12 Nov The best charities in Canada for 2024: Where to donate to make an impact
Ci regularly refines the way it puts its lists together. For 2024, it removed any charities from the impact list that had more than three years’ worth of funding sitting on their balance sheet in investment accounts or cash. It calls this new data point “program cost coverage.”
The question Ci is asking is: Does it really need donations? “It seems like a funny question, because you think, well, ‘it’s a charity, of course, they need donations.’ And the vast majority of charities, probably over 90%, do need donations in the next year or they won’t be able to continue with their work,” says Thomson. “But there are charities that don’t really need donations, and for this year, we would recommend folks give elsewhere, because they’ve got a bunch of money sitting on their books.”
One of the charities that would have made their top impact food banks list was no longer eligible because of this new rule. “The typical food bank before the pandemic was operating hand-to-mouth; the money comes in, and it spends it. It might have a year of funding sitting on their books. But, not likely. And during the pandemic, a lot went up to two years and three years of funding,” he explains.
While in 2023, Ci removed from Top Impact List consideration any charity that rated zero in financial transparency. To get that zero, charities had to make it really hard for people to access their financial statements. In fact, the only way for Ci to get those figures was to request them from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) since the charities wouldn’t share directly with Ci, never mind posting them on the respective websites. In 2024, that meant three charities that would have otherwise been on a Ci impact list were taken out of the running, notes Thomson.
This year, Ci also tweaked its methodology for calculating impact to remove some of the variability to make the scores more consistent. (Again, please see the full methodology, which includes a more detailed explanation of this change.)
Another 2024 update is Ci’s new list: Top 5 Impact: Canadian Homeless Charities
Sheltering the unhoused is a big issue facing Canadians since the pandemic first hit in 2020. Thankfully there are some charities doing good work to help this vulnerable population.
Here’s why charitable impact matters
Thomson says the impact ratings Ci gives charities are reliable for donors so they can make informed decisions about where they donate and support. “It’s all about helping the most people get the most change from your donation dollar,” he explains.
