Founded in 1991, Ecojustice Society of Canada (Ecojustice) was started after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Ecojustice was initially called the American Sierra Club Legal Defence Fund. Ecojustice uses the law to fight climate change and advocate for a healthier environment. The charity’s advocacy can be grouped into three categories: climate change, healthy communities, and nature.

The charity reports that humans have just 11 years to act in order to stop permanent climate change. This means halving emissions by 2030 and producing zero emissions by 2050. Ecojustice’s climate change program fights against dirty energy projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The climate change program currently has four open court cases.

Ecojustice states that Canada has fallen behind 110 countries that legally recognize having a healthy community as a human right. Through its healthy communities’ program, the charity works to keep harmful chemicals out of homes and ensure polluters are held accountable. Ecojustice hopes that the government will establish a Charter right to a healthy environment for all Canadians. Ecojustice’s healthy communities program currently has 12 open court cases.

The charity’s nature program ensures the government protects oceans, watersheds, forests, and other habitats that wildlife depend on. Ecojustice protects national parks from commercial development encroaching on them to ensure that the native species threatened by these projects will be protected. The charity hopes to bring an end to the practice of focusing on short term financial gain and instead think of long-term environmental interests. The charity’s Nature program currently has 19 open court cases.

Ecojustice is a large charity with donations of $7.3m in F2018. Ci calculated administrative costs to be 14% of total revenues and fundraising costs to be 18% of donations in F2018. For every dollar donated, 68 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Ecojustice Society of Canada has funding reserves of $4.7m. Funding reserves can cover program expenses for one year.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Ecojustice for review. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 11, 2019 by Stefan Tetzlaff.