Shine Through the Rain Foundation
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
D+
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
n/r
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
39%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 39 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Shine Through the Rain Foundation:
Shine Through the Rain Foundation is a 2-star charity. It is financially transparent and has a D+ results reporting grade, which is below average. Its overhead spending is 61%, which is not within Ci’s reasonable range. Its reserve funds can cover program costs for nearly 11 months, which is within Ci’s reasonable range.
Founded in 2003, Shine Through the Rain Foundation (STRF) aims to provide guidance and financial support to individuals and families affected by life-threatening illnesses. The charity reports that life-threatening illness can significantly affect families through missed work, rising transportation costs, unplanned medical expenses, and an immense emotional toll.
STRF spent $425k on its programs in 2024. It runs three programs: Rainy Day Fund, Camp Scholarships and the Christmas Hamper Program. The charity did not provide a spending breakdown on its programs.
Rainy Day Fund: This program offers emergency financial support to clients’ families affected by life-threatening illnesses. The program covers essential costs such as overdue rent, utility bills, grocery costs, transportation expenses, and more. In 2024, STRF gave financial assistance to 519 families.
Camp Scholarships: This program provides funds to kids affected by life-threatening illness so they can attend a camp of their choice. The charity also provides camp backpacks to these children to prepare them for camp, including items such as a hat, a water bottle, and sunglasses. STRF distributed 350 backpacks in 2024.
Christmas Hamper Program: This program provides special gift card bundles to children under 15 who are either patients with life-threatening illnesses or part of families with diagnosed patients. These bundles include toy store gift cards and grocery gift cards. Ci found that STRF reported little information on this program.
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Results and Impact
Ci found that Shine Through the Rain Foundation reported many stories but few results on its work.
While Ci highlights this lack of results, it may not completely represent STRF’s results and impact.
Ci has not calculated STRF’s impact. This shows as n/r and does not affect the star rating.
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Finances
Shine Through the Rain Foundation’s audited financial statements follow activity-based costing, a financial reporting best practice. This means its expenses are clearly defined between program, administrative and fundraising costs.
STRF received $832k in Canadian donations in 2024, which is 98% of total revenue. It spent $425k on its programs in 2024, which is 50% of revenue. STRF recorded a deficit of $89k in 2024.
STRF spent $277k on fundraising costs, which is 33% of donations. It spent $234k on administrative costs, which is 28% of revenue. STRF has total overhead spending of 61%. For every dollar donated to STRF, 39 cents are available to go to the cause. This is not within Ci’s reasonable range of 65-95.
STRF has $382k in reserve funds (cash and investments). STRF can cover 90%, or nearly 11 months of its annual program costs with its reserve funds. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
In 2024, STRF paid external fundraisers $204k. These external fundraisers raised $298k in donations. This means it costs STRF $0.68 to raise $1 using external fundraisers. It is likely more cost efficient to donate directly to the charity than through external fundraisers.
This report is an update that has been sent to Shine Through the Rain Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on August 25, 2025, by Leah DeFrancesco.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 27.8% | 15.7% | 7.8% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 33.3% | 32.7% | 34.5% |
| Total overhead spending | 61.1% | 48.4% | 42.3% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 89.8% | 61.1% | 77.6% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 831,744 | 912,468 | 972,804 |
| Government funding | 0 | 70,540 | 20,339 |
| Fees for service | 7,533 | 28,162 | 29,801 |
| Investment income | 6,808 | 5,924 | 2,260 |
| Total revenues | 846,085 | 1,017,094 | 1,025,204 |
| Program costs | 424,848 | 669,061 | 684,504 |
| Administrative costs | 233,634 | 159,201 | 79,745 |
| Fundraising costs | 276,842 | 298,181 | 335,293 |
| Total spending | 935,324 | 1,126,443 | 1,099,542 |
| Cash flow from operations | (89,239) | (109,349) | (74,338) |
| Capital spending | 0 | 8,093 | 0 |
| Funding reserves | 381,553 | 409,092 | 530,864 |
Note: 1. Ci adjusted for deferred revenue, affecting revenue by ($nil) in 2024, $2k in 2023, and ($12k) in 2022.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
1 |
$40k - $80k |
1 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2024
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Last updated July 16, 2021:
We are happy to provide audited financial statements to those who request them. It is important to note however, that financial statements do not provide the opportunity to illustrate that we are in a catch 22 situation. While telemarketing costs may be higher than other fundraising methods, they can also provide significant funds that patient families across Canada urgently need now. This means that more vulnerable patients can be assisted quickly. There are serious gaps in the system and the fundraising methods utilized helped provide much needed funds to help patient families while we focus on expanding lower cost fundraising methods. Either we help many more patients and incur higher cost ratios, or help fewer people in order to have immediate lower cost ratios – the bottom line is more diagnosed patients would be evicted, have utilities disconnected, could not afford groceries and hospital parking costs.
Originally, we were called Cancer Recovery Foundation of Canada, part of the Cancer Recovery International with the head office in the United States. As the Canadian division of International, we were required by head office to follow specific requirements which in Canada, created high administration costs (i.e. fundraising methods, international shipping costs to purchase and transport heavy books into Canada). This situation resulted in our Board of Directors deciding to separate from International, and to change our mission from serving cancer patients to serving those with life-threatening illnesses. During this process, CRA commented on our administration costs. We facilitated the separation from Cancer Recovery Foundation International and are dealing with CRA. We are pleased to inform that we have, and continue to take, positive steps to address concerns. The charity believes it is on a long-term, financially sustainable path forward.
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 905-477-7743