Thank you very much.
My name is Patsy Anderson and I've been sitting as chairman of the board of SickKids Foundation since 2006. I've served on the board since 2001, and I'm also a trustee on the board of the hospital.
I thought as an opener I would just talk to you briefly about what SickKids Foundation is. We are the partner of the Hospital for Sick Children, which has for generations affectionately been known as SickKids in central Toronto. They have patients from across Ontario, across Canada, and around the world. Their health care workers are a huge brain gain to Canada, with medical and scientific leaders from all over the world.
SickKids has over 7,000 employees. We have over 300,000 donors and raise between $80 million and $100 million a year. Our endowment is currently worth $680 million.
It's a great honour for me to hold this role. It follows many years as a SickKids parent. I'm also a donor and take very seriously how donor dollars are spent at SickKids.
SickKids Foundation supports the goal of increased transparency and accountability for the charitable sector. Our commitment to transparency and accountability is fulfilled through public disclosure of our regulatory filings with the Canada Revenue Agency and the Internal Revenue Service in the United States. These annual filings include detailed information on the costs of fundraising and administration of our foundation, and in the case of the IRS filing, the actual compensation paid to named senior employees. Indeed, SickKids has been publicly disclosing salaries paid to senior employees for more than ten years, and we are prepared to do so with the Canada Revenue Agency if asked. The foundation’s annual report and audited financial statements are also publicly available on our website.
SickKids Foundation does not support a compensation cap on charity salaries, and we applaud member of Parliament Albina Guarnieri for removing this element from her proposed bill.
Professional fundraising employees and dedicated volunteers help to generate $112 billion in revenues in Canada’s charitable sector. Very large charities like SickKids Foundation are complex organizations, and our senior staff are required to provide leadership in fundraising priority setting with the Hospital for Sick Children and dozens of fundraising programs.
The investment management task is very complex, with the endowment I referenced earlier. Our governance is very complicated, and we pride ourselves on best practices. Grant-making is also very complicated. I think you would be interested to know that SickKids Foundation has granted over $75 million outside of the Hospital for Sick Children to pediatric researchers from coast to coast to coast in Canada. We also have complex brand management tasks, stakeholder relations, and human resource management. This is a very complex job.
This requires that we attract and retain leaders who have a broad range of skills, proven track records of success, and professional credentials. It also requires us to compensate them according to the scope of their responsibility, in comparison to what they would earn in other leading not-for-profit positions.
The compensation objectives, philosophy, and annual salary increases at SickKids Foundation are approved by the compensation committee and the board of directors annually. It's a very thorough review with best practices, and we're very proud of it. Based on these findings, the board approves any changes to salaries to keep them competitive. We are concerned that a compensation cap will deter the recruitment of new young talent into the charitable sector, which I believe is critical for the health of the sector going forward.
In summary, we support all efforts to make charities transparent and accountable for their operations. We welcome opportunities to work with the government to find ways to increase transparency and accountability, without interfering with the ability to raise money for good purposes that benefit society.
Thank you very much.