Canadian Feed the Children

	General Questions About Canadian Feed The Children
	Our Programs & Philosophy
	Fundraising & Administration
	Supporter Services

Our vision
A world in which children thrive, free of poverty.

Our mission
Canadian Feed The Children exists to reduce the impact of poverty on children. We work with local partners internationally and in Canada to enhance the well-being of children and the self-sufficiency of their families and communities. We are an independent Canadian registered charity, providing a bridge between those who can help and those we support together.

Our core values
Fairness
Partnership
Compassion
Accountability
Effectiveness

General Question About Canadian Feed The Children
How long has Canadian Feed The Children been operating?
We have been helping children thrive in Canada and around the world for more than 20 years. Canadian Feed The Children is an independent registered charity that was founded in 1986 as Canadian Feed The Children Society in the province of British Columbia. In the early 1990s, the head office for Canadian Feed The Children moved to Toronto. Consumer and Corporate Affairs Canada issued Letters Patent dated July 10, 1992 in the name of Canadian Feed The Children.

Is Canadian Feed The Children associated with any other organizations?
As advocacy on behalf of children is an important part of our mission, Canadian Feed The Children is a member of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC), the Ontario Council for International Co-operation (OCIC), Campaign 2000, Campaign Against Child Poverty, Make Poverty History and 25-in-5 Network for Poverty Reduction. We also stay connected with the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children (CCRC), Interagency Coalition Aids and Development, Micro Credit Summit Campaign, Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

What's in a name? Our organizational name is similar to that of other charities, which sometimes causes confusion. We are an independent Canadian organization, overseen by a dedicated board of directors and are not affiliated with Feed The Children Inc., headquartered in Oklahoma USA, or its Canadian affiliate, FTC Canada, which recently began operations out of Guelph, ON.

Does Canadian Feed The Children employ staff or use volunteers?
Canadian Feed The Children currently employs a staff of 18 who work out of our Toronto, Ontario, office and five paid local country representatives who live and work in five (Bolivia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Uganda) of our current seven program countries. We are managed by a volunteer board of directors made up of eight professionals with experience and/or interest in child and community development. We are also supported by a number of volunteers who give their time in a variety of areas, including clerical and administration, communications, fundraising and information technology.

Can I help by volunteering overseas for Canadian Feed The Children?
Canadian Feed The Children has very limited capacity to send volunteers overseas. We recommend a site that contains information about volunteering and more specifically links to organizations that are looking for volunteers for overseas work: www.volunteers.ca.

Canadian Feed The Children Programs & Philosophy

How does Canadian Feed The Children help children?
In partnership with community-based groups, we help families in the areas of food security and nutrition, clean water access, health and hygiene, sustainable agriculture, sanitation, income generation, capacity building and education. We also ship medicines and medical supplies to some of the communities we support. In developing countries, we work in communities that have high mortality rates for children under the age of five. In Canada, we address child malnourishment and health issues through community-based nutrition programs through our own programs and in partnership with other community groups. We also work to raise awareness and increase public knowledge and involvement on issues related to child poverty. Both in Canada and internationally, we use a collaborative, sustainable approach to build existing capacity to improve circumstances for children.

Our program managers are highly experienced in child and community development and frequently visit our partners and the families we serve in the countries for which they are responsible. Wherever we're working in the world, our programs uphold the same strong principles, which have been adapted from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and include: gender equality, environmental responsibility, community ownership, partnership and ethical allocation of resources.

Where does Canadian Feed The Children work?
We are currently supporting children and their communities in Bolivia, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Sierra Leone and Uganda. Please see our Programs page on this site for detailed information about our current projects.

How do you choose the countries you work in?
Our mission drives our work, so we are guided by reducing the impact of poverty on children. In addition to our work for the children of Canada, we help in developing countries that have a high under-five mortality rate. To have as great an impact as possible, we have decided to deepen and strengthen our partnerships within a small number of countries that face overwhelming challenges from poverty.

How does Canadian Feed The Children measure results?
We have an extensive system of monitoring the effectiveness of our development work. We work with community partners that share our mission as well as our programming principles and ethics. We develop our programs and projects together with the community and our country partner to ensure we serve the most vital needs of the community’s children. Each year, before approving the funding of a program, we thoroughly review its detailed community needs, the proposed solutions and the expected outcomes. We receive a quarterly report from our partners on every project we fund, which confirms what activities have taken place, how much was spent on those activities, and what changes took place as a result of the activities. Our country representatives in five countries provide regular reports as well and our program management team members actively monitor the partnerships and the programs to ensure their effectiveness, efficiency and positive impact on the community’s children and their families.

Does Canadian Feed The Children provide emergency relief?
Yes, to the communities we currently support. Canadian Feed The Children provides support in emergency and reconstruction situations by providing funding for urgent humanitarian aid and short- and long-term developing, and accessing Canadian Government funds through CIDA (as was the case in Haiti in 2004 and 2008) for rebuilding.

