Founded in 1963, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) works to protect Canada's natural environment. Its main goal is to help Canada protect at least 25% of its land and oceans by 2025 and 30% by 2030. CPAWS states that at least 30% to 70% of land and ocean systems need protection to sustain vital ecosystems. CPAWS consists of a national office in Ottawa and 13 regional chapters.

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society runs two main programs: Conservation and Conservation Awareness.

Conservation programs were 93% of program spending in F2020. CPAWS works with government agencies to protect Canadian wildlife, parks, and oceans. In F2020, CPAWS helped to protect an extra 135 hectares of land in the Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes park in Nova Scotia. It also added two new protected regions in partnership with First Nations groups in F2020. These included the Peel Watershed, encompassing 55,858 km² of the Yukon, and Thaidene Nëne, spanning 26,376 km² of the Northwest Territories. To protect oceans and water bodies, CPAWS advocates for the designation of certain regions as marine protected areas (MPAs). In 2019, CPAWS reported that Canada added two new MPAs in the American Bank and Laurentian Channel, adding up to an area of 12,580 km².

Conservation Awareness made up 7% of program spending in F2020. CPAWS runs educational programs through its 13 chapters across Canada. In February 2020, CPAWS co-hosted the Nature-Based Climate Solutions Summit in Ottawa, bringing together 12 partner agencies and 450 activists. CPAWS also runs an annual Canadian Wilderness Stewardship Program (CWSP) to inspire future conservationists. The program consists of a CPAWS-led trip to a regional watershed in need of protection, a community service project, and an annual convention. The charity offers CWSP in four regions: New Brunswick, Ottawa, Manitoba, and Southern Alberta.

Ci consolidated the financial statements of CPAWS and its foundation for the following financial analysis. As such, Ci excluded fund transfers between the two charities.

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society received $6.1m in Canadian donations in F2020. It also received $3.0m in international donations (27% of revenues) and $1.6m in government funding (14% of revenues). Administrative costs are 13% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 10% of Canadian donations. This results in total overhead spending of 22%. For every dollar donated, 78 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society has $10.7m in total funding reserves, of which $3.5m is donor-endowed. Excluding donor-endowed funds, CPAWS can cover 94% or less than one year of annual program costs.

According to its annual filing with the Charities Directorate, CPAWS paid external fundraisers $116k in F2020. It does not report how much these external fundraisers raised.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 8, 2021 by Eric Zhao.