Methodology
Charity Breakdownis built on one principle: show the charity’s own filing, itemized so a donor can read it, with peer context instead of editorial grades.
Where does the data come from?
The Canada Revenue Agency publishes every registered charity's annual T3010 Registered Charity Information Return as open data, one dataset per year. This site currently carries the 2020–2024 filings, reproduced under the Open Government Licence — Canada.
How is the $100 receipt computed?
We take a charity's total expenditures (T3010 line 5100) and split it proportionally across its own reported components: charitable programs (5000), management and administration (5010), fundraising (5020), and gifts to other qualified donees (5050, plus line 5045 grants where filed). Anything the total doesn't attribute to those lines prints as Other. Amounts are rounded to whole dollars that always sum to $100.
Is a low fundraising or management number always better?
No. The receipt describes how a charity spends; it does not measure impact. A charity that invests in fundraising may raise far more for its cause; a foundation granting its endowment will naturally show most of its $100 as gifts. That's why we show percentiles against similar charities rather than grades — context, not verdicts.
What are the peer comparisons?
Each charity is grouped with others in the same cause and revenue bracket (for example, health charities with $1M–$10M revenue). Within that group we rank mission share (charitable programs plus grants to other charities — so grant-making research charities aren't penalized for granting), fundraising cost per donated dollar, and reserves. A percentile says where a charity sits in its group; it is not a score.
Why are hospitals and universities in here?
Hospitals, health authorities, universities, colleges, and school boards register as charities so they can issue tax receipts — Alberta Health Services is, on paper, Canada's largest registered charity. Nobody thinks of them as charities in the traditional sense, so we label them publicly funded institutions and keep them out of the flagship charity lists, give them their own ranking, and compare them only against each other. A charity is classed as an institution when the CRA files it as a teaching institution, when a majority of its revenue comes from government (directly, or via health-authority transfers for hospitals), or when it is a public college, polytechnic, or school system by name.
Why don't you show executive salaries?
The CRA discloses compensation in bands, not names or exact figures: a charity reports how many of its ten highest-paid positions fell in each range (up to $350,000 and over). We show exactly that — no more is public.
A charity's numbers look wrong. What should I do?
First check the CRA's own listing — the figures here are the charity's filing, faithfully reproduced, and filing errors exist in the source. Roughly 1.5% of returns don't internally reconcile. If we've made a processing error, email us and we'll correct it.
Questions or corrections: see about.