Ontario · Registered charity
MCMASTER UNIVERSITY
MCMASTER UNIVERSITY (Ontario) receives grants from 228 organizations whose Canada Revenue Agency filings report C$174,203,618 to it, the largest being THE WILSON FOUNDATION LA FONDATION WILSON (C$23,344,333). 153 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- C$1.5B
- Funders on record
- 228
- Grants received
- C$174M
- Net assets
- C$2.3B
What McMaster University does
Ongoing programs
McMaster charitable donations fund Student Scholarships and Bursaries Teaching and Community Initiatives
As stated on its FY2024 T3010.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from C$2.9B to C$3.4B (+14%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 37% · 2018 37% · 2019 36% · 2020 37% · 2021 36% · 2022 38% · 2023 37% · 2024 30%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
5% of MCMASTER UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (0% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 99 funders to 105 funders, grant income rose C$16M → C$41M.
From the CRA filings of MCMASTER UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 228 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024 is still being filed and is shown unshaded; it does not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
MCMASTER UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
100% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund MCMASTER UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 24% · 2019 19% · 2020 20% · 2021 12% · 2022 11% · 2023 42% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024 is still being filed and is shown unshaded; it does not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
49% of MCMASTER UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
92% of MCMASTER UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from Ontario funders.
In-province vs out-of-province, by year
Funder regions come from each funder’s own filing. C$4.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 regions is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024 is still being filed and is shown unshaded; it does not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
MCMASTER UNIVERSITY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 220 teaching institutions nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 220 teaching institutions nonprofits over $100M, FY2024
Government revenue MCMASTER UNIVERSITY reports
Federal, provincial and municipal funding on the organization’s own T3010 return.
- 30% of FY2024 revenue
- As filed, not traced to an award
Organizations like MCMASTER UNIVERSITY
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every charity on the CRA register — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Ontario
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own T3010 return, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Questions and answers
- Who funds MCMASTER UNIVERSITY?
- MCMASTER UNIVERSITY (Ontario) receives grants from 228 organizations whose Canada Revenue Agency filings report C$174,203,618 to it, the largest being THE WILSON FOUNDATION LA FONDATION WILSON (C$23,344,333). 153 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MCMASTER UNIVERSITY have?
- Canada Revenue Agency filings report 228 organizations giving C$174,203,618 in grants to MCMASTER UNIVERSITY, 153 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MCMASTER UNIVERSITY?
- THE WILSON FOUNDATION LA FONDATION WILSON is the largest funder on record, with C$23,344,333 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MCMASTER UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ontario.
These figures are read directly from the CRA's published T3010 data: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 228 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · View the T3010 on the CRA register