Fat wallets come to heads of Canadian charities

Working for charity may be a good way to line your wallet with hard cash. Many of the heads of Canadian charities are raking in six figures.

Over 6,000 charity workers earned over $120,000 last year. Most in the business of helping others earn less than $80,000 but for the top tier the pay cheque makes sure they won't be lining up at a neighbourhood soup kitchen any time soon. There's no question it takes big money to make big money. Not every charity of course makes or pays their employees vast sums of money. The 85,000 registered charities in Canada range from those who are grassroots groups with little funding to the heavy hitters like universities, hospitals and school boards. Churches also toss their hat into the charity game enabling them to issue tax receipts for donations. Hospitals like Mount Sinai in Toronto pay their top staff well with at least 10 people getting over $350,000 a year. The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation paid out $13 million to their 186 workers last year. Toronto's Sick Kids Foundation took in over $51 million last year. They spent $1 million on other charities. They also paid their 136 member staff $12 million. With such high salaries for these charities it leads one to wonder if their donations are being used for the reasons donors believe in. The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation did pay their workers well but they spent much more ($23 million) on charitable works. The research grants and scholarships that came from that funding could in time result in better cancer treatments. It's not hard to find out which charity workers are raking in the money at Canada's charities with the salary information for the top five salaries listed at the Canada Revenue Agency.