Founded in 1991, Ecojustice uses legal action to defend nature and fight climate change. Through its legal cases, Ecojustice aims to establish laws and rulings that protect environmental rights. The charity’s main office is in Vancouver, with four regional offices in Calgary, Halifax, Ottawa, and Toronto. Ecojustice groups its advocacy into three main areas: Climate, Healthy Communities, and Nature.

Ecojustice’s Climate program pursues legal action relating to global warming, carbon emissions, and weak climate regulation. The charity advocates for serious climate action to stop the long-term effects of climate change. In F2019, Ecojustice helped pass a new Impact Assessment Act in Canada. The act requires governments to consider climate change, Indigenous rights, and sustainable development in certain policy assessments. Currently, Ecojustice is undertaking four legal cases involving climate change.

The Healthy Communities program involves legal cases that deal with pollution, chemical waste, and local sustainability. Ecojustice states that Canada has fallen behind 150 other countries that legally enshrine the right to live in a healthy environment. In F2019, the Ontario Divisional Court ruled in Ecojustice’s favour in a major case to uphold environmental policy. Judges ruled that provincial officials acted illegally by removing cap and trade programs without public consultation. The charity also has nine in-progress cases that relate to communities.

The charity’s Nature program urges governments to protect oceans, watersheds, forests, and other vital habitats. Ecojustice also protects national parks from projects that would threaten native wildlife. Ecojustice reports that following its advocacy, Canada established a new Fisheries Act in F2019. The federal legislation now includes stronger protections for marine habitats. The charity has eight other ongoing nature cases.

Ecojustice is a Large charity with donations of $7.4m in F2019. Administrative costs are 16% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 20% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 36%. For every dollar donated, 64 cents go to the cause. This falls just outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Ecojustice has been near the lower end of this range in past years, but it has only been outside this range in F2019. Increased administrative costs (16% higher than in F2018) and fundraising costs (12% higher) led to increased overhead spending in F2019.

Ecojustice has $4.6m in total funding reserves. The charity can cover 91% or 11 months of annual program costs with its existing reserves.

According to its annual filing with the CRA, Ecojustice used external fundraisers in F2019. It paid a total of $135k to external fundraisers during the year. Ecojustice does not report how much these agencies raised. The charity states that these fundraisers do not collect any revenue, but instruct donors to send funds directly to Ecojustice instead.

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

Updated on June 25, 2020 by Eric Zhao.