How we spend donations

For every dollar you give to us, we spend a minimum of 93 cents on our charitable activities.

Mary’s Meals started life operating out of a tin shed. It stills serves as our global headquarters to this day.

As an organization working in some of the world’s poorest communities, we’re committed to keeping our running costs low to maximize the good we can do with the donations entrusted to us. At most, we spend just 7 cents of every dollar donated on governance and fundraising.

This is only possible because most of our work is done by an army of dedicated volunteers in Canada and in the countries where we work, who carry out lots of little acts of love on our behalf.

See the difference you can make.

The aims of Mary's Meals

The charity's constitution sets out the focus of our charitable activities as:

  • To provide for the relief of poverty, the advancement of education and to help people escape poverty in any part of the world, by providing:
    • daily meals in schools to chronically hungry children;
    • homes and care for vulnerable children;
    • health and community care to the world’s poorest communities;
    • aid to communities abroad; and
    • emergency relief in disaster situations;
  • To raise awareness in Canada and worldwide of world poverty issues through education.

We are dedicated to our commitment to spend at least 93% of all funds received on these charitable activities.

Where your money goes

We believe in the good stewardship of all resources entrusted to us, and we aim to be open and accountable to all our supporters and everyone involved in our work. We have consistently exceeded our commitment to spend at least 93 cents of every dollar on our charitable activities. Please visit the Mary’s Meals international website to view financial information for the global Mary’s Meals movement. You can find more details on how we spend your donations in our annual reports: