Mastercard Foundation
Public foundation · Toronto, Ontario · BN 817387277RR0001 · Organizations Relieving Poverty · website
Source: T3010 return, FPE 2024-12-31. Split of total expenditures ($2,250,123,812) as filed with the CRA.
Mastercard Foundation is a public foundation based in Toronto, Ontario, classified by the CRA under organizations relieving poverty. In its fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, it reported $13.4B in revenue and $2.3B in expenditures.
Compared with 147 poverty-relief charities of similar size, its share of spending on mission — charitable programs plus grants to other charities — ranked above 65% of peers. Its reserves, measured in years of spending on hand, sat in the top decile of the group. Its highest-paid positions fell in the $350,000 and over range (10 positions in that band). The charity reported 627 permanent full-time positions.
As a grantmaker, it reported gifts to 64 qualified donees totalling $552.2M in 2024, the largest being $55.6M to Arizona State University. Revenue has grown substantially over its filings on record here, from $6.5B in 2020 to $13.4B in 2024. Its filed list of directors and trustees shows 11 names.
In its own words
The fondation's mission is to advance youth education and promote financial inclusion for financially disadvantaged persons and communities. With a focus on africa the foundation aims to expand access to learning employment entrepreneurship and financial services for people living in poverty. To further strengthen the field the foundation seeks to share its learning and best practices within the financial inclusion youth livelihoods educational and learning sectors.
Ongoing-program description from its T3010 filing, verbatim.
The ledger, 2020–2024
| Year | Revenue | Spending | Programs | Fundraising | Gifts out | Net assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $13.4B | $2.3B | $1.2B | — | $857.4M | $72.4B |
| 2023 | $19.5B | $2.1B | $1.2B | — | $796.2M | $55.8B |
| 2022 | -$233.2M | $1.8B | $892.2M | — | $864.6M | $39.6B |
| 2021 | $1B | $1.9B | $613M | — | $1.2B | $39B |
| 2020 | $6.5B | $1.3B | $857.3M | — | $358.4M | $40.1B |
Revenue printed in red where the year ran a deficit. Fiscal years by period end.
Money between charities, 2024
Granted $552.2M to 64 qualified donees — largest 25 shown:
- Arizona State University$55.6M
- Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami$51M
- Unicef the United Nations Children's Fund$47.2M
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees$46.1M
- University of Oxford$38.7M
- American University of Beirut$31.4M
- Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning$22.2M
- Canadian Unicef Committee$21.2M
- World Food Programme$20.5M
- University of California Berkeley$20.2M
- Digital Opportunity Trust$18.2M
- The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences - Next Einstein Initiative Foundation (Canada)$18M
- Colleges and Institutes Canada/Collèges et Instituts Canada$16.1M
- Tufts University$13M
- Amref Health Africa in Canada$11.4M
- United Nations Capital Development Fund$10M
- United Nations Development Programme$9.1M
- CARE Canada$8.4M
- Queen's University at Kingston$7.5M
- War Child Canada$6.8M
- The University of Lethbridge$6M
- Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies$5.9M
- University of Pretoria$5M
- World University Service of Canada/l'entraide Universitaire Mondiale du Canada$4.9M
- Seven Generations Education Institute$4.4M
As reported on the donors’ own T3010 qualified-donee schedules.
What it pays
Its ten highest-paid positions, by band:
- $350,000 and over10 positions
- Permanent full-time positions627
- Total compensation, all staff$112.7M
Schedule 3 of its 2024 return. The CRA discloses bands, not names or exact salaries.
Directors & trustees (2024)
Zein Abdalla (board chair); Sewit Ahderom (director); Valerie Amos (director); Louise Arbour (director); Jennifer Fonstad (director); Tsega Gebreyes (director); Jay Ireland (director); Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (director); Michael Sabia (director); Robin Washington (director); Carole Wainana (director).
As listed on its 2024 return.
Check the source
Every figure on this page is from Mastercard Foundation’s own T3010 filings, published by the Canada Revenue Agency. Verify against the CRA’s charities listing (search BN 817387277RR0001), or read how we compute the receipt.