More than 1,500 new charities were registered in Canada last year, but a higher number of revocations means there was an overall loss of these organizations in 2025, continuing a decade-long trend.

As the new year began, a total of 85,505 charities were registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), including 1,551 that registered in 2025. Over the course of the year, however, 1,928 charities had their registration revoked, for a net loss of 377 charities.

It was the third year in a row that revocations have outpaced new registrations. Over the last five years, CRA records show an overall decline of 818 charities, and there’s been a net loss of 1,315 in the last decade.

The CRA told the IJF that charities play an important role in Canadian society, but they also receive many tax privileges, which means officials have a responsibility to make sure charities follow the rules.

"The CRA fulfils this responsibility by monitoring the operations of registered charities and promoting compliance through a balanced program of education, client service and responsible enforcement," spokesperson Déborah Cléry wrote in an email.

Charity researcher Don McRae has written about this downward trend in the past, noting that many charities have folded in recent years because of funding issues that began during the pandemic. CanadaHelps’ latest annual report notes that a steadily declining number of Canadians are reporting donations on their tax returns.

A recent briefing note from the Charity Insights Canada Project at Carleton University raises the alarm about the impact of these challenges in a time of decreased government spending on social programs and the high cost of living.

“The charitable sector has been under-resourced for decades, and the data show that the gap between demand and capacity continues to grow. The status quo is not serving Canadians well and cannot be maintained,” the note says.

About 40 per cent of the new charities registered in 2025 fall under the broad charity type “other purposes beneficial to the community,” which can include animal shelters, counselling services, volunteer fire departments and organizations supporting disabled or elderly people.

Charities for the advancement of religion were the next most common type to be registered for the first time in 2025, at 30 per cent. The remaining two types, relief of poverty and advancement of education, each accounted for about 15 per cent of new registrations.

Meanwhile, more than half of last year’s revocations were for failure to file the required tax forms.

About 46 per cent were voluntarily revoked — charities can choose to give up their registration because of a lack of resources, a merger or the completion of the project or program they were established to carry out.

As the IJF has previously reported, 29 charities had their status revoked in 2025 after audits uncovered serious breaches of tax law, with Christian charities accounting for the largest share of that number. Another 15 charity registrations were revoked for “other” reasons — specifically, failing to maintain corporate status.

More than half of the net decrease in charity numbers in the last 10 years has been from charities created for the advancement of religion, with an overall loss of 793. The only charity type that has seen a net increase in number since 2016 is “other purposes beneficial to the community,” with a gain of 105.

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