United Way of Calgary and Area has one of the lowest fundraising cost ratios in Canada. United Way’s three-year fundraising and administrative costs average 14 to 16%. In 2019, our fundraising costs are 15.9% of revenue, well below the Canada Revenue Agency’s acceptable level of 35%, and well within Charity Intelligence’s reasonable range of 5 to 35%. As a registered Canadian charity, United Way files a T3010 report with CRA annually, detailing all of its fundraising, related operating costs, executive compensation, and other costs. The latest CRA T3010 data can be found at cra-arc.gc.ca. To see United Way’s detailed financial statements, visit our Financials page.

United Way holds itself accountable to its donors, and invests donated resources as wisely, efficiently, and effectively as possible, generating a high return on community investment. We rigorously monitor and report on the impact of our investments so donors can be confident their investment is making a positive difference.

All salaries at United Way, including senior management, are benchmarked against other Canadian non-profit organizations of similar size and scope. United Way of Calgary and Area is in compliance with the required T3010 regulatory reporting to CRA for its executive compensation, which can be viewed on the Canada Revenue Agency’s website.

We are committed to finding the best, most efficient ways of working wherever possible. Here are a few examples of how we’re able to work with local partners to create the greatest possible impact in our community:

• Over 800 corporate partners support United Way by fundraising, donating, and volunteering—we had over 40,000 volunteers support our work in 2018 alone!
• We partner with 90 local social agencies to solve #UNIGNORABLE social issues, partnering on programs and piloting new solutions to help people in need.
• Local sponsors, partners, and pro-bono service providers offer discounted rates on everything from advertising to printing to strategic support.
• Corporations supporting our Sponsored Employee Program provide one of their own employees to United Way for four-months of support during our busiest times of year. That’s 20 additional employees supporting our work at no cost to United Way!
• As part of a global network, we’re able to work with other United Ways to maximize efficiencies and partner on projects like Salesforce.org Philanthropy Cloud that we couldn’t achieve on our own—all donations can go further in creating local impact.

Your investment with United Way stays local and is strategically invested right where you live, work, and raise your family. Your gift improves lives: it ensures people in our community have access to the supports they need the most, when and where they need them. Your investment helps people overcome poverty, helps kids succeed, and strengthens neighbourhoods. We believe that these are critical components to realizing our vision of a resilient and caring community where everyone thrives. United Way is committed to a rigorous measurement process with annual reporting, and we generate high return on community investment.