What is Canadian Feed The Children's stand on the promotion of birth control?
Some of our local partners may either directly provide or use community services to address family planning issues and sexual health. In the course of our support for children and families affected by poverty, Canadian Feed The Children funds community-driven projects that involve raising awareness of and providing education on health-related matters, for example, HIV/AIDS prevention and the related need for protection, but does not involve itself in the religious, cultural or social practices of a community.

Does Canadian Feed The Children have projects for HIV/AIDS prevention?
Yes, we have HIV/AIDS awareness/education projects in Bolivia and Uganda. We also have a program based at Mulago Pediatric Clinic in Kampala, Uganda, aimed at improving the health of children with HIV/AIDS through regular monitoring, access to medication and access to nutritional supplements. In all our international projects, there is an HIV/AIDS education component with an emphasis on prevention, and we are developing that component within our Canadian programs in Aboriginal communities.

BACK TO TOP

Canadian Feed The Children Fundraising & Administration

How does Canadian Feed The Children raise money?
We are primarily funded through the generous donations of thousands of individual Canadians who share our mission to help reduce the impact of poverty on children. They donate in support of our programs through direct mail campaigns, telephone fundraising, monthly support, child sponsorship, online donations, project support and public events. We also receive major individual, corporate and foundation support, and have received some government (Canadian International Development Agency) program funding.

What percentage of your budget goes toward programs?
In 2008, we directed 86 per cent of our $20 million budget to our programs for children; 10 per cent was directed to fundraising activities; and 4 per cent went to administration expenses. This past year, as part of our programming, medicines such as antibiotics, antipyretics (for fever), antiparasitics, antibacterial, anti-malarial and tuberculosis drugs and other gifts-in-kind were put to life-saving use by grateful communities in Sierra Leone and Uganda. Read more on our medicine shipments.

Fiscal responsibility is important to us and is achieved through our mandate to focus resources on the children and communities we serve; to be highly accountable to our donors; and to uphold our vital programming principles, which have been adapted from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

How do I know my money is reaching people in need?
We conduct regular monitoring of all our projects, including discussions with the families we support, internal audits, external audits and third-party independent evaluations so that we ensure consistent delivery of services to those who need it most. We have extensive accountability measures in place to ensure every dollar is used in the most effective way. And we choose local partners in the countries we support that not only share our mission, but our commitment to ethical practices and philosophies.

We are a member of Imagine Canada’s Ethical Code Program, which lays out a set of standards for charitable organizations to manage and report their financial affairs responsibly. By adhering to these standards, we are complying with generally accepted practices for soliciting and managing donor dollars.

We also proudly adhere to the Ethical Code of the Canadian Council of International Co-operation and to the Ethical Principles of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Current outreach
To enhance the well-being of children and the self-sufficiency of their families and communities in Canada and around the world, we raise funds to operate our programs and generate awareness of their importance. Here are a few of the ways we do that:

Direct mail
Throughout the year, we send support mailings to our present and potential supporters. The package usually includes a letter from our Executive Director or one of our Program Managers telling our story, raising issues of child poverty and providing the opportunity to donate. Supporters can respond by making a donation via return mail using credit card or cheque payments, calling to make a telephone donation, or visiting our website(s) to make a secure online donation. All donors receive a tax receipt for their support.
Trading names. A common practice among many charities to reach potential supporters in a cost-effective way is name-trading. Some of our support mailings are sent to names and addresses provided to us by other like-minded charities. If you received a mailing from Canadian Feed The Children and would like to know how we obtained your name for this purpose, you can call our Supporter Services team (1-800-387-1221) and we will be happy to inform you which charity provided us your name (the code just above the address will be needed). You can then contact the other charity directly with your instructions.
Telephone fundraising
We have an ongoing telephone fundraising campaign across Canada, with calls originating from phone centres in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Gatineau, Quebec, Miramichi, New Brunswick and St. John's, Newfoundland. We work hard to ensure our telephone representatives have the most up-to-date and accurate information about child poverty and our specific programs, and are as helpful and respectful as possible to our supporters. You can choose to donate over the phone using a credit card or banking information, arrange to have a pledge package mailed to you or be directed to a website to donate online to the country you wish to support. Read about Canada's National and our own internal Do Not Call List
Direct dialogue
We have a presence at special booths in select malls, on city streets and door-to-door in Toronto, Kitchener and Hamilton, Ontario, offering community members information about Canadian Feed The Children and the opportunity to support children affected by poverty as a a monthly donor or child sponsor. Supporters can sign up as a monthly donor using a credit card or cheque, but no cash will be accepted.

