Evidence of meeting #24 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:20 p.m.
Director of Research, Charity Intelligence Canada
How may other organizations would be able to handle the project in Quebec?
3:20 p.m.
Director of Research, Charity Intelligence Canada
Unfortunately, I don't know the nature of a significant number of organizations in Quebec to be able to answer that question.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Ziad Aboultaif Conservative Edmonton Manning, AB
Okay.
Would Ms. Bahen be able to assist us on that?
3:20 p.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
That's an excellent question, and that will require due diligence to do. That would be part of the government's looking at the program and at what the mandate was for the program. That would be part of any granting initiative.
I haven't done that work before, so I can't answer that question.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
Ziad Aboultaif Conservative Edmonton Manning, AB
Okay.
With regard to the process to select an organization, you mentioned the due diligence and the French-speaking community. Between Quebec and other Canadian cities, there is probably about 25% to 30% of the total Canadian population. It's a very significant number of people who needed the attention of a program that was going to cost us $912 million.
I look at you as experts in this field. To understand the status in the French-speaking cities and provinces, it's quite important, as feedback to us, to be able to understand why any given organization would take on a national project. It must have that infrastructure to be able to deliver the project properly to all Canadians, fairly and equally, as it's supposed to be.
Do you believe it's a requirement for an organization to have that national scale program? The eligibility to be able to carry on this program does speak to a proper infrastructure across the country. Is that correct to suggest such a thing?
3:20 p.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
I would say that for the government, having a student grant program full of Francophone communities was a key priority, and it was part of their proposal. It was something that they asked WE Charity about. It was one of the key priorities. It was very important to the government in assessing the capacity of organizations, and WE Charity—I believe from what we've heard—said that it had the capacity in Quebec.
3:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
We'll have to unfortunately interrupt now, because we're at the end of our six minutes.
We'll now go to our second six-minute intervention.
Mr. Jowhari.
3:20 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the witnesses for your testimony. I'm sure you are representing the charities and the impact that COVID-19 has had on them.
Let me start with CI. I understand that your organization was established in 2006, focusing on researching charities to help the donors.
In your opening remark, Mr. Thomson, you indicated that you have researched 780 charities. As a point of clarification, are these the ones that you have researched since 2006, or are these the ones that you research on a regular basis, annually, and generate the reports?
3:20 p.m.
Director of Research, Charity Intelligence Canada
We now have probably 760 to 780 charities that we've analyzed in the last two to three years. They're ones that we regularly update.
3:20 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
That's perfect.
You touched on three key criteria in your opening remarks. Can you list the research criteria that you use and how that translates into a ranking of the charities?
3:20 p.m.
Director of Research, Charity Intelligence Canada
We look at a number of things. We look at financial transparency, so how transparent the charity is with its financial statements. We look at donor accountability, so how well the charity reports on what it does and how it spends money. We look at some financial metrics to make sure that they aren't spending too much money on fundraising and administration. We look at something that we call “program cost coverage” to see how much cash a charity has sitting around on its balance sheet and whether it would be able to continue to fund its programs for eight years or for two months.
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
A lot of it is financial focused rather than delivery focused. Is that a fair summary?
3:25 p.m.
Director of Research, Charity Intelligence Canada
Our fifth and newest metric is what we call “demonstrated impact”. With it, we dive into each of the programs and try to understand what value those programs—
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
That's perfect. Please feel free, Ms. Bahen and Mr. Thomson, to jump in anytime.
Ms. Picco, I'll get to you, I promise, in a couple of minutes.
How many of these 760 or 780 organizations that you mentioned are specifically focused on empowerment programs, whether it's for, let's say, youth, indigenous people or visible minorities? How many of these organizations are focused on those types of support?
3:25 p.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
I'm just searching for that, Greg.
3:25 p.m.
Director of Research, Charity Intelligence Canada
Are you pulling that up, Kate?
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay. That's great.
So I assume you have, as part of your criteria, a list of these organizations. How many of these organizations are specifically focused on delivering programs, such as the program we talked about, at the national level?
3:25 p.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
I only read the contract like you read the contract. My understanding is that it was a concierge service with an online platform for matching students who wanted to volunteer with charities, any charities—food banks, animal shelters, hospitals. It was an online platform. It was innovative. It was out-of-the-box thinking. It was a new pilot project. Was it done by any other charity? No, apparently no other charity does this service-matching, online-tutoring, mentoring concierge service.
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Out of the roughly 100 organizations that you talked about, because of the method and the platform that you indicated, WE Charity looks like it was uniquely qualified. Is that a fair statement?
3:25 p.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
I wasn't aware of WE Charity doing this work before either, so it was brand new territory.
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Have you, during the last three years, as part of the 780 organizations, evaluated WE Charity vis-à–vis empowerment and vis-à–vis program delivery?