Discovery House is a 5-star, financially transparent charity with an outstanding A+ results reporting grade. Its reserves of cash and investments can cover just under 11 months of its annual program spending. Its 15% overhead spending means that for every dollar donated, 85 cents are available to go to the cause.

Founded in 1980 and operating out of Calgary, Discovery House helps women and youth victims of family violence create a better future free of domestic violence. The charity houses clients at its 19-unit second stage shelter and helps families find affordable housing within the city. It also provides ongoing case management, trauma counselling, and community events for clients at its shelter. According to the charity, nearly 30% of Canadian women experience partner violence, which costs the Canadian economy $7.4 billion annually.

Discovery House operates four programs: Community Housing, Shelter & Outreach, Child & Youth, and Counselling. It spent $4.2m on its programs and helped 417 people in the March 2025 fiscal year (F2025).

A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 100 Rated Charity.

Community Housing was 38% of Discovery House’s program spending. The charity provides one-on-one support to families in need of affordable housing such as referrals, budgeting help, and system navigation services. In F2025, its case management team provided 2,884 hours of care to families accessing this program and moved 84 families (257 people) into affordable housing. According to the charity, families remained housed for an average of 22 months.

Shelter & Outreach was 36% of Discovery House’s program spending and includes its 19-unit shelter. The charity housed 32 families (111 people) who stayed for an average of 10.5 months in F2025. Workers at its shelter also provided 876 hours of care to the shelter community.

Child & Youth was 17% of Discovery House’s program spending. The charity operates trauma counselling, social events, and a summer camp for children who are domestic violence victims at its shelter. In F2025, Discovery House’s counsellors held 392 trauma recovery sessions and provided 2,385 hours of care to 47 children. Also, 49 children attended its summer camp in F2025.

Counselling was 9% of Discovery House’s program spending and is group counselling for young mothers and their children. The charity offers this service at its shelter. In F2025, Discovery House provided 1,330 hours of counselling to 91 people (33 youths and 58 women).

Although Discovery House provides some breakdown of its expenses between program, administrative, and fundraising activities, it did not report the proportion of salaries paid to administrative staff. This means its audited financial statements follow line-item costing which is not a best practice.

In F2025, Discovery House received $3.2m in donations and special events revenue (64% of total revenue) and $1.4m of government funding (28% of revenue).

Administrative costs are 5% of total revenue less investment income and fundraising costs are 11% of total donations. Its 15% overhead spending means that for every dollar donated, 85 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.

Discovery House spent $4.2m on its programs in F2025 – a 12% increase from $3.7m spent in F2024.

At the end of F2025, Discovery House had $4.7m of reserves (cash and investments), $1.0m of which was donor endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, its reserves can cover 89%, or just under 11 months of its annual program spending.

Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on July 25, 2025. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.

Questions? Contact jdranitsaris@charityintelligence.ca

Learn More: Discovery House’s F2025 Annual Report