Glenbow Museum is a 1-star rated charity with large funding reserves that can cover program spending for over 11 years. The charity has persistently high fundraising costs leading to overhead spending outside Charity Intelligence’s reasonable range. Before you give, read Charity Intelligence’s report.

Founded in 1967, Glenbow Museum (Glenbow) is an art museum based in Calgary, Alberta. According to the charity, its 33,000 pieces of art make it the largest public art collection in Western Canada. About two-thirds of the collection was created by artists from Calgary, Alberta and the rest of Canada. Aside from its collection, Glenbow Museum also operates a student education program where it offers interactive learning experiences. The charity does not disclose how much it spent on each program in F2021.

In F2021, 7,075 people attended Glenbow Museum. 2,971 of these visitors received complimentary admission. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the museum was only open to the public for 39 days between August 1, 2020, and December 6, 2020. In response, the charity launched a social media campaign called #GlenbowFromHome: twice-weekly video or virtual content posted across Glenbow’s digital and social media channels. In F2021, Glenbow reached 888,519 people through its social media posts.

The education program is designed to engage with students through a hands-on learning experience. In F2021, Glenbow Museum hosted 199 virtual school programs and 122 Indigenous programs. In total, 6,019 students participated in virtual school programs.

Glenbow Museum received $1.9m in donations in F2021. The charity also received $3.8m in government funding (54% of revenues). Administrative costs are 26% of revenues (excluding investment income), and fundraising costs are 51% of donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, 22 cents go to the cause. Glenbow Museum’s total overhead spending has fallen outside Ci’s reasonable range for the past three years.

Glenbow holds funding reserves of $35.9m, including $583k in donor-endowed funds and $840k in campaign pledges for its major renovation project. Excluding donor-endowed funds and its campaign pledge, Glenbow can cover annual program spending for 11.3 years or 7.1 years based on average costs over the past three years.

In addition to reported salary information, Glenbow reports that it paid $1.1m in professional and consulting fees in F2021 (down from $1.6m in F2020). Compensation figures for staff do not include these consulting fees.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Glenbow Museum. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on July 28, 2022 by Ann Lei.