Top marks for Sunnybrook Foundation

For its efficient use of donor funds and its strong governance, Sunnybrook Foundation has earned high grades and has been featured prominently in a ranking of Canada's 100 largest charities.

The 2012 edition of MoneySense magazine's "Charity 100" has - for the second year in a row - awarded Sunnybrook Foundation an overall "A" grade, the only Ontario hospital foundation to receive the grade.

The rankings are based on how much money the charity uses directly for its cause, rather than administration, how much money it costs the charity to raise $100 (cost efficiency), governance and transparency, and reserve fund size. The goal of the rankings is to give Canadians the information they need to make smart philanthropic decisions.

Dr. Jon S. Dellandrea, the foundation's president and CEO, spoke to the subject of cost efficiency in comments that were highlighted in the MoneySense article.

"When there's a proposal to increase staff and expenditures, I want to see the business case," Dr. Dellandrea told the national magazine. "If it's a good investment with a future payoff, then it goes to our audit and finance committee, and they will push back with hard questions. There's a discipline and structure that ensures what we're doing is cost-effective."

The magazine also noted that just over 75 per cent of Sunnybrook Foundation spending is on transfers to the hospital, "an amount that is significantly higher than the average hospital
foundation."

Sunnybrook's cutting-edge Women & Babies facility, the renovated Schulich Heart Centre, and the expanded Chemotherapy Unit and Gloria Odette Pharmacy within the Odette Cancer Centre are just some of the facilities where donor funding has been vital.

For more on MoneySense's 2012 Charity 100 click here.