Vancouver Symphony Society
Charitable organization · Vancouver, British Columbia · BN 119282283RR0001 · Arts
Source: T3010 return, FPE 2024-06-30. Split of total expenditures ($23,828,348) as filed with the CRA.
Vancouver Symphony Society is a charitable organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, classified by the CRA under arts. In its fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, it reported $23.9M in revenue and $23.8M in expenditures.
Its funding that year was roughly 13% from donations, 19% from government, 16% from other charities. In 2024, 37 other registered charities reported granting it a combined $3.7M.
Compared with 39 arts charities of similar size, its share of spending on mission — charitable programs plus grants to other charities — ranked above 54% of peers. Its highest-paid position fell in the $350,000 and over range. The charity reported 50 permanent full-time positions.
It reported gifts to 2 qualified donees totalling $217K in 2024, the largest being $167K to Vancouver Symphony Foundation. Revenue has grown substantially over its filings on record here, from $15.5M in 2020 to $23.9M in 2024. Its filed list of directors and trustees shows 19 names.
In its own words
The vancouver symphony orchestra has served its community by performing a wide variety of concerts for audiences of all ages ethnic backgrounds and financial means. It has recruited many of canada's finest orchestral musicians to live and work in the vancouver lower mainland enriching the overall music and educational scene of the region.
Ongoing-program description from its T3010 filing, verbatim.
The ledger, 2020–2024
| Year | Revenue | Spending | Programs | Fundraising | Gifts out | Net assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $23.9M | $23.8M | $19.7M | $1.8M | $217K | $1.2M |
| 2023 | $21.7M | $20.7M | $17.4M | $1.3M | $151K | $1.2M |
| 2022 | $17.3M | $16.6M | $138.7M | $943K | — | $279K |
| 2021 | $13M | $13M | $8.7M | $1M | $1.7M | -$335K |
| 2020 | $15.5M | $15.5M | $12.9M | $984K | — | -$510K |
Revenue printed in red where the year ran a deficit. Fiscal years by period end.
Money between charities, 2024
Granted $217K to 2 qualified donees:
Received $3.7M from 37 charities:
- Vancouver Symphony Foundation$2.7M
- Vancouver Foundation$286K
- Jemini Foundation$88K
- R & J Stern Family Foundation$70K
- RBC Foundation$50K
- The Tuey Charitable Foundation$50K
- The Connor Clark & Lunn Foundation$50K
- CHIMP: Charitable Impact Foundation (Canada)$44K
- The London Drugs Foundation$40K
- Canada Gives$37K
- The Victoria Foundation$32K
- The River Foundation$28K
- Timothy A. Young Family Foundation$25K
- The Christopher Foundation$25K
- Nicola Wealth Private Giving Foundation$24K
- United Way British Columbia$19K
- Martha Lou Henley Charitable Foundation$15K
- Werner & Helga Hoing Foundation$15K
- The Lecky Foundation$10K
- Charitable Gift Funds Canada Foundation$9,600
- Canadahelps Canadon$5,929
- ZLC Foundation$5,200
- Jewish Federation of British Columbia$5,000
- Aqueduct Foundation$5,000
- Lutsky Family Foundation$5,000
As reported on the donors’ own T3010 qualified-donee schedules.
What it pays
Its ten highest-paid positions, by band:
- $350,000 and over1 position
- $200,000–249,9991 position
- $160,000–199,9991 position
- $120,000–159,9994 positions
- $80,000–119,9993 positions
- Permanent full-time positions50
- Total compensation, all staff$11.8M
Schedule 3 of its 2024 return. The CRA discloses bands, not names or exact salaries.
Directors & trustees (2024)
Jonathan Berkowitz (director); James Carter (director); Manijeh Colabella (director); Timothy Cuffe (director); Holden Chow (director); Feisal Dedhar (director); Yuan Shi (director); Jaci Edgeworth (director); David Garofalo (vice chair); Suzanne Anton (director); Ben Mink (director); Andrew Gubbels (director); Jan Laishley (director); Dennis Thomas-Whonoak (director); Edward Wang (director); Vincent Kam Sun Yip (director); Beverly Pao (director); Rianna Ritchie (director); Russell Foster (director).
As listed on its 2024 return.
Check the source
Every figure on this page is from Vancouver Symphony Society’s own T3010 filings, published by the Canada Revenue Agency. Verify against the CRA’s charities listing (search BN 119282283RR0001), or read how we compute the receipt.