Founded in 1845, Archdiocese of Toronto (AOC) was established to provide Roman Catholic Church services to members of the parishes and community. Activities by AOC include building and renovating religious buildings; establishing missions and chaplaincies; teaching Catholic faith through religious services, courses, retreats, and seminars; disseminating Catholic religion using various types of media like print and broadcast media; working with other Catholic organizations; providing funds and services in the evangelization of the Catholic church; and responding to disaster relief.

In 2020, AOC had 1 archbishop, 4 auxiliary bishops, 381 diocesan priests, 385 religious order priests, 151 permanent deacons, 45 brothers, and 440 sisters. There were 226 parishes, 22 missions, and 2 chapels within AOC. In terms of Catholic schools within AOC, there were 6 Catholic school boards, 485 Catholic elementary schools, 99 Catholic secondary schools, and 1 postsecondary Catholic institute. AOC performed 7,797 baptisms, 4,786 of which were for babies under the age of one; 8,019 confirmations; 9,665 first communions; 1,071 marriages; and 7,235 funerals.

Archdiocese of Toronto is not financially transparent. It does not provide its audited financial statements. This heavily redacted version used for analysis comes from the CRA Charities Directorate.

Archdiocese of Toronto’s financial statements do not use non-profit accounting standards which is highly unusual. Instead, each year AOT writes down all spending on its properties. As such, AOT reports its land and buildings have a $2 value. If accounting standards were used, AOT’s auditors estimate these properties would have an estimated book value of $940 million. The auditor also notes that these financial statements do not include the required disclosures of Archdiocese of Toronto’s controlled and related entities. As such, this financial review is incomplete.

Archdiocese of Toronto is a Major 100 charity, one of Canada’s largest charities, receiving $133 million in donations in 2020. Its administrative costs are 7% of donations and fundraising costs are 1% of donations. For every dollar raised, 8 cents are spent on overhead costs with 92 cents going to the diocese, parishes, and international transfers. This is within Charity Intelligence’s reasonable range.

Archdiocese of Toronto has funding reserves of cash and investments worth $85 million. Relative to its annual spending on religious services and parish transfers, this covers 4 months of its annual spending. In addition, Archdiocese of Toronto has committed to spend $41 million for construction, renovations, and land purchases. Funding reserves do not include advances to controlled and related entities of $17 million.

In 2003, Archdiocese of Toronto launched its “Family of Faith Capital Campaign” to raise $105m. To date, this campaign has received $143m of which $22m is held for future disbursements to parishes and diocesan priorities.

Archdiocese of Toronto uses external fundraisers. In 2019, external fundraisers were paid $95k and raised $23 million.

This report is an update to Charity Intelligence’s first report in August 2019 on Archdiocese of Toronto. It has been sent to the charity. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Financial review completed by Kate Bahen. Updated July 28, 2021, by Shira Wine.