The above activities provide the lion's share of funding for our programs for children, so we appreciate each and every response to our outreach initiatives. We always want to ensure your preferences are respected, so if you have received a request for support and have questions or comments, please e-mail or call our Supporter Services team at 1-800-387-1221. Also see Supporter Services below and contact info on Supporter Assistance.

Check out all the ways you can support children
with Canadian Feed The Children.

Canadian Feed The Children Supporter Services
I have a question about donating. Who do I contact?
Please contact a member of our Supporter Services team by calling 1-800-387-1221 or 416-757-1220 (during Eastern Time business hours) or e-mail contact@canadianfeedthechildren.ca. We'll be happy to help in any way we can.

If I donate to Canadian Feed The Children, do I get a receipt for income tax purposes?
Yes. No matter how you make a financial donation to us - with a single gift, by sponsoring a child or becoming a monthly donor as an Everyday Hero - you will be receipted for your contributions. See the Government of Canada's policy statement for charitable tax receipts.

When will I get my tax receipt?
For a single donation, you will receive a charitable tax receipt within two weeks or sooner of your donation (or immediately by email if you donate online). As a monthly donor (child sponsor or Everyday Hero) you will receive one official charitable tax receipt in February (in time to prepare your taxes), noting the total donations for the previous year. If you have misplaced your tax receipt or have any inquiries about receipting, please contact our Supporter Services team at 1-800-387-1221 or email them at contact@canadianfeedthechildren.ca.

What are my payment options?
You may make donations via MasterCard, Visa, American Express, preauthorized banking, cash or cheque and you can donate by phone at 1-800-387-1221 during Eastern Time business hours or 1-866-292-FEED 24 hours a day; by mail to 174 Bartley Drive Toronto, ON M4A 1E1; or online at www.canadianfeedthechildren.ca or www.bestgiftever.ca. You can choose to support Canadian Feed The Children as a monthly donor, a monthly child sponsor, regularly during the year through our mail or telephone outreach program, by making a Leadership Gift or or by making a secure donation online anytime the feeling strikes you! Here are all the ways you can help. Any way you choose to support us is an important decision that makes a vital difference in the life of a child.

Can I choose a specific country/project to support?
As a single gift donor, you can choose to direct your donation to one of the seven countries we support. Our child sponsors currently support our programs for children in Bolivia, Ethiopia, Haiti and Uganda. For monthly donors, in order to respond to the relative needs of the countries and keep administration costs low, we are not able to offer the ability to direct funds to a specific country, but these contributions are vital for the continuation of all our programs for children. With our Best Gift Ever program, you can choose a specific type of program to support, for example, malaria protection, school support, health care or clean water access.

Are your telephone solicitors volunteers or paid workers?
Our telephone representatives are trained workers employed by Responsive Marketing Group. We have an ongoing telephone fundraising campaign across Canada, with calls originating from phone centres in Thunder Bay, Ontario; Miramichi, New Brunswick and St. John's, Newfoundland. We work hard to ensure our telephone representatives have the most up-to-date and accurate information about our work, and are as helpful as possible to our supporters.

What is your privacy policy?
Canadian Feed The Children is committed to the protection of our supporters' privacy. We ensure our activities in Canada and abroad - whether conducted face-to-face, online, by telephone or post - are governed by strict ethics and sound privacy practices. Donating online is done through a SSL-encrypted secure site. Non-identifying information that we learn about a visit automatically (such as the type of browser and operating system in use) will be used only to make our site more useful to visitors. Other aspects of our privacy policy:

1. Any request by a donor to be excluded from lists that Canadian Feed The Children uses or shares with other organizations is to be honoured.

a) All reasonable efforts are to be taken to honour any request from a donor or prospective donor not to be contacted for future fundraising campaigns.

2. Any information from or about donors that is obtained by, or on behalf of Canadian Feed The Children is to be handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent allowed by law.

3. Donors have the right to remain anonymous.

4. All fundraising appeals by or on behalf of Canadian Feed The Children are to disclose Canadian Feed The Children's legal name, its status as a registered charity, and the purpose for which funds are requested.

5. All members of the public, including donors and prospective donors, are entitled to one copy of the following, on request and at no charge other than the cost of reproduction and distribution:

a) Canadian Feed The Children's most recent annual report and/or audited financial statements;
b) A list of the names of the members of Board of Directors.

6. Donors and prospective donors are entitled to know, upon request, whether the individual asking for funds is a volunteer, a staff person or a service provider.

7. Donors are to receive a written or verbal acknowledgment of their gifts within a reasonable period of time following the donor's request.

For more information on your rights as a donor, please read our Donor Bill of Rights.

Do you issue financial statements?
Yes. You may obtain full, audited Canadian Feed The Children financial statements by calling our Supporter Services team at 416 757-1220 or 1-800-387-1221. Or you can request a set by sending an email with your mailing address. We send our annual report to donors each year. See our online 2008 income statement.

Thank you for sharing our goals for children.