Red Door Family Shelter is a 3-star, financially transparent charity with an above-average A- results reporting grade and a Fair impact rating. It also has a reasonably sized reserve of cash and investments. For every dollar donated, 71 cents are available to go to the cause. 

Founded in 1982, Red Door Family Shelter (Red Door) offers emergency housing to victims of gender-based violence and families on the brink of homelessness. Red Door also offers homework help, counselling sessions, warm meals, and evening activities for its clients. According to the charity, more than 40% of Canadian women have experienced some form of partner violence in their lifetime, with it being a leading cause of homelessness among women.  

Red Door runs two program groups: emergency housing and community services. It spent $6.2m on its programs in the March 2024 (F2024) fiscal year but did not provide any further breakdown of its program spending on its website nor its F2024 annual report. 

Emergency housing is the charity’s main program and includes its 106-bed Family Shelter and 50-bed Gender-Based Violence Shelter. In F2024, Red Door housed 132 families consisting of 426 unique individuals (449 people in F2023). According to Red Door, 60% of these families arrived at its shelters after fleeing domestic violence. Clients lived at its shelters for an average of 4.9 months in F2024 (4.0 months in F2023). 

Community services include the charity’s Children & Youth Activities and Support Services, consisting of drop-in services for those in need. In F2024, Red Door provided drop-in services (meals, counselling, evening activities) to 144 families consisting of 466 unique individuals. It also served 151,000 meals in F2024. 

Red Door Family Shelter follows line-item costing, meaning it does not clearly disclose which expenses fall under program, administrative, or fundraising activities in its latest F2024 audited financial statements. This is not a best practice. 

In F2024, the charity received $1.6m in donations (20% of total revenue) and $6.2m in government funding (77% of total revenue). Administrative costs are 6% of total revenue less investment income and fundraising costs are 23% of donations. Its 29% total overhead spending means that for every dollar donated, 71 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range. 

In F2024, Red Door spent $6.2m on its programs – a 5% increase from the $5.9m it spent on its programs in F2023. The charity reported taking steps to streamline operations and improve service delivery in its F2024 annual report but did not disclose any further details. 

At the end of F2024, Red Door had $7.4m in reserve funds (cash and investments) that can cover 118% or just over one year and two months of its annual program spending. 

Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on June 5, 2025. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming. 

Learn More: Statistics Canada's study on partner violence in Canada