charityreport

Wycliffe Canada Earns "A" in New Charity Grading Report Card

June 29/10

Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada has earned an “A” in Canada’s first grading system of the nation’s largest 100 charities. MoneySense, a Canadian magazine with a focus on managing personal finances, gave Wycliffe Canada the high grade in its Summer 2010 issue.

Wycliffe Canada President Don Hekman is gratified to hear of the rating.

"We're very pleased to have received these high ratings from MoneySense,” said Hekman. “But I have to add that, frankly, I'm not surprised.

“Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada has been led for years by leaders who are very conscious of good stewardship and responsibility both to the causes we support and to the donors,” he explained. “And we have worked hard at maintaining transparency to our clients on all fronts.”

The magazine came up with the unique “Charity Standards Grade,” based on four key financial indicators of the charities it researched. The grading system aims to help potential donors have more information to judge charities for themselves.

Under the overall charitable efficiency category, Wycliffe Canada got an A+ grade for 86.7% of its spending going to programs, as opposed to such things as overhead and fundraising costs. MoneySense also gave Wycliffe Canada an A+ for fundraising efficiency, indicating it spent just $5.80 for each $100 it raised.

Wycliffe received an A for its governance practices and transparency in making complete audited financial statements available to the public.

The fourth category in MoneySense’s charity standards grade was how large of a reserve fund each of the 100 top charities had. The magazine gave lower scores to charities with less or more than the ideal amount of financial reserves on hand, according to U.S. charity rating organizations—between three months’ and three years’ worth. In this category, Wycliffe Canada earned a B- for having 1.8 months of reserve funds on hand at the time of the research.

In its article outlining the findings (entitled “The Charity 100: Where is Your Money Going?”), the magazine says: “Most of us know almost nothing about how our donations are used. MoneySense has created Canada’s first charity grading system to help change that.”

For its research, MoneySense used Canada Revenue Agency 2008 T3010 charity information filings; a governance questionnaire it sent to the charities; as well as charity financial statements and websites.

Each charity’s overall final grade is a measure of how it compares to other charities within its sector in meeting special financial and governance benchmarks.

In MoneySense’s report, Wycliffe Canada is included in a sector of “Religion” charities, which include agencies such as Crossroads Christian Communications and Power to Change Ministries. Other Christian non-denominational agencies are listed in “International Aid & Development” and “Social Services” sectors.

The Charity 100 findings can be reviewed online at <www.moneysense.ca/charities>.