Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge
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.
B+
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
High
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.
90%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 90 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge:
Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge is a 5-star, financially transparent charity with a High impact rating and an above-average B+ results reporting grade. It has a reasonably sized reserve of cash and investments and 10% overhead spending. For every dollar donated, 90 cents are available to go to the cause.
Founded in 1989, Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge (IFBSL) collects, organizes, and distributes food to individuals and organizations in the city of Lethbridge, Alberta. IFBSL additionally teaches its clients how to cook and grow food in its kitchen and community garden. The charity also connects with and refers clients to organizations that provides housing, immigration, employment, and other services not offered by IFBSL.
IFBSL runs four programs: Emergency Food Assistance, Client Advocacy, Kitchen Training & Community Gardens, and Food Stock & Sharing. The charity spent $1.3m cash on program operations and distributed $3.6m worth of food in the December 2024 fiscal year. IFBSL did not disclose any further breakdown of its program spending at the time of this profile update.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 10 Impact: Canadian Food Banks
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 100 Rated Charity
Emergency Food Assistance is IFBSL’s main program in which the charity collects, organizes, and distributes food to individuals. In 2024, the charity distributed 11,254 food hampers (1,449,491 lb of food) to 30,298 unique clients (17,392 adults, 12,355 children, and 491 new clients). The charity reportedly provides specialized hampers based on unique client needs such as halal, birthday, diabetic, and baby hampers.
Client Advocacy involves IFBSL’s referral services offered at the Interfaith Resource Room in which the charity refers clients to other organizations. In 2024, IFBSL made 440 referrals to 20 organizations with the following breakdown by referral type: 105 tax clinic referrals, 75 clothing, 71 Christmas gifts, 51 income support, 39 school supplies, 35 housing, 32 employment support, 12 immigration services, 12 transportation services, and 8 pregnancy support.
Kitchen Training & Community Gardens involves IFBSL’s kitchen skills and gardening classes offered to its clients. In 2024, the charity provided 946 hours of community kitchen use to community members and partner agencies, and 655 hours of classes in the community kitchen. Youth Kitchen programs were attended by 605 people (92 adults and 513 children); Adult Kitchen programs were attended by 1,008 participants; and 422 participants (309 adults and 113 children) attended 33 gardening workshops.
Food Stock & Sharing includes food distributed directly through programs (1,449,941 pounds for Emergency Food Assistance and 10,229 pounds for kitchen and advocacy programs) and food distributed to partner organizations. In 2024, IFBSL distributed 365,683 pounds of food to 76 organizations within Lethbridge and surrounding areas.
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Results and Impact
Since Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge distributed 1,448,491 lb of food to 20,398 people, each person received 48 lb of food in 2024 on average.
While Charity Intelligence (Ci) highlights this key result, it may not completely represent Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge's results and impact.
Ci has given Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge a High impact rating. This is based on its demonstrated social impact per dollar spent.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 10 Impact: Canadian Food Banks
Impact Rating: High
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Finances
IFBSL’s most recent 2024 audited financial statements follow activity-based costing – a financial reporting best practice. This means it clearly reports program, administrative, and fundraising expenses.
In 2024, IFBSL received $1.4m worth of cash donations and revenue raised from fundraising events (91% of cash revenue). It also received $59k of government funding during 2024 (3% of revenue).
Administrative costs are 4% of total revenue less investment income and fundraising costs are 6% of donations. Its 10% overhead spending means that for every dollar donated, 90 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
IFBSL spent $1.3m on program operations (30% increase from $1.0m spent in 2023) and distributed $3.6m worth of food (17% increase from $3.1m distributed in 2023).The charity replaced one of its rooftop HVAC units, installed commercial raspberry trellis in the community garden, expanded community kitchen workstations, and installed a new freezer during 2024.
At the end of 2024, IFBSL had $608k gross and $585k net reserve funds (cash and investments) after deducting $23k worth of interest-bearing debts. This can cover 45% or slightly under six months of its annual program spending.
Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on July 2, 2025. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 4.1% | 9.3% | 8.9% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 6.1% | 6.6% | 7.4% |
| Total overhead spending | 10.3% | 15.9% | 16.3% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 44.9% | 81.1% | 112.2% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 787 | 1,095 | 885 |
| Goods in kind | 3,708 | 3,108 | 2,426 |
| Government funding | 59 | 22 | (47) |
| Fees for service | 47 | 91 | 79 |
| Business activities (net) | 26 | 26 | 27 |
| Special events | 595 | 551 | 527 |
| Investment income | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| Other income | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Total revenues | 5,231 | 4,904 | 3,906 |
| Program costs | 1,301 | 1,000 | 716 |
| Donated goods exp | 3,587 | 3,061 | 2,297 |
| Administrative costs | 217 | 456 | 348 |
| Fundraising costs | 85 | 108 | 104 |
| Other costs | 4 | 9 | 8 |
| Total spending | 5,194 | 4,633 | 3,473 |
| Cash flow from operations | 37 | 271 | 433 |
| Capital spending | 67 | 289 | 203 |
| Funding reserves | 585 | 811 | 803 |
Note: 1. DONATED GOODS RECEIVED: Ci included the value of donated goods received reported below the line of its operating statement in 2023 and 2022. This affected total revenue by $3.1m in 2023 and $2.4m in 2022. It affected total expenses by $3.1m in 2023 and $2.3m in 2022. 2. DEFERRED DONATIONS: Since IFBSL follows deferred accounting, Ci adjusted donations for changes in deferred contributions to show donors the year-to-year movement of cash within the charity. This affected total revenue by ($52k) in 2024, $54k in 2023, and $41k in 2022. 3. DEFERRED GOVERNMENT FUNDING: Ci adjusted government funding for changes in deferred government grants, affecting total revenue by ($nil) in 2024, ($nil) in 2023, and ($68k) in 2022. 4. DEFERRED CAPITAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Ci adjusted donations for changes in deferred contributions restricted for capital asset purchases, affecting total revenue by ($64k) in 2024, $151k in 2023, and $89k in 2022. 5. AMORTIZATION: Ci backed out amortization on a pro-rata basis from program, administrative, and fundraising costs.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
1 |
$40k - $80k |
5 |
< $40k |
4 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2024
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Comment added on December 22, 2023:
During our busy Christmas season, a donor stopped in and asked to speak with our executive director to congratulate our organization on being recognized by Charity Intelligence as a 5 Star Top 100 Charity as well as Top 10 Impact Canadian Food Bank. This individual noted that she trusted and often relied on Charity Intelligence’s assessment of charities when choosing how to allocate her support. She mentioned she’d done some research on her own by visiting our website, but had never actually been to our physical site to see first hand the work that we do. Though time was limited, we managed to squeeze in a tour of the facility and the donor expressed how pleased she was to see our food bank offering so much more than food. Addressing the underlying issues that lead to food insecurity was one of the features she felt set our organization apart. Upon her departure, she noted she’d be making an online donation and thanked our team for the work we do for our community. We are grateful to be recognized by Charity Intelligence for our financial accountability and transparency and are pleased when donors note that they’ve taken the time to be confident in where they choose to give.
Charity Contact
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Comment added by Julian Dranitsaris on July 21, 2025:
Our recognition by Charity Intelligence as a 5 Star Top 100 Charity and Top 10 Impact Canadian Food Bank means a lot to us – mostly because we did not apply or compete to be recognized, but because Charity Intelligence conducts an independent review of our organization that demonstrates our commitment to ethical standards, transparency and responsible financial management. We find that our donors trust Charity Intelligence’s assessment and are aware that many of them choose to support us due to this recognition that sets us apart from other options for their donations and support. Each year we review their assessment of our operation and we strive to continually improve our financial transparency, results reporting and demonstrated impact so donors can be confident that a gift to our organization has maximum value and impact to the individuals we are here to support.
Tel: 403-320-8779