Founded in 1984, the George Brown College Foundation is a separate charity from George Brown College. George Brown College Foundation’s priorities are to raise money to give students scholarships and bursaries as well as larger initiatives. In 2015 the Foundation’s campaign priorities were the Cockwell Centre for Health Sciences, expanding the Casa Loma campus, and increasing student scholarships and bursaries. George Brown College is at capacity with 28,045 full-time students enrolled in 149 programs.

In 2011, more than half of the students needed financial aid to attend George Brown College. The Foundation seeks to triple bursaries from $1 million to $3 million. In F2015 the Foundation provided $1.1 million in student scholarships, a 28% increase from F2014. These scholarships represent 1% of tuition fees paid in F2015. In the most recent review of Ontario’s 24 colleges' Key Performance Indicators, George Brown College has a reported 67.6% graduation rate, slightly above the average college graduation rate of 66.7%. George Brown College graduates have an 85.0% employment rate compared with the provincial average of 83.6%.

In F2015, George Brown College Foundation’s donations exceeded $5 million making it a large Canadian charity. In F2015, George Brown College Foundation raised $5.5m with $1.5m earned from its $29.1m investment portfolio (funding reserves). George Brown College Foundation’s combined fundraising and administrative costs are 11% of revenues, well within Ci's reasonable range for charity overhead. It spent $1.1m on student scholarships, $1.8m on capital projects, with the $3.6m surplus going to funding reserves. George Brown College Foundation has $29.1m in funding reserves, including $15.9m in donor endowments.  Excluding donor-endowed funds, the Foundation can cover annual program costs for 6.6 years.

Analysis and review completed on June 7, 2016 by Kate Bahen.

This report is being reviewed by George Brown College Foundation. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.