Description

The goal of a Charitable Organization should be to provide maximum community impact on a social issue at a reasonable cost. The expenses associated with operations, promotion, and fundraising are important financial inputs to meeting this goal. The administration of these expenses must be a top priority of the Charitable Organization’s management. Its donors and regulator want to ensure there is competent administration of expenses.

In this report we examine the expenses of Canada’s Charitable and Philanthropic Sector to understand how it is performing on these obligations.

We provide analytical insight through the following studies:

• Total Expenses for all Charitable Organizations, and also excluding the dominant Core Healthcare category, for each of the five years from 2016 to 2020.
• Total Expenses as a percentage of Total Revenue for all Charitable Organizations in each of the five years from 2016 to 2020.
• Expense Allocations between Charitable Activities, Management & Administration, Fundraising Expenses, and Other Expenses for all Charitable Organizations, and also excluding the dominant Core Healthcare category, in 2020.
• A comparison of this 2020 Expense Allocation with 2016.
• A comparison of this 2020 Expense Allocation between Small Charities and Large Charities.
• Total Expenses for all Charitable Organizations by Charity Category in 2020.
• The breakdown of Charity Expenses for all Charitable Organizations, and excluding the dominant Core Healthcare category, by type of expense for 2020 compared to 2016.
• The percentage change in each type of expense reported by all Charitable Organizations between 2016 and 2020.
• The percentage change in each type of expense reported by Small Charities compared to Large Charities between 2016 and 2020.
• The Management Expense Ratio for all Charitable Organizations for each of the five years from 2016 to 2020.
• The Management Expense Ratio for all Charitable Organizations by Category of Charity for each of the five years from 2016 to 2020.
• The Fundraising Expense Ratio for all Charitable Organizations for each of the five years from 2016 to 2020.
• The Fundraising Expense Ratio for all Charitable Organizations by Category of Charity for each of the five years from 2016 to 2020.