Toronto Foundation for Student Success

About Toronto Foundation for Student Success:

Founded in 1998, Toronto Foundation for Student Success (TFSS) aims to help students in Toronto succeed in school. It provides food, after-school programs, medical care, and emergency funds for children suffering from hunger, poverty, and violence. The charity reports that a third of children in Toronto live in poverty and 40% of all children go to school hungry every day. This hunger rate can reach 68% in Toronto’s most at-risk communities.

In F2017, Toronto Foundation for Student Success spent approximately 88% of program costs on student nutrition programs, which provide nutritional breakfasts, lunches, and snacks to hungry students. The charity states that a healthy breakfast costs $1.66, and 78% of secondary school students who eat breakfast on most days are on track to graduate. In F2017, TFSS provided 203,000 daily meals through 822 student nutrition programs.

TFSS’s beyond 3:30 after-school program helps address the fact that 95% of youth don’t have access to after-school programs. This program offers sports and exercise, a nutritious meal, and homework support each day to 11- to 14-year-old students. In F2017, the program accounted for approximately 7% of program costs, had over 1,200 students enrolled, and operated in 18 middle schools located in high-priority neighbourhoods in Toronto.

Toronto Foundation for Student Success provides free vision and hearing checks, follow-up optometry clinics, free glasses when needed, and tracking of results from these appointments through its Sight and Sound program. In F2017, 17,311 students received free vision checks and 1,920 received free glasses.

Through its Model Schools Paediatric Health Initiative (MSPHI) program, Toronto Foundation for Student Success operates clinics that are located within five schools so that students have easy access to medical help. In F2017, the clinics provided health care services to over 60 schools, and since 2010, has had over 6,400 scheduled appointments and 15,000 families registered.

Results and Impact: In its F2017 annual report, TFSS reports that over 59% of students in the beyond 3:30 program report improved school grades during the 2014-2015 school year and 84% report improved study habits. Furthermore, 82% of respondents in the spring 2015 survey indicate that the program has influenced them to want to pursue post-secondary education.

The charity reports that 13% of children who attended its MSPHI clinics did not have a family doctor and the program has connected these children and their families with one.

Financial Review:

Toronto Foundation for Student Success is a medium-sized charity with $4.2m in donations in F2017. Its administrative costs are 2% of revenues and fundraising costs are 10% of donations. For every dollar donated, 87 cents go to the cause, falling within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. The charity has $4.4m in funding reserves, which can cover over 2 months of program costs. This program cost coverage shows a need for funding. Program coverage has more than halved from F2016 because funding reserves have fallen by $4.5m (51%) between F2016 and F2017 mainly due to deferred revenues reductions lowering cash by $4.3m in F2017.

This report is Ci’s first charity report on Toronto Foundation for Student Success and has been sent to the charity. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 10, 2018 by Joeyanne Cheung.