners. It reported working with over 350 partners but did not disclose when this occurred.

Quest Outreach Society is not fully financially transparent. Its most recent F2023 audited financials are easy to find after a web search, but its F2022 audited financials are not publicly available.

In F2023, Quest Outreach Society received $428k in cash donations which is 12% of revenues, excluding donated food. Quest also received $6.3m worth of donated food which is 64% of total revenues and a 31% decrease from $9.0m in F2022. The charity also earned $2.8m from its five grocery markets which is 79% of cash revenues in F2023, excluding donated food.

Administrative costs are 9% of total revenues and fundraising costs are 5% of cash donations, resulting in 14% total overhead spending. This means that for every dollar donated, 86 cents are available to go to the cause.

In F2023, Quest spent $2.1m cash on its programs which is 60% of cash revenues.

In F2023, Quest had $1.4m in reserve funds which covers 67% or around eight months of its annual program spending.

Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on August 1, 2024. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.