The Goods on Canadian Charities

I regularly hear stories from friends and acquiatances about the mismanagement of arts organizations. I’m often bemused by how, regardless of the size, popularity and focus of a given group, they manage to horribly screw up on a surprisingly regular basis. My practical experience is in theatre. I’ve come to recognize that the administrative problems (fundraising, HR, etc) tend to be the same, whether the average audience is 20 or 2000.

Care of Gillian at Pacific Theatre, I discovered that the financial records of every Canadian charitable organization are online and easily accessable. For example, the Terry Fox Foundation’s spent $216,868 on salaries in 2004, while my former classmates at Theatre Skam spent $41,638. For those (few) who are interested, this sheds a little light on where money is spent, how much funding organizations receive and why they screw up so often.