A Message from WE Charity and its Co-Founders

July 17, 2020

Last week we wrote to Canadians about current events with WE Charity, and now we want to speak directly to its donors and supporters. As we write this, we are trying to make sense of the past few weeks and continue the good works of tens of thousands of youth, educators, staff, donors, sponsors and volunteers who have contributed to WE Charity over the years.

WE Charity has been under an unprecedented level of public scrutiny originating with the charity assisting the Government of Canada to implement the Canadian Student Service Grant (CSSG). Scrutiny of the organization is entirely legitimate. Some voices provide fair criticisms on areas we can improve, while others are reporting inaccuracies or incomplete information.

Since it was founded in 1995, WE Charity has transformed lives locally and globally, supporting youth leaders and generations of volunteers, empowering women and educating children in nine developing countries.

WE is unique and in many ways ground breaking, and sometimes the model is misunderstood. We believe that the overall charitable model needs innovation, especially with an ever-declining percentage of Canadians giving to charity, reaching an unprecedented low level in 2019. (see here and here). That is what our programs do. Innovate and inspire. WE Schools and WE Day galvanizes students to turn the tide on declining civic engagement by inspiring the next generation to support 3,000-plus causes and log 70 million hours of service. We also know that ME to WE Social Enterprise is a unique model but it’s a proven way to create 1,500 empowering jobs for women overseas and it has contributed tens of millions of dollars to support WE Charity’s mission.

We want to share some information with you about WE, its impact, and a number of issues that have been raised.

WE Charity delivers measurable impact

  • WE Charity has built 1,500 schools and schoolhouses; educated 200,000 children; placed 30,000 women in alternative income programs; and helped 1 million people through improved access to healthcare and clean water.
  • WE Schools delivers service-learning programs to 7,000 schools across Canada, empowering youth to help 3,000+ causes.
  • WE Charity has had unqualified audits every year since the charity’s founding (see here).

WE Day & WE Schools are non-partisan

  • 1.5 million youth have earned their free ticket for WE Day through logging 70 million volunteer hours in support of 3,000+ causes.
  • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke at 6 out of 137 WE Days. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was invited while in office. When hosted in their regions, Premiers and Mayors from every political party have welcomed WE events.
  • WE Schools has received funding from provincial governments represented by every major political party.

ME to WE Social Enterprise is innovation for good

  • Auditors show an average of 90% of profits from ME to WE Social Enterprise over the last five years were donated to WE Charity, with the balance reinvested to grow the social enterprise and its mission. To be clear, since its founding in 2008 all profits from ME to WE Social Enterprise have either been donated to WE Charity or reinvested to grow the social enterprise and its mission. (see here)
  • All WE Charity and ME to WE Social Enterprise transactions are reviewed by an auditor. WE Charity has purchased trips and products from ME to WE Social Enterprise to support its work, but the total cash contributions from ME to WE to WE Charity is millions more, and the benefit to WE Charity far greater. (see here)

WE Charity real estate delivers financial and impact benefit

  • WE owns its own offices, similar to many other not-for-profits. No youth or project funds have ever been used for these purchases. Owning property saves the charity $1.2 million a year in rent.
  • The WE Global Learning Centre represents the majority of its real estate holdings. The Centre welcomes school groups in-person, and uses its digital classrooms and production studios to reach 18,000+ schools.
  • WE Charity’s domestic programs support youth to be social entrepreneurs. WE Charity’s 25th Anniversary planned an expansion in Toronto to centrally locate within one block near Moss Park a collective of free and discount space for young start-up charities and social enterprises. (see here). These efforts are on-pause due to COVID-19.

WE Charity Governance, Transparency & Third-Party Reviews

  • WE Charity is governed by eight members of our North American Board of Directors, who bring their skills as a CPA, a lawyer, Chief Operations Officer, a medical doctor, a tech expert, a university faculty member, a former Director of Education at the Toronto District School Board, and more. (See here)
  • WE Charity has annual audits, welcomes critical analysis and in-depth studies of its programs by experienced groups such as Mission Measurement, BCorp, Fairtrade Foundation, and has received the Good Housekeeping Humanitarian Seal of Approval.
  • For more information please see the WE Transparency Report 2019, WE Charity Third-Party Reviews, and ME to WE Third-Party Review.

We believe that social enterprise is an important tool for the social good sector, and we understand that we need to do a better job of explaining to the wider public the idea of a social enterprise. We are taking concrete action to ensure that ME to WE Social Enterprise operations are clearer and simpler. We have engaged Korn Ferry to conduct a review of our organization design and governance and the Honourable David Onley, former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, will join the organization as an Executive Advisor for this process.

The past weeks have seen many inaccurate statements circulated, and we regret the toll that this has taken on the incredible 2500 current and former staff who built the organization. And on donors, partners, supporters and beneficiaries.

Various Parliamentary bodies are investigating the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister for not recusing themselves from discussions around the CSSG. Both have acknowledged their mistake and apologized. Next Tuesday we will be appearing before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. We welcome the opportunity to answer questions.

Your support has been crucial to WE’s mission and we ask you to judge us by the impact of our mission over 25 years rather than by this moment in time. We are working hard to maintain our service-learning programs in 18,000 schools and protect our development work in communities around the world. Communities which need our support now more than ever.

Many voices have described WE Charity over the past few days, but these two voices say it the best:

As always, we thank you for your support and your belief that we can build a better world.

Craig and Marc Kielburger