Revenue Distribution
How is the sector supported and how have revenues evolved? This section explores revenue patterns across organizations included in the ATLAS dataset, including overall revenue trends, revenue sources, and organizational variation over time. Unless otherwise noted, all financial figures are presented in constant 2023 Canadian dollars adjusted for inflation.
Revenue-source breakdowns come from CRA T3010 filings. Organizations without a T3010 — universities, colleges and institutions funded through Global Affairs Canada — have no source split, so their GAC funding is counted within the Government slice. The pie above therefore covers all sources (CRA reporting plus the GAC revenue proxy), while the trend and by-classification charts below cover CRA-filing organizations only — see Methodology › Revenue Sources for details.
Understanding Revenue Trends Over Time
Total revenue across the dataset increased between 2015 and 2023. To make this trend a fair year-over-year comparison, the chart below uses a constant panel of organizations: the CRA-tracked organizations that filed a T3010 in every year 2015–2023, so the comparison is not biased by the changing number of organizations in the dataset from year to year. GAC-only organizations (universities, colleges and institutions for which GAC HPDS disbursements stand in as revenue) are shown with their disbursements reported as published (see Methodology › How figures are computed).
A Diverse Sector with Organizations of Different Scales
Organizations in Canada’s international cooperation sector operate at very different scales, from small community-based groups to large nationally and internationally connected institutions. While a relatively small number of organizations account for a significant share of total sector revenue, the broader sector includes hundreds of organizations contributing through specialized, regional, humanitarian, advocacy, research, and partnership-based work.
The table below presents the largest organizations by reported annual revenue for the selected year. Use the year selector to explore how organizational rankings and revenue levels have changed over time.
Diverse but shifting revenue sources
The sector draws revenue from a mix of public donations, government funding, international partnerships, and charitable giving. In 2023, receipted donations from Canadians remained the largest single source of reported revenue. Government funding and international revenue also represented significant shares of sector financing over the 2015–2023 period.
Revenue patterns have shifted over time. While donation revenue per organization declined over the period, government funding increased, reflecting changes in funding flows and the number of organizations active in the dataset. International revenue, including funding received through global NGO and humanitarian networks, remained an important part of the sector’s financing mix.
Methodology note: Revenue categories follow CRA T3010 reporting definitions. Hover the category labels for a brief description of each source.
Revenue source definitions
- Receipted Donations
- Donations for which organizations issued official charitable tax receipts, typically from individuals, families, or supporters.
- Government Revenue
- Funding received from Canadian or foreign governments to support international development, humanitarian, research, or public engagement activities.
- Revenue from Outside Canada
- Funding received from sources outside Canada, including international partner organizations, affiliated global networks, foundations, or institutions.
- Other Charities
- Funding received from other registered Canadian charities through partnerships, joint programming, or transfers.
- Gifts to Qualified Donees
- Transfers involving organizations recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency as eligible charitable recipients, such as registered charities, universities, or municipalities.
- Non-receipted Gifts
- Donations or contributions for which no charitable tax receipt was issued.
- Grants from Non-qualified Donees
- Funding received from organizations or entities that are not recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency as qualified donees.
- Gifts in Kind
- Non-cash contributions such as food, medical supplies, equipment, materials, or donated goods and services.
- Other
- Additional revenue sources that do not fall within the main reporting categories above.
Note: The trend chart restricts the panel to the CRA-tracked organizations with a T3010 filing in every year 2015–2023 so year-over-year comparisons aren't biased by changes in panel composition (see Methodology). The chart scale has been adjusted to make smaller revenue categories easier to compare alongside larger ones; differences between the highest lines may appear visually smaller than they are in actual dollar terms.
Note on 2015: Global Affairs Canada’s project records did not include provincial-government or other federal-department funding until 2016/17. The 2015 figures are therefore partial, and any change measured from 2015 (for the GAC-funded organizations) overstates the real growth — measured from 2016 on a comparable basis it is smaller. CRA-reported revenue is not affected.
Different organizations rely on different funding sources
The charts below compare funding sources across organization types and organization sizes.
Note: organizations with no CRA filings (universities, institutes and other GAC-only recipients) are included using their Global Affairs Canada disbursements as a revenue proxy — roughly a tenth of the total shown. The Largest Organizations table above flags these rows in its Source column.
Note: This chart uses a power (square-root) scale on the Y axis to make the smaller size buckets (Very small, Small) visible alongside the much larger Very large bucket. Differences between the top bars appear compressed relative to their actual values.