Excellence in Literacy Foundation
Publicly funded institution · Richmond, Ontario · BN 863717385RR0001 · Teaching Institutions · website
Source: T3010 return, FPE 2024-03-31. Split of total expenditures ($233,210) as filed with the CRA.
Excellence in Literacy Foundation is a charitable organization based in Richmond, Ontario, classified by the CRA under teaching institutions. 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 $228K in revenue and $233K in expenditures.
Its funding that year was roughly 5% from donations, 88% from other charities. In 2024, 6 other registered charities reported granting it a combined $95K.
Compared with 1,540 education institutions of similar size, its share of spending on mission — charitable programs plus grants to other charities — ranked above 77% of peers. Its highest-paid positions fell in the $40,000–79,999 range (3 positions in that band). The charity reported 3 permanent full-time positions.
It reported gifts to 8 qualified donees totalling $18K in 2024, the largest being $4,000 to Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia. Its filed list of directors and trustees shows 7 names.
In its own words
The mandate of the excellence in literacy foundation (elf) is to support sustainable effective and ethical children's literacy programs. We do this by providing micro-funding materials workshops and ongoing support to national registered canadian charities serving children in low income families (many of whom are from newcomer and indigenous communities) as well as youth with learning exceptionalites. The elf also provides direct literacy life-skills and leadership programs to children who are experiencing barriers in ottawa.
Ongoing-program description from its T3010 filing, verbatim.
The ledger, 2020–2024
| Year | Revenue | Spending | Programs | Fundraising | Gifts out | Net assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $228K | $233K | $205K | $6,856 | $18K | $317K |
| 2023 | $248K | $306K | $223K | $20K | $43K | $322K |
| 2022 | $261K | $256K | $181K | $26K | $26K | $338K |
| 2021 | $284K | $249K | $181K | $17K | $27K | $329K |
| 2020 | $309K | $269K | $198K | $9,047 | $42K | $294K |
Revenue printed in red where the year ran a deficit. Fiscal years by period end.
Money between charities, 2024
Granted $18K to 8 qualified donees:
Received $95K from 6 charities:
As reported on the donors’ own T3010 qualified-donee schedules.
What it pays
Its ten highest-paid positions, by band:
- $40,000–79,9993 positions
- Permanent full-time positions3
- Total compensation, all staff$177K
Schedule 3 of its 2024 return. The CRA discloses bands, not names or exact salaries.
Directors & trustees (2024)
Wendy Callan (chair); George Koutsos (secretary-treasurer); Luwam Kidane (director); Aly Virani (director); Sharon Broughton (director); Parmida Barezpour (director); Tess Acton (vice-chair).
As listed on its 2024 return.
Check the source
Every figure on this page is from Excellence in Literacy Foundation’s own T3010 filings, published by the Canada Revenue Agency. Verify against the CRA’s charities listing (search BN 863717385RR0001), or read how we compute the receipt.