How this is run
Who decides what, where the money goes, and what we are legally. Short, and true.
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Open Ice Initiative Inc. is a Toronto registered nonprofit, founded in 2025. We are not a registered charity, which means we cannot issue charitable tax receipts. We say this on every page that asks anybody for money, because finding out afterwards is not fair.
The organisation is run by a seventeen member student executive. Nobody is paid. There are no salaries, no honoraria and no expenses claimed by any member of the executive.
Where every dollar goes
- Ice. Between $300 and $450 an hour, three hours a day, paid to the arena before the camp runs. A four day camp is twelve hours of it.
- Equipment. $500 per child for a full set they keep. Bought at partner pricing through HockeyStickMan.
- Coaching. Professional staff, contracted per camp.
- Lunch. Provided by Pizza Pizza at no cost to us.
- Insurance and permits. Required before an arena will let us on the ice.
- Overheads. None worth listing. There is no office, no staff and no marketing budget. This website was not paid for.
- One season of house league hockeyRegistration alone, before equipment$700
- One season of rep hockeyRegistration, travel, tournaments, ice$4,000
- One child through an Open Ice campFour days, donated coaching, and gear they keep$860
- One set of new equipment in a shopThe barrier that stops most families$500
Every number is what a family in Toronto actually pays. Ours is what it costs us, and the family pays none of it.
How they actually get made
The executive meets weekly in person during term. Departments own their own decisions: sponsorship decides how to approach a sponsor, logistics decides how a day runs. Anything that commits money or the organisation's name goes through the Founder and President.
Camper selection is the one decision nobody makes alone. Applications are ranked against a written system that draws on Toronto District School Board Learning Opportunities Index data and City of Toronto Neighbourhood Improvement Area designations, and the ranking is reviewed before offers go out.
If you want to see something
Funders, schools and families are all entitled to ask how this works. We would rather answer than be assumed about.