Sun Youth/Jeunesse au Soleil

About Sun Youth/Jeunesse au Soleil:

Founded in 1979, Sun Youth Organization (Sun Youth) operates a food bank that helps poor people with food and other basic household goods in Montreal. It is the second oldest food bank in Canada that is still operating. The charity also runs crime prevention programs, sports and activities for youth and a summer camp.

Sun Youth spent $5.5m (88% of program costs) on its emergency service programs in F2017. Most of this is its food bank program: Sun Youth provided 27,467 food baskets worth $2.4m to over 15,430 individuals in F2017. Each food basket has an average value of $86, a 17% increase compared to F2016. As is typically with Canadian food banks, 37% of people using Sun Youth's food bank are under 18 years old. This is children in poor families. In F2017, Sun Youth delivered an additional 2,853 food baskets to individuals who face mobility and social isolation issues.

A smaller part of Sun Youth's emergency service programs are through partnerships with the Montreal Fire Department and the Quebec division of the Canadian Red Cross, to help disaster victims. In F2017, its emergency teams were called in for 188 disasters and helped 319 families. The charity also provided money to families and individuals who could not pay their bills. In F2017, it paid over $173k in bills, of which 39% were housing related, 30% transport related and 23% health related. Sun Youth operates other emergency service program which include medication reimbursements, family and children assistance, food delivery, clothing and bicycle giveaways, and school supplies distribution.

The charity spent $568k (9% of program costs) on its youth sports and recreation programs in F2017. It offers football and basketball teams to children of low-income families. Equipment is supplied to players and membership fees depend on the family’s income. A hockey development program is offer to children aged 5 to 13 years old from low-income. New in 2017, Sun Youth offered a baseball training program to youth. In F2017, 224 children participated in the sports and recreational programs - a cost of $2,535 per youth.

Sun Youth also runs a day camp for children aged 5 to 12 years old. In F2017 it spent $173k (3% of program costs) on its camp operations that had 125 youth participate - a cost of $1,384 per youth.

Results and Impact: Sun Youth facilitates donations that can be offered by the police as rewards for individuals providing information that lead to the solving of criminal investigations. Since the program was created in 1991, it has helped solve 26 criminal investigations and cases of missing persons. This represents a success rate of 26% of all investigations for which a cash reward was offered.

Financial Review:

In F2018, Sun Youth changed its fiscal year end from September to March. The following financial analysis for F2018 represents a "stub" 6-month period ending March 2018. This may throw off comparisons with earlier years.

Sun Youth is a Large charity with donations, goods in kind and special events revenue of $3.2m in F2018. It collected donations, goods in kind and special events revenue of $5.8m in F2017 over a 12-month period. Administrative costs are 8% of total revenues and fundraising costs are 1% of total donations. For every dollar donated, $0.91 goes to its programs. This is cost-efficient and within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Sun Youth’s cash and funding reserves are equal its debts; cash reserves of $812k and debt of $809k. The charity’s net funding reserves of $3k cover less than 1 month of annual program costs, showing a need for donations.

This is a new charity profile that has been sent to Sun Youth Organization for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Created on August 14, 2018 by Derek Houlberg.

This charity report and analysis is generously paid for by The PepsiCo Canada Foundation to share with other Canadian donors interested in supporting health and sports, especially for children.