Skip to content
Ask
← Canadian charities

Ontario · Registered charity

YORK UNIVERSITY

YORK UNIVERSITY (Ontario) receives grants from 210 organizations whose Canada Revenue Agency filings report C$60,011,422 to it, the largest being CARSWELL FAMILY FOUNDATION (C$6,949,000). 119 of them have funded it in more than one year.

C$1.3B
Revenue FY2024
210
Funders on record
C$60M
Grants received
C$1.9B
Net assets
119/210 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 1%

Against its field

YORK UNIVERSITY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 220 teaching institutions nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−6% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve4.6mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 220 teaching institutions nonprofits over $100M, FY2024

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 (C$1.1B) Expenses 100 (C$1.1B) Net assets 100 (C$1.5B)2018 Revenue 100 (C$1.1B) Expenses 101 (C$1.1B) Net assets 95 (C$1.5B)2019 Revenue 117 (C$1.3B) Expenses 106 (C$1.1B) Net assets 104 (C$1.6B)2020 Revenue 116 (C$1.3B) Expenses 108 (C$1.1B) Net assets 109 (C$1.7B)2021 Revenue 114 (C$1.2B) Expenses 111 (C$1.2B) Net assets 123 (C$1.9B)2022 Revenue 115 (C$1.3B) Expenses 116 (C$1.2B) Net assets 119 (C$1.8B)2023 Revenue 120 (C$1.3B) Expenses 123 (C$1.3B) Net assets 122 (C$1.9B)2024 Revenue 122 (C$1.3B) Expenses 133 (C$1.4B) Net assets 124 (C$1.9B)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (122)Expenses (133)Net assets (124)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 37% · 2018 38% · 2019 31% · 2020 30% · 2021 32% · 2022 32% · 2023 31% · 2024 31%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

2% of YORK UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (0% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 208 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

C$38M
’17
C$22M
’18
C$164M
’19
C$125M
’20
C$75M
’21
C$30M
’22
C$21M
’23
−C$79M
’24
4.6
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 68 funders to 75 funders, grant income rose C$6.0M → C$9.0M.

Funder
'17
'18
'19
'20
'21
'22
'23
'24*
total
Carswell Family Foundationunclassified
C$6.9M
The Schulich Foundationunclassified
C$6.7M
The Krembil Foundationunclassified
C$3.9M
The Waugh Family Foundationunclassified
C$1.7M
Hellenic Heritage Fundunclassified
C$1.1M
BenefAction Foundationunclassified
C$964k
Toronto Foundationidentity?
C$755k
Jackman Foundationunclassified
C$585k
Lee Tak Wai Foundationunclassified
C$500k
M.E.H. Foundationunclassified
C$440k
funders
68
68
68
63
62
80
75
83

From the CRA filings of YORK UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 210 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

YORK UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 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 YORK UNIVERSITY.

12%
largest funder
33%
top three
~19
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 18% · 2019 26% · 2020 19% · 2021 20% · 2022 38% · 2023 22% — 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

42% of YORK UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

95% of YORK UNIVERSITY's grant income comes from Ontario funders.

In-province vs out-of-province, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Ontario out of province

Funder regions come from each funder’s own filing. C$6.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 210 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government revenue YORK UNIVERSITY reports

Federal, provincial and municipal funding on the organization’s own T3010 return.

FY2024C$412M
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
  • 31% of FY2024 revenue
  • As filed, not traced to an award

Organizations like YORK 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

University of Guelph70%York University Foundation - Fondation de L'Universite York69%Heritage York69%Victoria University68%Sus Foundation of Canada68%The Governing Council of the University of Toronto67%For Youth Initiative in Toronto67%The George Brown College Foundation66%

Nationally

University of Regina70%University of Guelph70%York University Foundation - Fondation de L'Universite York69%Heritage York69%Victoria University68%Sus Foundation of Canada68%The Governing Council of the University of Toronto67%For Youth Initiative in Toronto67%
04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own T3010 return, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

95% of spending goes to programs.

Program 95%Management 5%Fundraising 0%

Governance

29
board members

Questions and answers

Who funds YORK UNIVERSITY?
YORK UNIVERSITY (Ontario) receives grants from 210 organizations whose Canada Revenue Agency filings report C$60,011,422 to it, the largest being CARSWELL FAMILY FOUNDATION (C$6,949,000). 119 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does YORK UNIVERSITY have?
Canada Revenue Agency filings report 210 organizations giving C$60,011,422 in grants to YORK UNIVERSITY, 119 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of YORK UNIVERSITY?
CARSWELL FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with C$6,949,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like YORK UNIVERSITY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ontario.

Play a game about who funds York University →

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 210 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 September 23, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · View the T3010 on the CRA register