The Board and staff at UHKF take the issue of managing fundraising costs very seriously.

Our board approves our budget annually and reviews reports on our revenue and expenses quarterly or more often. In setting our budget, they consider our performance relative to other Ontario hospital foundations and industry standards published by organizations such as the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy.

We use a variety of sources of revenue to cover our operating expenses. We are fortunate to have a significant portion of our administrative costs covered by investment income. Some of our expenses are covered by contributions specifically designated to pay for operating expenses. And, just like all other hospital foundations in Canada, we use unrestricted gifts to fund our expenses too. We also use a portion of each designated gift to help pay expenses. The board sets the specific percentage annually, depending on the rate of return on our investments. This year, the rate is 15%.

Below you will find information provided to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Here you will see the average cost ratio for UHKF is about 26%. This is average or better than average for a teaching hospital foundation in a community of our size. Again, this benchmark is designed as a way for members of the public to compare performance between similar organizations and does not represent the amount charged to donations.

In April 2012, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) updated its “Guidance” on Fundraising by Registered Charities.

It provides guidelines to ensure charities are transparent and do not devote excessive amounts of time and/or resources to fundraising as opposed to fulfilling their charitable purposes. It looks at revenue and spending on the Registered Charity Information Return by line number.

The CRA has asked charities to split their spending into three areas:

• Spending on charitable programs (line 5000)
• Spending on management and administration (line 5010)
• Spending on fundraising (line 5020)

Spending on charitable programs applies to charities such as food banks, where the CRA wants to ensure that most of the funds received are spent on buying food instead of fundraising. UHKF is a foundation, not a charity. The CRA defines the purpose of a foundation as “gifting to qualified donees” (e.g. granting to our General Members- KHSC and Providence Care) It would not be unusual for a foundation to have no spending on charitable programs. The important measure for foundations is how much they grant to qualified donees (line 5100).

The CRA also asks for donations to be split into different categories:

• Receipted Gifts (line 4500)
• Gifts from other registered charities (line 4510)
• Gifts from governments (line 4560)
• Gifts from outside the country (line 4575)
• Other fundraising revenue (line 4630)

The Guidance indicates that the CRA will be looking at the total money spent on fundraising (line 5020) compared to the total fundraising revenue donations received from individuals and businesses (which the CRA has defined as lines 4500 + 4630).

Information UHKF has filed with the Canada Revenue Agency is available on its website, including Quick View, and Full View of the Information Return. Detailed Financial Information and Disbursements to Qualified Donees are also available. These are the amounts for these lines from UHKF’s Return for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018.

The fundraising ratio calculated using the definition in the guidance is 33%.

For further information, please contact UHKF at 613.549.5452.