[email protected]

Nonprofit and Charity Executive Jobs in Toronto: The Leadership Guide

Print 🖨 PDF 📄 eBook 📱

Toronto’s nonprofit market has two layers. On top are the hospitals, the universities and the big cultural institutions, each with a foundation or an advancement office that hires senior fundraising and finance people. Underneath are the community agencies, and that is where most executive director searches happen. This guide covers who hires in both layers, what the federal wage data shows, which firms run the searches, and where French is a real job requirement.

Updated November 1, 2026

Vous lisez en français ? Un résumé en français se trouve plus bas, avec les employeurs francophones de Toronto.

The short version

Who hires nonprofit executives in Toronto?

Four groups do most of the hiring: the hospitals and their foundations, the universities and colleges, the large arts institutions, and the community agencies in housing, food security, settlement and youth services. United Way Greater Toronto and Toronto Foundation sit at the center of local philanthropy and hire senior staff of their own.

What is the difference between a nonprofit and a registered charity in Canada?

Both operate without the intention of making a profit. A registered charity has applied to the Canada Revenue Agency and been registered, and it can issue official donation receipts. A nonprofit that is not a registered charity cannot issue those receipts and is not registered with the agency. Most fundraising jobs in Toronto are at registered charities for that reason.

How much does a nonprofit executive director make in Toronto?

The federal Job Bank does not publish a wage for charity or nonprofit executive directors, because of data limitations. The closest published figure is for managers in social, community and correctional services: a median of $48.08 an hour in the Toronto region, about $93,756 a year on a 37.5-hour week. Directors of large charities earn well above that, and directors of small agencies often earn less.

Do you need to speak French to work for a Toronto nonprofit?

For most Toronto nonprofits, no. French is a real requirement at the francophone organizations, such as Collège Boréal, the Centre francophone du Grand Toronto and the two French-language school boards, and often at agencies designated to serve the public in French under Ontario’s French Language Services Act. The whole City of Toronto is a designated area under that law.

Do Toronto job postings have to show the salary?

Under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, a publicly advertised job posting from an employer with 25 or more employees must include the expected pay or a pay range no wider than $50,000 a year. The pay rule does not apply when the pay, or the top of the range, is over $200,000 a year. The posting must also say whether artificial intelligence is used to screen, assess or select applicants.

What makes the Toronto market different

The vocabulary. Canadians say nonprofit and charity, and the two are not the same thing. A registered charity is registered with the Canada Revenue Agency and can issue official donation receipts. A nonprofit without that registration cannot. The top job is usually called executive director at a community agency and president and CEO at a hospital foundation or a large charity. Many postings say not-for-profit instead. It means the same thing.

The size of the sector. The Ontario Nonprofit Network counts 64,000 nonprofits and charities in the province, employing 924,000 people. It puts the sector at 7.7 percent of Ontario’s GDP.

The pay gap. Nonprofit pay in Canada runs behind the wider labor market. Imagine Canada’s national workforce study, People First (April 2025), found the average nonprofit salary 13 percent below the average for all Canadian employees, and 31 percent below it for community nonprofit workers. Its Ontario fact sheet gives an average nonprofit salary in the province of $57,876, and $47,283 in community nonprofits. Hospital foundations and universities usually pay more than that, and small agencies often pay less.

The posting rules. Ontario now requires most publicly advertised job postings to show pay, as the short version above explains. For a candidate, that means the salary range is often in the posting before you apply. Read it closely: the rule covers employers with 25 or more employees, so many small agencies are exempt. The Ontario government’s guide to the posting requirements also bars employers from requiring Canadian experience, and says employers must tell interviewed applicants the outcome within 45 days.

Who hires: employers by sector

Each name links to the organization’s own careers page. We checked every one.

Hospitals and hospital foundations

The hospitals hire executives in operations and finance. Their foundations hire the fundraisers, and in Toronto those are among the largest fundraising shops in the country.

Philanthropy and civic leadership

  • United Way Greater Toronto · Funder and convener for community agencies across the region
  • Toronto Foundation · The city’s community foundation, managing more than half a billion dollars in charitable assets
  • CivicAction · Leaders across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area working on urban problems

Universities and colleges

Advancement, finance, research administration and student services make up most of the senior hiring here.

Arts and culture

Social services and housing

Agencies in this group hire most of the city’s executive directors.

What it pays: the government data

The figures below come from the Government of Canada Job Bank, which publishes wages by occupation from Statistics Canada survey data. Reference period 2023-2024, updated November 19, 2025. Hourly rates in Canadian dollars, for the Toronto region.

Occupation Low Median High Source
Managers in social, community and correctional services (NOC 40030) $30.29 $48.08 $82.42 Job Bank
Financial managers (NOC 10010) $41.21 $62.37 $96.15 Job Bank
Human resources managers (NOC 10011) $38.46 $57.69 $93.75 Job Bank
Advertising, marketing and public relations managers, which includes fundraising campaign managers (NOC 10022) $35.00 $57.69 $91.35 Job Bank

How to read this table. On a 37.5-hour week, or 1,950 hours a year, the median of $48.08 an hour for community services managers comes to about $93,756. The financial managers’ median works out to about $121,600. These are all-employer figures, so they include for-profit companies and government along with charities. The bigger gap is at the top: Job Bank publishes no wage at all for charity or nonprofit executive directors. Its pages for those titles read “due to data limitations, wages for this occupation cannot be published,” in Toronto and nationally.

