Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation is a 3-star rated charity. It has an average results reporting score and is financially transparent. However, this charity has overhead spending outside of Ci’s reasonable range and enough in its reserve funds to cover almost five years of program spending. 

Founded in 1982, Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation (PMCF) raises money to support research, education, and patient care at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PMCC). This Centre is a part of the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto. It treats over 200 types of cancer and receives 254,000 clinic visits each year. Currently, cancer is the number one cause of death in Canada, with over 200 people dying from the disease every day. 

Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation has not yet posted its F2023 annual report at the time of this update. The overview and results refer to F2022 and earlier. 

In F2022, PMCF granted $114.5m to Princess Margaret Cancer Center. The charity reports spending for the majority of its work under the heading of Research, Education, & Patient Care but does not provide a breakdown of spending between these different areas. 

Research, Education, and Patient Care represented 93% of grants ($106.5m by Ci calculations) in F2022. Through its research work, PMCF had over 1,200 peer-reviewed publications in F2022. During the year, PMCF introduced the new Yamana Gold Discovery to Impact Grant for high-risk, high-reward projects. Drs. Khokha, Kislinger, and Berman received this grant to research ways to target fatty acid metabolism to prevent breast cancer. In terms of education, PMCF supports training programs for students and fellows. The charity did not provide the total number of students for F2022, but in F2020 it had 270 research trainees, 176 fellows, and 146 residents. For patient care, PMCF reports that it treats about 18,000 new patients and performs over 6,000 surgeries each year. In F2022, the charity started a genetic testing program for all 1,300 of its breast cancer patients. PMCF reports that 22% of patients at PMCC are enrolled in clinical trials, which is almost double the average in Canada. 

In F2022, the remaining program spending was split between Buildings (4% - $4.6m) and Equipment (3% - $3.4m). Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation raised funds to open C-labs in PMCC. These labs allow for more collaboration between doctors.

Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation is a Major 100 charity, one of Canada’s largest in terms of donations. It received $105.0m in donations and special events revenue in F2023. PMCF also received $72.6m in net lottery revenue, representing 40% of revenues during the year. Combined administrative and fundraising costs are 38% of revenues (less investment income and net lotteries). For every dollar donated to the charity, 62 cents go to the cause. This is just outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

PMCF has reserve funds of $860.6m, of which $192.9m is donor endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity’s funding reserves can cover almost five years of annual grant costs. Its funding reserves do not include a $16.7m endowment fund held by the University of Toronto for the benefit of graduate students conducting research at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. 

PMCF’s funding reserves contributed $16.5m in investment income in F2023, at an estimated rate of return of 2% (compared to an investment income of $37.1m at a return of 5% in F2022). Over the last three years, Ci estimates that the charity’s investment returns have averaged 8%. PMCF has outstanding commitments to invest $9.1m in private capital over the next three to five years. 

Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation discloses multiple related party transactions with University Health Network (UHN). In F2023, it paid $144.0m in grants to UHN (by Ci calculation). It paid UHN a further $17.1m for salaries, $1.7m for a lease payment for office space, and $75k for general office expenses. PMCF also paid $846k to UHN towards its outstanding accounts payable. 

PMCF received funding from UHN during the year as well. In F2023, PMCF collected $7.2m from UHN to pay off outstanding accounts receivable from prior years. The charity additionally received $1.1m in royalty payments which was included as fundraising revenue in the audited financial statements. 

Included in donations for PMCF, $10.9m came from affiliated foundations in F2023. This is money that travels from donors through UHN to PMCF. PMCF received $6.6m in F2022 and $480k in F2021 from affiliated foundations, so this amount has been steadily increasing. 

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on July 28, 2023 by Clive Stevens.