What Seva Canada does

Seva Canada Society is a Vancouver-based registered Canadian charity (founded 1982) that prevents blindness and restores sight in low- and middle-income countries through funding, training, and capacity-building support for community-based eye care programs. The organization does not develop proprietary technology products; instead it operates a partnership-driven model, channeling donor funds and operational expertise to local eye hospitals, community eye centres, and a manufacturing partner (Aurolab) that produces affordable intraocular lenses at approximately $3 each. Since inception, Seva Canada has helped more than 5 million people see again, with active programs across South Asia (India, Nepal), East Africa (Tanzania), Southern Africa (Madagascar), Southeast Asia (Cambodia), and — as of 2025 — South America (Peru). Programs span cataract surgery, prescription glasses, school-based vision screenings, pediatric eye care, treatment for diabetic retinopathy, and gender-equitable access initiatives like the Equal Right to Sight campaign.

The organization is funded entirely by charitable giving. Revenue streams include individual one-time and recurring donations through its ForSight monthly giving program (starting at $25/month, funding approximately 6 sight-restoring surgeries per year per donor), the Gift of Sight Catalogue (gift-style donations starting at $15, with a $50 cataract surgery tier covering lens implant, post-op care, and transport), peer-to-peer fundraising pages, bequests and securities donations, corporate partnerships (Delta Optical, GROWN Eyewear), event-based fundraising (Dine in the Dark, Motown Meltdown, PHOTOGraphie Festival), and merchandise sales via a Shopify-based storefront (Seva Shop). Donor-facing channels span the seva.ca website, email newsletters, social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), and earned media. Core partnerships include the Aravind Eye Care System (India, oldest partner, providing LEAP training), Aurolab (India, manufacturing), Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (India, Project ROSHANI), PRASHO Foundation (Evidence in Practice research program across India and Nepal), and Clínica Oftalmológica Divino Niño Jesús (Peru, since 2025).

The organization operates from a small Vancouver head office (1–10 staff) led by Executive Director Liz Brant, with Board Co-Chair Dr. Martin Spencer — winner of the 2024 ASCRS Foundation Chang-Crandall Humanitarian Award ($100,000 USD, earmarked to Seva Canada and its US sister organization Seva Foundation) — and a board that includes Sanil Joseph. Seva Canada holds two registered trademarks (Seva® and Buddha Eyes design®), is certified under the Imagine Canada Standards Program, is listed by The Life You Can Save and Charity Intelligence Canada, and has been recognized internationally with the Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award (2015).

Name

Seva Canada

Legal name

Seva Canada Society

Website

https://seva.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Seva Canada Society is a Vancouver-based registered charity (founded 1982) that prevents blindness and restores sight in low- and middle-income countries by funding and partnering with local eye hospitals in 15+ countries, including India, Nepal, Tanzania, Madagascar, Cambodia, and — since 2025 — Peru.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Global Eye Care Charity

NAICS

Voluntary Health Organizations (813212), Social Assistance (624), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Injury Prevention, Disability & Rehabilitation Programs (BPADAIAM)

Keywords

• Global eye care charity
• Blindness prevention programs
• International development charity
• Community eye health
• Cataract surgery charity

Headquarters

HQ city

Vancouver

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual Donations: Seva Canada is funded primarily through donations from individuals. Donors give one-time or recurring gifts via the website, monthly giving program (ForSight), peer-to-peer fundraising pages, and in honour or memory of someone special.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Seva Canada is a registered Canadian charity that restores sight and prevents blindness in low- and middle-income countries by funding and supporting community-based eye care programs delivered through local partner hospitals and clinics. Its core offerings include charitable giving programs — the Gift of Sight Catalogue of pre-priced sight-restoring interventions, the ForSight Monthly Giving recurring donation program, the Seva Shop merchandise store, and peer-to-peer fundraising pages — which together generate the donations that finance cataract surgeries, prescription glasses, screenings, training, and outreach in countries such as Nepal, Tanzania, Madagascar, Cambodia, India, and Peru.

