Thank you very much. Good afternoon.
My name is Greg Thomson. I'm the director of research for Charity Intelligence Canada. Charity Intelligence is itself a charity, one that analyzes Canadian charities to help donors be informed and give intelligently. Our website hosts free reports on more than 780 Canadian charities, and provides insight into specific giving areas, such as the environment, cancer and homelessness. Last year, 314,000 Canadian donors used our website for information on Canadian charities, reading over 1.3 million charity reports. We estimate that our research helped inform and influence $95 million in Canadian charitable giving last year alone.
Just as democracy depends on informed citizens, the fundamental health of philanthropy rests on well-informed donors. Our own research supports this case. In surveys of donors who have used our resources, 77% said that Charity Intelligence reports have improved their confidence in giving to charities and have inspired these donors to give 32% more money to charities.
Over the past few weeks, a significant amount of information has been reported about WE Charity. CI has focused our analysis and remarks on WE's financial position, how it spends its money, the results it achieves and its governance issues. We report fairly and consistently based on our analysis of hundreds of Canadian charities. We do not let unsubstantiated allegations impact our ratings, as we strive to remove subjectivity and report on objective measures.
At Charity Intelligence we are analysts, not auditors. As well, we are analysts of charities, not government programs. Our specialty is looking at how charities spend money and what impact their programs achieve. It's within this context that CI presents to the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates today.
With that, I'll pass it over to Kate Bahen.