University of Toronto is a top-rated 5-star charity and one of Canada's largest charities. As with most large universities, it has a high results reporting grade and is financially transparent. The university's funding reserves can cover program costs for under 2 years.

Founded in 1827 as King’s College, University of Toronto (U of T) is a public research university in Ontario. U of T is the oldest university in Ontario. Today, U of T spans three campuses: St. George campus in downtown Toronto, Mississauga campus, and Scarborough campus. U of T offers over 700 undergraduate programs and over 300 graduate programs to students in a variety of fields. It also has more than 1,100 student clubs across its three campuses. The university’s main charitable programs are education, research, and renovations.

In Fall 2021, University of Toronto had 97,066 students enrolled, including 75,582 undergraduate students and 21,484 graduate students. U of T reported having international students from 170 different countries and regions. This included 15,671 students from China, 2,082 students from India, and 1,171 students from the US. U of T’s St. George campus has 11 student residence buildings which can house 5,943 students. Its Mississauga campus can house 1,357 students, and its Scarborough campus can house 814 students.

University of Toronto reported having 15,111 faculty members, and 9,979 staff members in fall 2020. During the year it also had 739 post-doctoral fellows and 5,834 teaching assistants. In the past decade, U of T entrepreneurs have secured over $1.5 billion in funding and have created over 500 startup companies.

University of Toronto is a Major 100 charity, one of Canada’s largest charities in terms of donations. In F2021, it received $394.0m in Canadian donations, which represents a 231% increase from F2020. It also received $2.0 billion in student fees (43% of total revenue), and $1.2 billion in government funding (27% of total revenue). In F2021, the university earned $786.0m in investment income, which represents a 15% annual return. Its average annual investment return since 2015 is 6%. From 2015 to 2021, the average annual investment return of the S&P 500 is around 13%. Investments in hedge funds make up 8% of the university’s portfolio. In 2021 Moody’s gave University of Toronto an Aa1 stable credit rating.

U of T administrative costs are 3% of total revenue excluding investment income. Fundraising costs are 9% of Canadian donations. This results in total overhead spending of 12%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 88 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Ci used the charity’s T3010 filing with the CRA to report administrative and fundraising costs. The T3010 reported $348.3m less in total spending than the audited financial statements in F2021.

U of T has $6.2 billion in net funding reserves ($6.9 billion in liquid assets less $709.0m in interest-bearing debts). Its liquid assets also include $2.7 billion in donor-endowed funds. The university’s net funding reserves, excluding donor-endowed funds, can cover around 1 year and 4 months of annual program costs.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to University of Toronto. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 14th, 2022 by Arjun Kapur.