Product overview

Seva Canada is an international development organization and registered charity focused on preventing blindness and restoring sight in low- and middle-income countries. The organization operates several interconnected programs: a Gift of Sight Catalogue for one-time and themed donations supporting specific eye care interventions; a ForSight Monthly Giving Program for recurring donors; an online Seva Shop selling merchandise to support programs; and online fundraising pages for supporters. Additionally, Seva Canada supports capacity-building through the Evidence in Practice research program and partners with Aurolab for affordable intraocular lenses and ophthalmic supplies used in sight-restoring surgeries worldwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Gift of Sight Catalogue Online catalogue of pre-priced charitable gifts covering specific eye care interventions — restoring sight for children, training eye care workers, empowering women and girls, and providing cataract surgery (including lens implant, post-op care, and transportation). Prices start at $15, with cataract surgery gifts at $50 each. Donors can purchase for themselves or as gifts to friends/family with a card sent to the recipient. Targeted at Canadian donors.
• ForSight Monthly Giving Program Recurring donation subscription program for Canadian supporters. A monthly donation of $25 can provide sight-restoring surgery for 6 adults every year. Members form a community committed to funding year-round surgery, glasses, and medicine in low- and middle-income countries.
• Seva Shop Online merchandise store (Shopify-based) selling Seva-branded products. Proceeds support Seva Canada's eye care programs. Targeted at Canadian supporters and gift purchasers.
• Online Fundraising Pages (Peer-to-Peer) Self-serve fundraising pages allowing individual supporters and teams to create personalized pages raising money for Seva Canada from their own networks. Targeted at Canadian supporters who want to fundraise on behalf of the charity.

Quantifiable outcome

• More than 5 million people helped to see again since 1982.
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Clínica Oftalmológica Divino Niño Jesús (DNJ)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 August 2025Seva Canada's first South American partnership with a non-profit eye care hospital system operating two hospitals — one in Lima and one in Iquitos, Peru. In Lima, support focuses on strengthening sub-specialty services for degenerative eye diseases. In Iquitos, support enables outreach to remote rural areas along the Amazon River, where populations have had no eye health access since 2018. First outreach in April 2025 screened 121 people and brought 24 patients to Iquitos for surgery.
• Aravind Eye Care SystemcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSeva Canada's oldest partner, based in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded by Dr. G. Venkataswamy (Dr. V). Aravind pioneered the 'free and paying' model where paying patients subsidize care for those who cannot afford it. The organization has grown from an 11-bed hospital in 1976 to one of the world's largest eye care providers. Seva Canada collaborates with Aravind on the LEAP training program, sharing Aravind's expertise with other hospitals and eye care professionals including Seva's existing partners.
• AurolabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerManufacturing facility in Madurai, India, co-founded with support from Seva Canada and CIDA (Canadian government). Produces high-quality, affordable intraocular lenses (IOLs) at approximately $3 each, used in over 160 countries — one lens implanted every 9 seconds. Also manufactures sutures, pharmaceuticals, and other essential ophthalmic supplies. Nearly all Seva Canada program partners rely on Aurolab products in their sight-restoring work.
• Dayanand Medical College and HospitalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocated in Punjab, India. Partners with Seva Canada through Project ROSHANI (meaning 'light' in Punjabi and Hindi), led by Dr. Priyanka Arora. Provides free and low-cost cataract surgeries and eye care to people in rural communities who would otherwise go without. Dr. Arora also coordinates Project ROSHANI's outreach work.
• PRASHO FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with Seva Canada to launch the Evidence in Practice (EIP) program — a three-year initiative equipping 10 eye hospitals (five in India, five in Nepal) with skills and tools to create and use local evidence for improving care. Built around seven key work areas including research design, ethics approval, data collection, analysis, and publication. Training uses proven models including the Cooke framework through in-person workshops, virtual sessions, and mentorship.
• Delta OpticalminorGTM or Marketing PartnerIn September 2011, Delta Optical launched a campaign donating $30 from every pair of eyeglasses sold towards pediatric eye care in Tanzania, Malawi, and Madagascar, where cataracts are a leading cause of blindness in children.
• GROWN EyewearminorGTM or Marketing PartnerLaunched in June 2012, GROWN Eyewear's sustainable wood and bamboo eyewear collection donated to Seva Canada through its GROWN Vision project: for every pair of glasses sold, eye testing for 12 children is funded; for every 4 pairs sold, one sight-restoring cataract surgery in the developing world is funded.
• Dr. Martin SpencercoreOthersBritish Columbia ophthalmologist who has volunteered over 30 years of service to restore sight and prevent blindness for people in need in developing countries. Dr. Spencer co-chairs Seva Canada's Board of Directors and was awarded the ASCRS Foundation Chang-Crandall Humanitarian Award in 2024 ($100,000 USD, which he directed to Seva Canada and its US sister organization).
• Dr. Asim Kumar SilcoreOthersSeva partner ophthalmologist in India working in the Sundarbans — a dangerous patchwork of mangrove islands in West Bengal. Dr. Asim began his career studying under Dr. Venkataswamy (Dr. V), founder of Aravind Eye Care System and founding member of Seva. Featured in National Geographic video coverage of his eye care work.
• Seva Foundation (US sister organization)coreOthersThe US-based sister organization of Seva Canada. The ASCRS Chang-Crandall Humanitarian Award prize ($100,000 USD) awarded to Dr. Martin Spencer was split between Seva Canada and the Seva Foundation.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Helen Keller International: Larger global health nonprofit with eye health programs (vitamin A supplementation, trachoma, cataract surgery) alongside nutrition and neglected tropical disease work. Comparable as a broader health-focused organization with significant eye care programming in similar geographies.
• Lions Clubs International Foundation: Major global service organization with a long-standing SightFirst program funding cataract surgeries and eye care infrastructure in developing countries. Operates overlapping eye care programs across many of the same countries as Seva Canada, with materially larger fundraising scale.
• Right to Play: Canadian-headquartered international development charity operating in Asia and Africa. Comparable as a Canadian-registered international development organization with individual donor fundraising, Imagine Canada accreditation, and a similar mission-driven nonprofit governance model.
• Light for the World: International disability inclusion NGO with eye health programs in Africa and Asia, combining cataract surgery with broader disability rights advocacy. Overlaps with Seva Canada's eye care mission but operates on a wider disability-and-inclusion mandate.

