Dalhousie University is a 3-star charity. As with most large universities, the charity has an above average results reporting grade and is financially transparent. It has reasonable overhead costs.

Founded in 1818, Dalhousie University is a public university in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dalhousie has 13 faculties and offers over 4,000 courses and more than 200 different degree programs. Dalhousie’s main charitable programs are education and research. It did not disclose a spending breakdown of its programs on its website. 

In December of 2023, Dalhousie had 21,088 enrolled students. This included 16,124 undergraduate students and 4,964 graduate students. Dalhousie reports that 21% of its students are international students. The university reports that it facilitated 2,807 work terms for its students, as well as 1,792 work integrated learning and co-op opportunities. 

Currenlty, Dalhousie is home to 56 research chairs. In F2024, it reports that there are 3,014 active research files. Dalhousie states that in F2024 it had 22 publications per million dollars in research funding, and that 50% of its publications were with international co-authors.  

Dalhousie University is a Major 100 charity, one of Canada’s largest charities in terms of donations. In F2024 it received $80.1m in donations. Dalhousie also received $406.2m in government funding (37% of total revenue) and $305.3m in fees for service (28% of total revenue). Administrative costs are 5% of total revenue excluding investment income and the charity does not report fundraising costs in F2024. This results in total overhead spending of 5%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 95 cents are available for programs. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

In F2024, Dalhousie spent $796.0m on its programs, which is 73% of total revenues. The charity had a surplus of $243.1m (22% of revenues) and $75.9m in capital expenditures (7%).   

Dalhousie has $1.4 billion in net funding reserves, which includes $1.6 billion in liquid assets less $150.1m in interest-bearing debts. Its net funding reserves include $688.7m in donor-endowed funds. Dalhousie’s net funding reserves, excluding donor-endowed funds, can cover annual program costs for around 11 months. 

Charity Intelligence has sent this profile update to Dalhousie University for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on August 9, 2024 by Alessandra Castino.