The Globe and Mail's report today on expenses at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) is bitter news for any charitable agency in the city. Anyone who frequents downtown Toronto is familiar with the commission-paid, clip-board carrying young people pleading with pedestrians to open their hearts and wallets for the "kids". As I pass them without a sideways glance, my sentiments are for the students who either have been duped into believing they are doing charitable work, or who can't get any other honest work. In fact only a tiny fraction of the donations they solicit goes to support services at the famous hospital, with most going to the for-profit company employing them. It's no surprise that most of the charities that once used the service abandoned it when exposed by the media.
Now we have the odious tale of how much Sick Kids is paying its fundraisers and how it spends donors' gifts.
When Michael O'Mahoney arrived from Washington in 2003 to head Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children Foundation he was hailed as a fundraising superstar who could transform the foundation, the largest of its kind in Canada. He quickly went to work, doubling the size of the foundation's staff, increasing expenses sharply and launching dozens of fundraising projects. All the while being paid more than $620,000 (U.S.) annually in some years, far more than any other charity executive in the country.
link: Sick Kids 'superstar' fundraiser under a spotlight - The Globe and Mail
Only part of the tale is in the Globe's report. A quick search on the Canada Revenue Agency's website reveals no fewer than 4 charities associated with HSC.
This is a hospital that is infamous for the salaries it pays its administrative staff, as revealed by Ontario's mandatory disclosure laws. It is expert at using the plight of ill children to its advantage while building and sustaining a golden palace for its senior executives. But if revelations, like today's in the Globe, alert the public to abuse at its foundation, then I can only say "hurrah".
I volunteer for another health care charity and have served as a director of a post-secondary education charity. I am well aware that reports such as this make fundraising more difficult for all charities. It's important, however, that the miscreants be exposed if credibility in the sector, and the public's trust, is to preserved. Good for the Globe for administering the bitter medicine.
I urge everyone contemplating a charitable gift to visit the Canada Revenue Agency's website and to review the charity's expenses as a percentage of its revenue.
