Art Gallery of Ontario is a 2-star charity that is not financially transparent. It has a C- results reporting grade, which is below average. For every dollar donated to the charity, 69 cents are available to go to the cause, which is within Ci's reasonable range. 

Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) was founded in 1900 by a group of private citizens as the Art Museum of Toronto. Today, AGO is one of the largest art museums in North America, with a physical facility of 583,000 square feet. Its mission is to “bring people together with art to see, experience and understand the world in new ways.” AGO runs two programs: Exhibitions and Education & Programming. The charity does not provide a financial breakdown of these two programs. In F2022, 404,463 people visited Art Gallery of Ontario.  

AGO’s fiscal year ends in March. Despite this, its most recent annual report is its F2022.

Art Gallery of Ontario’s Exhibition program runs large exhibitions and smaller installations, acquires art, and sends travelling exhibitions to other museums. In F2022 AGO acquired 213 works of art: three European, seven African, 29 Canadian and Indigenous, 26 modern and contemporary, 131 photographs, and 17 prints. The charity highlighted four special exhibitions it ran in F2022: Andy Warhol (July 2021 – October 2021), Picasso: Painting the Blue Period (October 2021 – January 2022), Fragments of Epic Memory (September 2021 – February 2022), and Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful (December 2021 – April 2022). The charity’s Anthropocene travelling exhibit was on display in Stockholm, Sweden until January 2022. In 2024, the charity will open eight new exhibits.

Art Gallery of Ontario’s Education and Programming program runs talks for the public, camps for children, and various events to promote local artists. In F2022, it ran seven Education and Programming events. AGO and RBC’s Emerging Artists Program finished its tenth year in F2022. This program received over 200 submissions and selected four winners. Each winner’s art was showcased publicly. AGO’s Portraits of Resilience event received over 650 art submissions in an online exhibit.

Charity Intelligence consolidated the operating and foundation’s audited financial statements for this review. Charity Intelligence has done its best to reconcile the Foundation's 2022 year-end with the operating charity's 2023 year-end. 

Art Gallery of Ontario Foundation’s audited financial statements are not posted publicly. The charity refused to provide Ci with the foundation’s audited financial statements upon request. Ci received these statements after a request from the CRA.

In F2023, AGO received $26.2m in donations and $21.1m in gifted works of art. AGO also received $26.0m in government funding, representing 37% of total revenue. Administrative costs are 11% of revenue (excluding investment income) and fundraising costs are 20% of donations. Total overhead spending is 31%. For every dollar donated to AGO, 69 cents are available to go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range.

AGO has $133.9m in reserve funds less interest-bearing loans, and $81.6m in donor-endowed funds. Excluding donor-endowed funds, AGO’s net reserves can cover 146%, or one year and six months of its annual program costs.

In F2023, AGO’s $138.0m in cash and investments returned a loss of $11.1m, and a return of -8%. Over the past 12 years, AGO’s investments returned an average of 5%.

In F2023, AGO paid external fundraisers $293k to collect $775k, at a cost of $0.38 on every dollar.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Art Gallery of Ontario for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on February 13, 2024 by Liam Chapleau.