Have questions about online giving, ways to support, updating your details, tax receipts, or how your gift makes a difference? You’ll find answers to some of the most common ones below.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please contact our donor relations team at 613-234-1155 or donations@ottawamission.com. We’d be happy to hear from you!
DONATIONS
Your donation powers The Mission. Only 23.8% of our funding comes from government sources. This means that most of our programs are possible only with donor support. You can read our most recent Impact Report for more information on how your generosity makes a real impact.
Yes, you can! We conduct tours on weekdays between 10AM – 2PM. Please email donations@ottawamission.com to book a tour.
Our donor relations team is available over the phone from 8AM-4PM, Monday-Friday. Please give us a call at 613-234-1155 and we would be happy to help you. If you get directed to voicemail, we will call you back within 24 business hours.
You can easily manage your online donation via our donor portal. Enter your email address and you will receive a unique login link to your email. You can also easily find a link to the donor portal in the footer of our website or the footer of your latest donation confirmation email.
Thank you for being a member of our monthly giving program, – a Champion of Hope! You can access our donor portal to update or change your monthly gift, email donations@ottawamission.com or call our donor relations team at 613-234-1155 (Monday – Friday, 8AM – 4PM).
Thank you for your donation! Once you’ve made an online donation, you should receive an email confirmation from The Ottawa Mission with your tax receipt. Be sure to check your junk mail.
If you do not receive an email confirmation, please contact us at 613-234-1155 or donations@ottawamission.com.
If you would like to cancel a donation, or have made an error on your donation form, we can certainly fix it for you. Please contact us at 613-234-1155 (Monday – Friday, 8AM – 4PM), or email donations@ottawamission.com.
We give donors the option to cover the cost of the processing fee so more donation dollars can go towards serving our clients. By covering the processing fee, you can receive a tax receipt for the full amount of your gift (which includes the processing fee). However, we recognize this is not something all donors want to do, so we have made it optional.
To update your mailing address, please call our donor relations team at 613-234-1155 or email donations@ottawamission.com.
If you would like to reduce or change the amount of mail or email you receive from us, give us a call at 613-234-1155 or email us donations@ottawamission.com. You can also click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of an email sent by The Ottawa Mission to stop receiving email communication.
CHARITABLE TAX RECEIPTS
If you’ve donated via mail: One-time donation receipts will be mailed out within approximately one week of your gift being received by The Mission to the address provided.
If you’ve donated online: You should receive an email within 1 day of making your gift. Please make sure donations@ottawamission.com is marked as safe from your spam inbox to receive these emails.
When do I get a tax receipt for my monthly gift? Our ‘Champions of Hope’ monthly donors receive consolidated tax receipts for all the gifts they have made within a calendar year, which are issued before the end of February of the following year.
If you prefer one receipt per year for all donations, our team can make that change for you! Please contact 613-234-1155 or donations@ottawamission.com to update your preferences.
Yes, you can! Please contact our donor relations team at 613-234-1155 or email donations@ottawamission.com and they can help you get that set up. You will need to provide an email for our gift processing team to send the e-receipts to.
The Ottawa Mission follows Canada Revenue Agency guidelines and regulations around issuing tax receipts, which require the charity to determine fair market value of an item. Due to the difficulty of determining a fair market value for used goods, The Ottawa Mission generally does not provide tax receipts for used items.
New items may be eligible for a tax receipt if proof of purchase is provided.
To check if your donation is eligible for a tax receipt, please contact our donor relations team at 613-234-1155 or email donations@ottawamission.com.
No. Canada Revenue Agency guidelines state that the official donation receipt has to be in the name of the true donor – the individual or organization that made the donation to the charity. For instance, the name that is clearly marked on the cheque or credit card used to make the gift. Generally, a charitable tax receipt may be claimed by either spouse or common-law partner.
WAYS TO DONATE
Thank you so much! We accept donations by mail at:
PO Box 7068 Ottawa STN Vanier
Vanier, ON K1L 9Z9
*Please do not send cash through the mail.
Donations can be dropped off in person at 35 Waller Street. Our front desk is open 24-hours a day. Short-term parking is available on the south side of The Mission (our south-side door address is 53 Daly St).
Thank you for celebrating your loved one in such a meaningful way.
Donating online: You can select the checkbox for “dedicate this donation”. You’ll then be prompted to enter the information of your loved one and send a card to them by email.
Donating over the phone: Please call 613-234-1155 and our team will assist you.
