Salaries of top executives at some Canadian charities in $200K-250K range: analysis

An analysis identified 17 charities whose top executive drew annual compensation that was in the $200,000 to $250,000 range or higher, according to filings.

A small group of leaders of Canadian charities in the environment, conservation, and animal protection sectors are taking home compensation packages equivalent to, and in some cases higher than, the salaries of provincial premiers.

An analysis by The Canadian Press identified 17 charities whose top executive drew annual compensation that was in the $200,000 to $250,000 range or higher, according to filings with the federal government made in 2022 and 2023.

The review focused on organizations recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency as registered charities in the categories of “environment” and “animal protection,” which include several conservation organizations. The group of 17 with the highest salaries represents just over one per cent of all charities in those two categories.

The bracket of $200,000 to $250,000 was chosen as a cutoff because at the time it aligned with the compensation of the two highest-paid premiers in Canada – Ontario’s Doug Ford with $208,974 and Quebec’s Francois Legault with $208,200. Legault’s salary has since risen to $270,120 after members of the legislature voted themselves a 30-per-cent pay raise in June.

Data was sourced from the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return forms of each organization. Compensation, as defined by the CRA, includes salaries, bonuses, honorariums and all other benefits given to employees.

The overwhelming majority of the 864 registered charities in the two sectors examined rely on volunteers or a modestly paid workforce. Almost 59 per cent of them only have volunteers and 14 per cent have no employees earning more than $40,000. Another 15 per cent have no employees earning more than $80,000.

The charity with the highest-paid executives was Ducks Unlimited Canada, based in Manitoba. Its 2023 declaration indicates that two people earned more than $350,000, three others received between $250,000 and $300,000, and four received compensation between $200,000 and $250,000. The organization has 565 full- and part-time employees. Governments contributed just over $27 million to Ducks Unlimited for its year ending March 31, 2023, and a quarter of its $140 million in revenue came from donations.

Spokesperson Janine Massey defended the pay packages in an email. “Ducks Unlimited Canada is Canada’s largest nature conservancy …. It is difficult to compare environmental non-profits due to wide variation in mission, scale, and complexity of operations,” she said.