The Wilson Foundation la Fondation Wilson
Publicly funded institution · Oakville, Ontario · BN 877826529RR0001 · Foundations
Source: T3010 return, FPE 2024-12-31. Split of total expenditures ($2,207,777) as filed with the CRA.
The Wilson Foundation la Fondation Wilson is a private foundation based in Oakville, Ontario, 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 December 31, 2024, it reported $1.7M in revenue and $2.2M in expenditures. Spending exceeded revenue that year — the gap came out of reserves.
Its funding that year was roughly 100% from government. Government funding is the majority of its budget.
Compared with 47 grantmaking institutions of similar size, its share of spending on mission — charitable programs plus grants to other charities — ranked above 15% of peers. Its highest-paid position fell in the $40,000–79,999 range. The charity reported 1 permanent full-time position.
As a grantmaker, it reported gifts to 11 qualified donees totalling $1.4M in 2024, the largest being $600K to The Royal Conservatory. Revenue has grown substantially over its filings on record here, from $121K in 2020 to $1.7M in 2024. Its filed list of directors and trustees shows 4 names.
In its own words
The wilson foundation supports charitable projects or initiatives which will strengthen and enrich canada in the areas of education leadership community history and heritage and public policy and public service where a gift will make a discernable difference and where appropriate attract additional (matching) support.
Ongoing-program description from its T3010 filing, verbatim.
The ledger, 2020–2024
| Year | Revenue | Spending | Programs | Fundraising | Gifts out | Net assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $1.7M | $2.2M | $78K | — | $1.4M | $28.4M |
| 2023 | $5.8M | $23.3M | $40K | — | $18.5M | $28.9M |
| 2022 | $8M | $40.5M | $28K | — | $25.6M | $46.4M |
| 2021 | $18.3M | $3.7M | $23K | — | $3.6M | $78.9M |
| 2020 | $121K | $3.4M | $23K | — | $3.3M | $64.3M |
Revenue printed in red where the year ran a deficit. Fiscal years by period end.
Money between charities, 2024
Granted $1.4M to 11 qualified donees:
- The Royal Conservatory$600K
- Aqueduct Foundation$400K
- The Governing Council of the University of Toronto$200K
- Canada's National History Society/societe d'Histoire Nationale du Canada$100K
- Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning$25K
- United Way Golden Horseshoe$25K
- McMaster University$25K
- The Fraser Institute$25K
- C.D. Howe Institute$25K
- Queen's University at Kingston$20K
- Bishop's University Foundation$5,000
As reported on the donors’ own T3010 qualified-donee schedules.
What it pays
Its ten highest-paid positions, by band:
- $40,000–79,9991 position
- Permanent full-time positions1
- Total compensation, all staff$87K
Schedule 3 of its 2024 return. The CRA discloses bands, not names or exact salaries.
Directors & trustees (2024)
David Masse (secretary); Brenda Wilson (director); Lynton Wilson (chairman); Peter Sharpe (director).
As listed on its 2024 return.
Check the source
Every figure on this page is from The Wilson Foundation la Fondation Wilson’s own T3010 filings, published by the Canada Revenue Agency. Verify against the CRA’s charities listing (search BN 877826529RR0001), or read how we compute the receipt.