We do – thank you for your support! A gift of publicly-traded securities, such as stocks, bonds or mutual funds, can be made to The Ottawa Mission by following the directions on the Gifts of Stocks & Securities page.
We’re deeply grateful for your interest in leaving a gift in your will. To learn how you can make this lasting contribution to support The Ottawa Mission, please visit our Gift in Will page for guidance and next steps.
Yes – thank you! Please look at our Most Needed Items page to see what we are accepting and how to facilitate a drop off.
We do – thank you! We’ve partnered with Donate a Car Canada, learn how to set this up on our Donate a Car page.
MISSION PROGRAMS
We have 238 total beds across all our shelter programs. This includes:
• 179 emergency shelter beds
• 38 beds for our live-in addiction treatment programs (HOPE, Stabilization and Lifehouse)
• 21 beds for clients in our Diane Morrison Hospice
We also place an additional 9 overflow mats down in our shelter chapel, whenever our shelter is at 100% capacity.
Since 2017, we have consistently operated at over 100% capacity – except during COVID-19, when some beds were closed for social distancing and clients were diverted to overflow shelters.
Community meals, which are available to anyone in the community in need, are served at:
Breakfast – 8:00 AM – 8:30 AM
Lunch – 11:20 AM – 12:00 PM
Dinner – 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Resident meals, which are available to shelter guests, are served at:
Breakfast – 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
Lunch – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Dinner – 4:30 PM – 5:00 PM
We also serve meals from our Mobile Mission Meals food trucks, throughout the city. You can find the food truck schedule here: Food Truck schedule page.
If all our beds and chapel mats are full, we work with clients to find alternative arrangements.
Most of the other emergency shelters are within walking distance, so if the client is familiar with the area and can walk, we will provide them with directions.
However, if the client is unfamiliar with Ottawa, unable to get themselves there safely due to health or weather reasons, or do not feel safe walking alone at night, we frequently call the Salvation Army Outreach Van to transport clients to other shelters, or to places of safety, particularly during the night. We can also provide taxi chits to clients if the Salvation Army Van is not operating.
We are in regular contact with other shelters and city resources to help find an open bed or safe place to sleep for anyone in need. We also encourage these clients to contact 311, so the city may refer them somewhere.
Nearly all of our wraparound programs to help vulnerable people rebuild their lives are open and available to all. This includes community meal services, our DYMON Health Clinic and Diane Morrison Hospice, educational, employment and job training programs, and more.
The only programs that are available exclusively to males are our emergency shelter and live-in addiction and trauma services (cis or trans). All other programs are available to people of all genders.
We provide both emergency and long-term support that lift people up, out of, and away from homelessness.
Our shelter beds and meal services provide both shelter clients and community members in need with basic, vital necessities during times of emergency.
Our additional programs and services include housing support, education support, job training, employment support, addiction and trauma services, mental health support, chaplaincy and faith-based support, hospice and primary health care, dental care and more. These wraparound programs ensure that those in need have the tools they need to move out of the cycle of homelessness.
We also offer services beyond our shelter: our Mobile Mission Meals food truck program provides meals to over 40 communities across Ottawa.
A safe and affordable home for everyone as a human right is a core value of The Ottawa Mission. Our housing and client services departments work with each and every client in the pursuit of finding a safe, appropriate, and affordable place for them to call home.
When each client first checks in to our shelter, they are assigned a housing case manager who assists them in finding housing.
In 2023 – 2024, our case workers secured homes for 270 clients.
Our food trucks visit and provide meals to communities in need all across Ottawa. You can find the stop schedule here: Food Truck Schedule page.
Thank you for your interest in volunteering! You can apply to become a volunteer on our Volunteer page.
Community resources such as our meal services and our clothing room are wheelchair accessible. Our Diane Morrison Hospice and our DYMON Health Clinic are also fully accessible.
Unfortunately, our shelter dorms and beds are not wheelchair accessible. The nearby Salvation Army – Ottawa Booth Centre at 171 George Street has wheelchair accessible shelter beds.
Unfortunately, due to our client confidentiality policy, we are not at liberty to disclose the identity of our shelter guests.
If you think your friend or family member has made their way to The Mission, we can help you post a message on our message board. Staff will often remind clients to check their messages if we know they are urgent but even if they do, we can’t ensure this will connect you with whom you’re seeking.
Yes, Chef Ric’s is a social enterprise that supports The Ottawa Mission. Proceeds from Chef Ric’s catering and storefront operations flow back into The Ottawa Mission in support of our programs and services.