Amnesty International - French Canadian Section

500-50 Sainte-Catherine Street West
Montreal, Quebec H2X 3V4
Executive Director: France-Isabelle Langlois
Board President: Julien Silvestre

Charitable Reg. #:10019 3457 RR0001

STAR RATING

Ci's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics:

[Charity Rating: 3/5]

✔+

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.

B-

RESULTS REPORTING

Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.

n/r

DEMONSTRATED IMPACT

The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.

NEED FOR FUNDING

Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.

50%

CENTS TO THE CAUSE

For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 50 cents are available for programs.



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OVERVIEW

About Amnesty International - French Canadian Section:

Founded in 1978, Amnistie Internationale Canada Francophone (AIFC) is the Canadian French section of Amnesty International. AIFC is one of 52 chapters working to protect and promote human rights in over 150 countriesAmnesty International hopes to see all rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enjoyed by all people. Its mission is to prevent infringements of these rights by researching and taking action. AIFC is independent of the English-speaking section, Amnesty International Canada.
 
Amnistie Internationale Canada Francophone promotes human rights in Quebec, Canada, and around the world. In total, AIFC organized 37 petitions with 54,008 signatures and had 11 open letters published on various human rights issues in F2020.
 
Within Quebec, AIFC advocates for Indigenous, refugee, immigrant and other minority group rights. The charity also fights against climate change and racism. In F2020 AIFC started its campaign against systematic racism within Quebec. So far, the charity has published two open letters and hosted three webinars with 900 participants. AIFC has also encouraged Canada to focus on human rights while fighting coivd-19. The charity created a document recommending ten principles for the government to follow during the pandemic.
 
AIFC contributes approximately a quarter (24%) of program spending to its parent organization, Amnesty International. Internationally, AIFC has advocated to stop weapon transfers from Canada to Saudi Arabia. In F2020, the charity hosted two virtual events and created a petition with 5,195 signatures to support this cause.
 
AIFC also focuses on youth education. The charity educated more than 2,000 Quebec youth on the importance of human rights in F2020.
 
In 2019, an independent report was published on the well-being of staff at International Secretariat of Amnesty International, the parent organization of AIFC responsible for research and campaign activities. The report found that staff to be under exceptional stress and states that "Organisational culture and management failures are the root cause of most staff wellbeing issues". In response to the report, Amnesty International's management team offered to resign. The resignations were not accepted, although the Secretary General resigned later that year due to an unrelated issue. 

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Results and Impact

AIFC has campaigned against the Safe Third Country Agreement which applies to refugees seeking entry to Canada from the United States. In July 2020, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that the removal of refugees to the United States under the Safe Third Country Agreement violated the Constitution. The Court of Appeals has since overturned this ruling.
 
The charity’s Write for rights (Écrire ça libère) marathon invites people to write to selected individuals who are imprisoned because of their opinion. In F2019, AIFC contributed 85,000 messages to the campaign. Between 2000 and 2020, 127 out of 169 selected people were no longer imprisoned. The charity reports the campaign has a success rate of more than 75%.
 

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Finances

Amnesty International - French Canadian Section has donations and special events revenues of $2.1m in F2020. It received $125k in government funding representing 5% of total revenues. Administrative costs are 15% of revenues and fundraising costs are 35% of donations and special events. This results in total overhead spending of 50%. For every dollar donated, 50 cents go to the cause. This falls outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 
 
AIFC has $426k in funding reserves. The charity could cover 45% or almost a half a year of annual program costs with current reserves.
 
In F2019, AIFC paid external fundraisers $694k to collect $588k in donations. Meaning it costs the charity $1.18 to raise $1 using external fundraisers. Ci is unable to reconcile this number with the audited financial statements. 
 
This charity report is an update that has been sent to Amnistie Internationale Canada Francophone for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
 
Updated on June 3, 2021 by Brenleigh Jebb.

Financial Review


Financial Ratios

Fiscal year ending December
202020192018
Administrative costs as % of revenues 15.4%16.0%11.0%
Fundraising costs as % of donations 34.8%45.4%33.5%
Total overhead spending 50.2%61.3%44.5%
Program cost coverage (%) 45.4%43.1%37.6%

Summary Financial Statements

All figures in $s
202020192018
Donations 2,044,5722,038,7012,037,667
International donations 0075,000
Goods in kind 82,04975,9270
Government funding 125,11600
Business activities (net) 5,5759,9174,163
Special events 10,42324,92846,832
Investment income 0017,936
Other income 25,59142,42251,657
Total revenues 2,293,3262,191,8952,233,255
Program costs 938,987887,7581,220,453
Administrative costs 353,158349,535243,529
Fundraising costs 715,098935,786697,689
Total spending 2,007,2432,173,0782,161,672
Cash flow from operations 286,08318,81771,583
Capital spending 178,774161,2293,932
Funding reserves 425,973382,561458,380

Note: Ci removed amortization from program, administrative, and fundraising costs on a pro-rata basis. Ci did not report amortization of deferred capital contributions, affecting revenues by $5k in F2020.

Salary Information

Full-time staff: 9

Avg. compensation: $78,228

Top 10 staff salary range:

$350k +
0
$300k - $350k
0
$250k - $300k
0
$200k - $250k
0
$160k - $200k
0
$120k - $160k
0
$80k - $120k
0
$40k - $80k
9
< $40k
0

Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2019

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Comments & Contact

Comments added by the Charity:

No comments have been added by the charity.

Charity Contact

Website: www.amnistie.ca
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 514 766-9766

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Charitable Registration Number: 80340 7956 RR0001