Indspire is a 5-star charity. It has above average disclosure with an A results reporting grade. It holds reserves within Ci’s reasonable range. For every dollar donated to Indspire, 75 cents are available to go to the cause. 

A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 100 Rated Charity.

A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top Canadian Impact Charity.

Founded in 1985, Indspire supports the education of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis students and educators across Canada. Headquartered in Ohsweken, Ontario, the charity provides financial awards, programming, and resources to Indigenous learners in remote, rural, and urban communities. Its goal is to raise graduation rates from kindergarten through post-secondary education. Since 1996, Indspire has provided over $313m in financial support through more than 93,000 bursaries, scholarships and awards to Indigenous students.

The charity reports that 69% of Indigenous people in Canada have completed high school or higher, compared with 87% of non-Indigenous people. On-reserve, only 4 in 10 Indigenous youths graduate from grade 12, versus 9 in 10 non-Indigenous youths. Indspire estimates that closing the education attainment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by 2026 would add $3.5 billion in tax revenue and over $400 billion to Canada's GDP.

Indspire runs four main programs: Education, Student Success, Indspire Awards and the Soaring Youth Career Conference. In the fiscal year ending March 2025 (F2025), Indspire spent $9.5m on its programs and distributed $31.7m in grants (awards and scholarships to students).

Education is Indspire's largest program, accounting for 79% of total program and grant spending. Its core initiative, Building Brighter Futures: Bursaries & Scholarships (BBF), grants bursaries and scholarships to Indigenous students who need financial help for post-secondary education. In F2025, BBF distributed 8,833 awards totalling $31,683,031, for an average award value of $3,587. The three most popular fields of study among recipients were health (18%), business (10%), and education (10%). BBF is Canada’s largest scholarship program for Indigenous students after the Government.

Student Success accounted for 11% of program and grant spending in F2025. Its main initiative, Rivers to Success (R2S), supports Indigenous students already in post-secondary through mentorship, wellness workshops, and career programming. In F2025, R2S hosted 18 virtual events across three workshop series, drawing over 3,500 registrations. It also supported two summer cultural and language camps.

Indspire Awards accounted for 6% of program and grant spending in F2025. The Awards celebrate Indigenous excellence across sectors including arts, business, education, health, law, and public service. In F2025, 12 Laureates were honoured, including three Youth Laureates and a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Soaring Youth Career Conference accounted for 4% of program and grant spending in F2025. Soaring introduces First Nations, Inuit, and Métis high school students to post-secondary and career options. In F2025, 1,521 students and chaperones attended. Programming included 30 in-person and 12 virtual workshops, plus a tradeshow with 94 booths. 

In F2025, Indspire earned $51.2m in revenue. It received $25.0m in donations (49% of total revenue), $20.3m in government funding (40% of total revenue), and $4.6m in investment income (9% of total revenue). 

Administrative costs are 9% of revenues (less investment income). Fundraising costs are 16% of donations. Total overhead is 25%. For every dollar donated to Indspire, 75 cents are available for programs. This is within Ci's reasonable range. 

Indspire's audited financial statements don't disclose fundraising or administrative costs. Donors need this information for full transparency. Ci calculated fundraising and administrative costs from Indspire’s T3010 filing with the CRA.  

In F2025, Indspire spent $9.5m on programs (19% of total revenue) and distributed $31.7m in grants (62% of total revenue). It recorded a $1.8m surplus and spent $495k on capital projects. 

In F2025, Indspire had reserve funds of $57.8m, which means the charity can cover roughly one year and five months of annual program costs. 

This charity update has been sent to Indspire for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. Updated by Nick Reszetnik on July 7, 2026.