Brain Canada Foundation
Publicly funded institution · Montreal, Quebec · BN 891052094RR0001 · Foundations
Source: T3010 return, FPE 2024-03-31. Split of total expenditures ($33,253,022) as filed with the CRA.
Brain Canada Foundation is a public foundation based in Montreal, Quebec, classified by the CRA under foundations. 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 $32.8M in revenue and $33.3M in expenditures.
Its funding that year was roughly 7% from donations, 71% from government, 20% from other charities. Government funding is the majority of its budget. In 2024, 28 other registered charities reported granting it a combined $2.4M.
Compared with 23 grantmaking institutions of similar size, its share of spending on mission — charitable programs plus grants to other charities — ranked above 70% of peers. Its highest-paid position fell in the $300,000–349,999 range. The charity reported 20 permanent full-time positions.
As a grantmaker, it reported gifts to 48 qualified donees totalling $28.5M in 2024, the largest being $3.6M to The Governors of The University of Calgary. Revenue has grown substantially over its filings on record here, from $14.5M in 2020 to $32.8M in 2024. Its filed list of directors and trustees shows 15 names.
In its own words
Brain canada is a national non-profit organization that enables and supports excellent innovative paradigm-changine brain research in canada. It plays a unique and invaluable role as the national convener of the brain research community. We join people labs and platforms across the country as well as institutions organizations and sectors - to drive innovation and foster and interconnected brain research system. Our work enables canada to excell and make even greater contributions to the global quest to understand the brain and identify solutions to brain disorders. By developing tr…
Ongoing-program description from its T3010 filing, verbatim.
The ledger, 2020–2024
| Year | Revenue | Spending | Programs | Fundraising | Gifts out | Net assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $32.8M | $33.3M | $2.3M | $1.3M | $28.6M | $1.7M |
| 2023 | $12.4M | $13.1M | $598K | $273K | $12M | $2.1M |
| 2022 | $24.5M | $24.1M | $2.1M | $1.2M | $19.9M | $2.8M |
| 2021 | $24.1M | $24.6M | $1.7M | $880K | $21.2M | $2.4M |
| 2020 | $14.5M | $14M | $1.9M | $770K | $10.5M | $2.9M |
Revenue printed in red where the year ran a deficit. Fiscal years by period end.
Money between charities, 2024
Granted $28.5M to 48 qualified donees — largest 25 shown:
- The Governors of The University of Calgary$3.6M
- McGill University Health Centre$3.2M
- University Health Network$3M
- The Governors of the University of Alberta$2.1M
- Centre de Recherche de l'Hopital Douglas - Douglas Hospital Research Centre$2.1M
- The University of Western Ontario$1.9M
- Université Laval$1.8M
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health$1.2M
- Women's Brain Health Initiative$1.1M
- The Governing Council of the University of Toronto$860K
- The Hospital for Sick Children$753K
- Sunnybrook Research Institute$727K
- Université de Montréal$720K
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine$607K
- St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton$573K
- The University of Manitoba$513K
- The University of British Columbia$393K
- Queen's University at Kingston$357K
- Ottawa Heart Institute Research Corporation-Corporation de Recherches de l'institut de Cardiologie d'ottawa$286K
- Centre Hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal$280K
- Unity Health Toronto$263K
- University of Ottawa$251K
- L'Institut de Recherche du Centre Universitaire de Santé McGill The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre$201K
- Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux du Centre-Ouest-de-L'Île-de-Montréal$192K
- Lawson Research Institute/institut de Recherches Lawson$182K
Received $2.4M from 28 charities:
- The Azrieli Foundation$1M
- RBC Foundation$617K
- The Erika Legacy Foundation$210K
- The Canadian Red Cross Society$103K
- GiftPact Foundation Inc.$100K
- The Krembil Foundation$73K
- Hewitt Foundation$55K
- Arrell Family Foundation$50K
- Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation$50K
- BenefAction Foundation$45K
- The Barbara Turnbull Foundation for Spinal Cord Research$25K
- The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation$25K
- Canadahelps Canadon$17K
- The Mireille and Murray Steinberg Family Foundation/La Fondation de la Famille Mireille et Muuray Steinberg$15K
- Canadian Online Giving Foundation$11K
- The London Drugs Foundation$10K
- Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto$6,320
- Kacharie Foundation$2,500
- Aqueduct Foundation$2,000
- United Way East Ontario / Centraide Est de l'Ontario$1,707
- BC Government Employees Community Services Fund Trust$1,506
- Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal$1,036
- Arbor Memorial Foundation$1,000
- United Way of Greater Toronto$250
- Charitable Gift Funds Canada Foundation$250
As reported on the donors’ own T3010 qualified-donee schedules.
What it pays
Its ten highest-paid positions, by band:
- $300,000–349,9991 position
- $200,000–249,9991 position
- $160,000–199,9993 positions
- $120,000–159,9992 positions
- $80,000–119,9993 positions
- Permanent full-time positions20
- Total compensation, all staff$2.7M
Schedule 3 of its 2024 return. The CRA discloses bands, not names or exact salaries.
Directors & trustees (2024)
Naomi Azrieli (chair); Shernaz Bamji (director); Wayne Bossert (chair audit finance inves); Anne-Marie Boucher (chair gnec); France Chrétien-Desmarais (chair sc); Graham Collingridge (director); Peter Dhillon (director); Jane Enright (director); Blair Levinsky (director); Ravi Menon (director); David Park (chair research committee); Joel Reitman (director); Larry Tanenbaum (vice chair); Valerie Taylor (director); Franco Vaccarino (director).
As listed on its 2024 return.
Check the source
Every figure on this page is from Brain Canada Foundation’s own T3010 filings, published by the Canada Revenue Agency. Verify against the CRA’s charities listing (search BN 891052094RR0001), or read how we compute the receipt.