Frequently Asked Questions

Why did you make this site?

In order to provide the Fundtracker service, we need to track a lot of information about Canadian non-profit organizations, including charities. Since we care about the non-profit sector, we thought that we would make some of that data available here for free. We hope that you find it useful.

Is theSector meant to be a charity evaluator tool to help donors?

No. We built Ajah Fundtracker because we wanted to help executive directors, grantwriters, and fundraisers with their work. We built theSector to help everyone in the sector have a better look to see what’s happening, both to individual organizations and across the sector. It is not a tool to help donors decide who to give money too.

How did you choose what information to show?

We included information that we thought would be useful to people within the non-profit sector. We excluded information that could be misinterpreted by people unfamiliar with the sector and information which had a higher likelihood of being inaccurate.

Speaking of information - where did this information come from?

In order to maintain their charitable status, charities must file a special return each year with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). These returns are available to the general public. The Government of Canada and the CRA are not affiliated with Ajah nor with theSector.

How accurate is this information?

It's well documented that there are errors in some of the filed returns and that they are more frequent in certain sections of the report. We've taken this into account when deciding what information to use. Note that organizations with annual revenues of under $100 000 are more likely to make errors when filing their returns. Please keep that in mind when looking at sector summaries for the smaller organizations.

What if I find an error in a charity’s page?

If you’re looking at a charity and you notice a mistake, click in the Feedback tab to let us know. If you are an administrator of the charity you should additionally get in touch with the CRA to correct the mistake on your filing. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with us.

Can I edit my charity's page?

Currently, that's not an option, but we may implement it if there is enough interest. Sign-up to our newsletter to be notified about any developments.

Why aren’t non-profits without charitable status included?

We would love to include them but unfortunately, there is no comprehensive and regularly updated list of Canadian non-profits.

I'm interested in finding out information about foundations.

TheSector is a resource for and about charities. If you are interested in finding out more about foundations, check out our paid service Fundtracker.

How do you categorize charities?

We don’t. The person who files in the tax forms with the Canadian Revenue Agency does. They select programing areas and we use those programing areas to make charities findable through groups like “Health” or “Education”. However, if groups list their activities as “Other” they can’t be found through navigation, only by searching for the name.

I'm interested in collaborating.

We are always happy to work with academic partners and with non-profit associations. Please contact us.