Notes
Short pieces on how to read what charities file, written from the same data the rest of this site runs on.
- Canada publishes charity pay in bands, not names — and the top band has no ceilingJust over half of Canadian charities file the compensation schedule. It reports how many of the ten highest-paid positions fall in each pay band, never who they are or what any one person earns — and 1,886 filings for 2024 report more positions than the form asks about.
- Foundation or charitable organization — and why the label changes what the numbers meanCanada sorts every registered charity into one of three designations, and 86% are the same one. The distinction matters because foundations often exist to fund other charities, which makes their spending figures read very differently for reasons that have nothing to do with how they are run.
- How to check a charity in the ten minutes after a disasterWhen a wildfire or a flood is on the news, the appeals arrive faster than any data can describe them. Here is what can actually be verified in that window, what cannot, and why this site's figures are the wrong tool for it.
- What a disbursement quota shortfall does and doesn't mean1,426 Canadian charities reported spending below their required minimum in 2024. For most of them that is not a breach of anything, and the reason is written into the Income Tax Act.
- The newest charity figures in Canada are about two years oldThe most recent complete filing year available is 2024, and it will be 2024 for a while yet. That is not a gap in this site — it is how the CRA's publication cycle works, and it changes what these numbers can be used for.
- Why most charities have no "overhead ratio"Of the 83,578 charities that filed for 2024, fewer than one in five reported all three spending lines. The famous programs-versus-admin percentage does not exist for most of the sector, and where it does exist it measures something narrower than people think.
- The 31 December deadline, and the four things about it people get wrongA donation has to be made by 31 December to be claimed for that year — but "made" has a precise meaning, the receipt is not guaranteed, the claim does not have to happen this year, and the deadline has moved once already.
Told when a charity files
Charities file with the CRA once a year, and the figures on this site change when they do. Leave your address and we will send you a link to confirm it.
One kind of email, no newsletter, and an unsubscribe link on every message.