Watari Counselling & Support Services Society
Publicly funded institution · Vancouver, British Columbia · BN 119288900RR0001 · Organizations Relieving Poverty · website
Source: T3010 return, FPE 2024-03-31. Split of total expenditures ($5,707,762) as filed with the CRA.
Watari Counselling & Support Services Society is a charitable organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, classified by the CRA under organizations relieving poverty. It appears on the charity register the way hospitals, universities, and other publicly funded bodies do — to issue tax receipts — rather than as a donation-driven charity in the usual sense. In its fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, it reported $5.6M in revenue and $5.7M in expenditures.
Its funding that year was roughly 62% from government. Government funding is the majority of its budget. In 2024, 13 other registered charities reported granting it a combined $511K.
Compared with 1,618 poverty-relief institutions of similar size, its share of spending on mission — charitable programs plus grants to other charities — ranked above 48% of peers. Its highest-paid position fell in the $80,000–119,999 range. The charity reported 49 permanent full-time positions.
Revenue has grown substantially over its filings on record here, from $1.7M in 2020 to $5.6M in 2024. Its filed list of directors and trustees shows 6 names.
In its own words
Community substance use counselling; downtown community court indigenous system negotiator downtown community court system negotiator; mental health outreach; providing rent subsidies plus support o youth and pregnant parenting youth/ latinx community kitchen vietnamese community kitchen indigenous community kitchen with talking circle migrant to migrant program support ot agricultural farm workers; fire emergency fund assisted migrant agricultural farm workers in kelowna affected by fires; food hampers and meals to community members of the downtown east side of vancouver 320 alexander st…
Ongoing-program description from its T3010 filing, verbatim.
The ledger, 2020–2024
| Year | Revenue | Spending | Programs | Fundraising | Gifts out | Net assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $5.6M | $5.7M | $5.1M | $13K | — | $782K |
| 2023 | $4.6M | $4.3M | $2.2M | $6,572 | — | $899K |
| 2022 | $3.9M | $3M | — | — | — | $372K |
| 2021 | $3.1M | $1.7M | — | — | — | $968K |
| 2020 | $1.7M | $1.7M | $1.5M | $1,800 | — | $256K |
Revenue printed in red where the year ran a deficit. Fiscal years by period end.
Money between charities, 2024
Received $511K from 13 charities:
- United Way British Columbia$240K
- Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society$123K
- Canadahelps Canadon$50K
- Canadahelps Canadon$50K
- Food Banks British Columbia$16K
- Vancouver Foundation$14K
- Aqueduct Foundation$10K
- Nicola Wealth Private Giving Foundation$5,000
- Vancity Community Foundation$1,546
- Canadian Online Giving Foundation$1,391
- CHIMP: Charitable Impact Foundation (Canada)$200
- Vancity Community Foundation$200
- PayPal Giving Fund Canada$34
As reported on the donors’ own T3010 qualified-donee schedules.
What it pays
Its ten highest-paid positions, by band:
- $80,000–119,9991 position
- $40,000–79,9999 positions
- Permanent full-time positions49
- Total compensation, all staff$2.5M
Schedule 3 of its 2024 return. The CRA discloses bands, not names or exact salaries.
Directors & trustees (2024)
Gurpreet Chopra (at large); Lara Croll (chair/policy analyst); Sara Hills (treasurer); Sunny Sandhu (secretary lawyer); Casey Vickers (co chair/program coordi); Safinna Jinnah (at large).
As listed on its 2024 return.
Check the source
Every figure on this page is from Watari Counselling & Support Services Society’s own T3010 filings, published by the Canada Revenue Agency. Verify against the CRA’s charities listing (search BN 119288900RR0001), or read how we compute the receipt.