Carleton University is a three-star charity and one of Canada's largest charities. As with most large universities, it has a high results reporting grade and is financially transparent. The university's funding reserves can cover program costs for under one year. In F2021 and F2020, Carleton University does not report administrative costs or fundraising costs separately on its audited financial statements or its T3010 filing with the CRA. As a result, no overhead spending is reported for these years.

Founded in 1942, Carleton University (Carleton) is a public university in Ottawa, Ontario. Carleton’s campus is 62 hectares and is located just south of Ottawa’s city centre. It borders the Rideau Canal which is a UNESCO heritage site. The university has six faculties that offer 132 undergraduate programs, 68 master’s programs, and 41 doctoral programs. Carleton’s main charitable programs are education, research, and renovations. 

In F2022, Carleton University had 31,409 students enrolled, including 27,026 undergraduate students and 4,383 graduate students. 20,546 of the undergraduate students are full-time and 6,480 are part-time. 3,838 of the graduate students are full-time and 545 are part-time. In F2022, the university reports that 48% of its undergraduate students were women. It also reports that 12.3% of undergraduate students were from outside of Canada.

Carleton had 1,016 faculty members, 1,403 staff members, 893 contract instructors and 2,020 graduate teaching assistants in F2022. In F2020, it had 28 Canada Research Chairs, 25 Order of Canada recipients, and one Canada 150 Research Chair. During the year, it funded 59 covid-19 research projects. In F2021, the university opened The Nicol Building for the Sprott School of Business. The building is over 100,000 square feet and had a budget of $65.1m.

Carleton University is a Major 100 charity, one of Canada’s largest charities in terms of donations. In F2021, Carleton received $26.2m in donations. The university received $336.0m in student fees (46% of total revenue) and $243.4m in government funding (33% of total revenue). It also earned $94.3m in investment income (13% of total revenue), representing a 23% annual return. Carleton’s average annual investment return Since F2019 is 12%. The average annual investment return of the S&P 500 from 2019 to 2021 is around 24%. 

Carleton does not report administrative costs or fundraising costs on its audited financial statements or its T3010 filing with the CRA for both F2021 and F2020. As a result, no overhead spending is reported for these years. In F2019, total overhead spending was 24%. In F2019, for every dollar donated to the charity, 76 cents went to the cause.

The university has $897.9m in net funding reserves ($957.2m in liquid assets less $59.3m in interest-bearing debts). Its liquid assets also include $344.1m in donor-endowed funds. Carleton’s net funding reserves, excluding donor-endowed funds, can cover annual program costs for around one year.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Carleton University for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 13th, 2022 by Arjun Kapur.