Direct peers

• Operation Eyesight Universal: Canadian-based international eye care charity focused on preventing blindness and restoring sight in developing countries, headquartered in Calgary. Directly comparable to Seva Canada in mission, geographic focus (South Asia and Africa), and donor base, and a natural head-to-head competitor for Canadian charitable giving.
• Seva Foundation: Seva Canada's US-based sister organization, founded concurrently and sharing the same mission of preventing blindness in low- and middle-income countries. The two organizations split the 2024 ASCRS Chang-Crandall Award prize and maintain closely aligned program partnerships across Aravind and other global eye care institutions.
• CureBlindness.org (formerly Himalayan Cataract Project): US-based nonprofit focused on curing blindness in the developing world through high-volume cataract surgery and ophthalmic training in regions including Nepal, Ethiopia, and Ghana. Operates in the same geographies and uses the same partner-hospital model as Seva Canada.
• Orbis International: Global eye care nonprofit that combines hospital partnerships, training, and the Flying Eye Hospital to deliver sight-restoring care in low- and middle-income countries. Operates in many of the same geographies as Seva Canada with a similar partner-led model for cataract surgery and pediatric eye care.
• Fred Hollows Foundation: Australia-based international eye care charity with global programs in Africa, South Asia, and the Pacific, focused on cataract surgery and affordable IOL production. Highly comparable to Seva Canada in mission, scale of impact, and partner-led operating model.

Others

• BRAC: One of the world's largest international development NGOs, with health programs including eye care in Bangladesh and several African countries. Not a direct eye care peer but a comparable international development nonprofit operating in similar low-income geographies with a partner-led implementation model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/sevacanada
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/seva-canada
• Instagraminstagram.com/sevacanada

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Seva Canada