Two other sources fill part of that gap. Hospitals and universities appear on Ontario’s public sector salary disclosure, the list of public sector employees paid $100,000 or more. And every registered charity reports staff compensation on its annual return to the Canada Revenue Agency, and that part of the return is public information. Before a negotiation, look up the organization and two or three of its peers. For a named charity, it is the closest thing to real pay data.

We also wrote a general guide to preparing to negotiate your salary.

Executive search firms in Toronto

Local and Canadian firms first. Each one has a Toronto office and a stated nonprofit practice on its own website.

  • KCI Talent
    The search and talent arm of KCI (Ketchum Canada Inc.), a firm that consults to Canadian nonprofits on fundraising and strategy. Recruitment, executive search, interim placements and compensation benchmarking.
  • crawfordconnect
    Executive search and HR services for nonprofits, from a King Street office. Running searches since 1996.
  • Cause Leadership
    A boutique firm working with Canadian charities and nonprofit boards on succession and leadership hiring. It also runs a nonprofit job board, CauseJobs.
  • The Bedford Consulting Group
    Toronto executive search firm with a not-for-profit practice.
  • Leaders International
    Toronto-based search firm whose nonprofit practice runs executive director and CEO searches.

International firms with Toronto offices, usually retained for the largest hospital foundation and university searches:

  • Boyden
    Places CEOs and executive directors at nonprofits and foundations. Toronto office on Wellington Street West.
  • Odgers
    Formerly Odgers Berndtson. Recruits chief executives and board chairs for not-for-profit organizations, from a Bay Street office.
  • Perrett Laver
    Social impact and higher education searches, with a Toronto office on Dundas Street West.

French in Toronto

Toronto is an English-speaking city with a francophone community of its own, and that community has its own employers. Ontario counted 65,925 francophones in Toronto in the 2021 Census, using the province’s inclusive definition. That is 2.4 percent of the city’s population and about one in ten of Ontario’s 652,540 francophones (Ministry of Francophone Affairs).

The law matters here too. The entire City of Toronto is a designated area under Ontario’s French Language Services Act. A nonprofit that receives public money and serves the public can also be designated as a public service agency under that act, and then it has to offer its services in French. At a designated agency, a director who cannot work in French is a hard sell to the board.

If you speak French, the francophone sector is a smaller market with less competition. The section below is in French.

En français : travailler dans le milieu francophone de Toronto

D’après le recensement de 2021, Toronto compte 65 925 francophones, selon la définition inclusive de francophone (DIF) de l’Ontario. La ville entière est une région désignée en vertu de la Loi sur les services en français. Un organisme sans but lucratif financé par des fonds publics peut aussi être désigné. Il doit alors offrir ses services en français.

Pour un poste de direction, cela change tout. Dans un organisme francophone ou désigné, le français est une exigence du poste. L’anglais reste attendu pour travailler avec les partenaires et les bailleurs de fonds.

Les employeurs francophones ci-dessous publient leurs offres en français. Chaque lien mène à leur page carrières.

L’Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario (AFO) publie aussi des offres d’emploi en Ontario français, affichées directement par les employeurs.

Pour le Québec, lisez notre guide des emplois de direction en organisme à but non lucratif (OBNL) à Montréal et notre guide des emplois de direction en OBNL dans les régions du Québec.

Working in Toronto from outside Canada

This is general information, not legal advice. Immigration rules change, and an immigration lawyer or a licensed consultant should look at your case.

Most people from outside Canada need a work permit, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada explains the options on its work permit page. Skilled workers who want to settle apply for permanent residence through Express Entry.

Americans often ask about the trade agreement route. The CUSMA professionals category is open to US and Mexican citizens with pre-arranged employment in a listed occupation. The list does not include a nonprofit executive title, so most executive director and CEO hires will need another route. The United States is also not part of International Experience Canada, the working holiday program.

Where to look

Toronto nonprofit jobs on ExecSearches.com lists senior roles as they are posted, and each posting is read by a person before it goes live. For the whole country, see nonprofit jobs in Canada, and set a job alert to hear the day a Toronto role is posted.

Other boards worth knowing:

Many senior roles never reach a board. They are filled through the firms above or through a board member’s network.

Related guides

Bonus Guides and Leadership Resources

For Your Search & Career

A Practical Guide to Interviewing: Straightforward frameworks for preparing as a finalist or running better search committees. Interview Skills Workbook: Exercises and prompts to sharpen your narrative and board-facing presence. The Essential Nonprofit Accounting Guide: Overview of fund accounting, audits, and board reporting for Midwest-scale organizations. The Essential Nonprofit Manager’s Book: Day-to-day leadership and people-management guidance for executive leaders and rising COOs.

Friend of the Firm: Laura Gassner Otting

Laura Gassner Otting has been a friend of ExecSearches since our earliest days and helped us get this platform off the ground. Her work continues to resonate with mission-driven executives nationwide. Wonderhell (Video + Book): A candid look at what happens after success and how to navigate the “next level” without burning out. The video is currently free, and many Kindle options are low-cost. Wonderhell (Additional Formats): Additional editions for leaders navigating ambition, imposter feelings, and big transitions. Limitless: A playbook for aligning your career with impact, purpose, and work that fits your life as a nonprofit executive.

Note: The Amazon links above are affiliate links; if you choose to purchase, ExecSearches.com may receive a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you.