Support from donors is the fuel that drives Heart & Stroke’s mission. Your gifts fund critical advances that prevent heart disease and stroke, save lives and enhance recovery.
But how do we transform your support into impact? Here are answers to the questions we hear most frequently from donors and people considering making a donation to Heart & Stroke.
All figures are from our 2025 fiscal year, Sept. 1, 2024, to Aug. 31, 2025.
How does Heart & Stroke spend my money?
Of every dollar spent in fiscal 2025, 64.5% went to mission, which includes research, advocacy and health promotion. Here’s how that breaks down:
- Research: Heart & Stroke invested a total of $28 million in research, supporting 1,059 of Canada's top researchers and trainees. Their work is advancing science that saves lives, prevents disease and supports diagnosis, care and recovery.
- Advocacy and health promotion: We invested $39.1 million in initiatives including advocacy campaigns around issues such as protecting youth from vaping, strengthening regulations about marketing to kids, and advocating for pharmacare.
In 2025, 33.3% was spent on fundraising, allowing us to manage diverse programs, many of which also deliver valuable health information. See more details below.
Finally, 2.2% went to administration that supported the governance of the organization across Canada.
No donor dollars are spent on Heart & Stroke lottery operations.
How do these numbers compare to the previous year?
Every donor dollar is carefully allocated to maximize impact. Since 2020, spending on mission activities, including research, health promotion and advocacy, has increased by nearly 51.3%.
We prioritize transparency and accountability in our financial practices, while delivering measurable impact and securing the stability needed to support future opportunities and challenges.
This approach means your donations fund life-saving heart and brain health research, while also ensuring continuity for transformative, multi-year programs like the Women’s Research Networks of Excellence and the Black and Indigenous Scholars Awards, as well as innovative initiatives such as CardiacCrash™, allowing them to deliver lasting impact across Canada.
Your generosity also enables us to advocate for healthy public policies, deliver critical health-promotion programs and support people and families living with heart disease and stroke, as well as those at risk.
Why should I donate to Heart & Stroke?
Heart & Stroke’s critical priority is to invest in world-class, life-saving heart and brain research that leads to medical breakthroughs.
We have seen great progress in awareness, prevention, treatment and recovery. However, as Canada’s population ages and younger people are being diagnosed more frequently, the urgency to beat heart disease and stroke grows.
In fact, more than 6 million Canadians, of all ages, ethnicities and genders, are living with heart disease or stroke. These conditions take one life every five minutes in Canada.
As one of Canada’s largest and most effective health charities, we measure our impact by our ability to drive change in priority areas related to new knowledge and innovation that lead to research breakthroughs, improved health policies and health systems, and support programs for people at risk of or living with heart disease or stroke.
Since 1952, Heart & Stroke has invested more than $1.7 billion in heart disease and stroke research. Over that time, the death rate from heart disease and stroke has declined by more than 80%.
Why do you spend donations on fundraising?
At Heart & Stroke, we work as cost effectively as possible to engage Canadians to support our mission work.
Investing in fundraising allows us to generate the necessary funds to advance our mission priorities, raise awareness, create impact and change the lives of people living with heart disease and stroke and those at risk. Today, we have effectively kept our fundraising spend lower over a multi-year span because of our commitment to cost efficiency and our ongoing efforts to minimize overhead costs by leveraging digital fundraising and community engagement platforms.
Heart & Stroke’s investment in fundraising is monitored closely by our management and board of directors.
Can you give me detailed examples of how my money was used to support research in 2025?
Find our latest results here.
Where can I find more in-depth financial information?
Find our detailed financial statements here.
If you still have questions, please click here to request information.