University of Waterloo is a three-star charity with an above average results reporting grade. It is financially transparent and excluding donor-endowed funds it can cover 14 and a half months of annual program costs.  

Founded in 1957, University of Waterloo (Waterloo) is a public research university in Waterloo, Ontario. Founded on a curriculum of science and engineering, it now has six faculties. Waterloo provides both undergraduate and graduate education. It has research facilities, and offers cooperative education (co-op), and entrepreneurship programs. It strives to be one of the most innovative universities in the world. The university does not provide a breakdown of its spending between learning, research and entrepreneurship.  

In fall 2022, University of Waterloo reported an enrollment of 32,509 undergraduate and 4,967 graduate students. In its student body, 21% of undergraduate and 40% of graduate students are international students. In 2022, Waterloo awarded 7,019 undergraduate degrees and 2,150 graduate degrees. As of 2021 it had a 27:1 student to faculty ratio. Waterloo’s co-op program is the largest in Canada. It had 26,230 students in fall 2022. Waterloo reports that students that take part in its co-op program graduate with up to two years of paid work experience. In 2022 students completed a total of 24,045 co-op work terms. The average student earnings for a typical four-month co-op term were $14,047. 

According to Research Infosource's 2022 ranking, Waterloo was ranked first in Canada for comprehensive research. In F2022, Waterloo received $231.2m in research funding from external sources. University of Waterloo hosts 71 Canada Research Chairs. It also has two Canada 150 Research Chairs, one Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) and two CERC laureates. In 2022 it awarded 354 PhDs. In F2022, Waterloo students and researchers received 97 NSERC post graduate awards and 683 NSERC discovery grants. 

Waterloo places a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship. It reports that as of 2023, its students, faculty, alumni, and staff have founded more than 1,000 ventures. The University of Waterloo hosts Velocity. Velocity is the largest free startup incubator in the world. As of 2023, Waterloo reports that Velocity founders have raised more than $26 billion USD in enterprise value. In F2022, Pitchbook ranked University of Waterloo first in Canada for entrepreneurs.  

University of Waterloo is a Major 100 charity, one of the largest in Canada in terms of donations. In F2022, it received $43.1m in donations and grants. In F2022, University of Waterloo received $403.2m in government funding (35% of total revenues) and $593.2m in tuition fees (58% of total revenues).  

Administrative costs are 2% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 40% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 42%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 58 cents go to the cause. This falls outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. This has been the case for the past three years. In F2021 the calculated overhead spending was 164%. The charity does not disclose government funding on its audited financial statements, so Ci took these values from the charity’s T3010 filing with the CRA and backed them out of donations and grants. However, if some government funding is reported on other line items on the financial statements, the calculated fundraising ratios will be overstated.  

University of Waterloo has $1.5 billion in total reserve funds. These reserve funds are Waterloo’s cash and investments. In these reserve funds, $317.6m is donor endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity could cover 121% or 14 and half months of program costs with its existing reserves. 

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

Updated on May 31, 2023 by Alessandra Castino.