Ecotrust Canada
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
A-
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
n/r
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
79%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 79 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Ecotrust Canada:
Ecotrust Canada is a 5-star charity with an above average results reporting grade. It is financially transparent and has reasonable overhead spending. It has $3.0m in funding reserves that cover its annual program costs for 1.2 years.
Founded in 1995, Ecotrust Canada aims to create a sustainable economy in Canada by funding innovative solutions to environmental and social problems. The charity works with rural, remote, and Indigenous communities to develop methods of improving sustainability. Ecotrust Canada focuses on addressing issues such as improving home energy and food security; supporting Indigenous communities in planning for healthier, more culturally-informed, sustainable homes; working with coastal communities seeking to better manage their marine resources; and creating the tools necessary to protect and manage forests for community benefit while battling climate change.
In F2021, Ecotrust Canada’s three largest programs were Community Fisheries, Social Enterprises, and Community Energy.
Community Fisheries represented 42% of program costs in F2021. Ecotrust Canada aims to build a sustainable and vibrant commercial fishery in BC by advocating for policy change, managing local fisheries, and stopping illegal fishing.
Social Enterprises were 16% of program costs. The charity carried out its social enterprise work as part owner of ThisFish and TeemFish Monitoring.
Community Energy represented 12% of program costs in F2021. This program uses clean energy solutions to put an end to energy poverty.
The remaining 31% of program costs included Climate Innovation (11%), Community Programs and Food Systems (10%), and Indigenous Home-Lands (10%).
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Results and Impact
Ecotrust Canada's Climate Innovation program created a climate and biodiversity toolkit to support federal government programs designed to tackle the climate crisis through Natural Climate Solutions. The team also advocated for the creation of a Forest Carbon Economy Fund, that was eventually reflected in the Federal Government's $4 Billion Natural Smart Climate Solutions Fund.
The Food Systems program co-launched an innovative regenerative ocean farm with the Metlakatla First Nation on BC’s North Coast. Within a year, the farm produced 1,560 pounds of sugar kelp.
In F2021, the Community Fisheries program provided approximately 120 crab harvesters with technical support in acquiring fishing licences and conducting at-sea monitoring trips to collect high quality data to scientists to ensure that commercial fishery is sustainably managed. They worked with the Area A crab fleet on the Ghost Gear recovery program that clears lost gear from fishing grounds. In F2021, the recovery program collected 10,436 kilograms of ghost gear. 9,841kg was returned for reuse, 245kg was recycled, 245kg was repurposed, and 105kg was sent to the landfill.
In F2021, Ecotrust Canada’s Community Energy program raised $2.5 million in 2021 for community retrofit projects in Haíɫzaqv, Quatsino, and ‘Na̲mg̲is First Nations, and helped support 120 heat pump installations in the Haíɫzaqv Nation. This generated 450 hours of employment for community members and removed over 1,700 litres of diesel per home, and created roughly $4 million in cost savings for rural households. The charity states that 30,000 tonnes of CO2 and 1.96m litres of diesel fuel use will be eliminated over the lifetime of installed equipment. The Energy program's policy work made significant impacts in 2021 through advocacy and engagement with the BC government. As a result, the Province of BC created a new program that will give tens of thousands of low- and moderate-income households in BC retrofit support through rebates for home energy upgrades.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of Ecotrust Canada’s results and impact.
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Finances
Prior to F2020, Ecotrust Canada’s financial statements consolidated the charity with The Amp, a wholly owned subsidiary company. During F2020, the subsidiary became insolvent and shut down, and Ecotrust Canada restated its previous figures to exclude The Amp’s operations. Ci has continued to report the consolidated figures for F2019.
Ecotrust Canada received donations of $1.3m in F2021. It also received $1.8m in consulting fees (55% of revenues). Administrative costs are 17% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 4% of donations. This results in overhead spending of 21%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 79 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.
Ecotrust Canada has $3.0m in net funding reserves. The charity can cover 1.2 years of annual program costs with its existing reserves.
Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Ecotrust Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on July 19, 2022 by Emma Saganowich.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 16.9% | 17.4% | 19.7% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 4.2% | 1.9% | 0.6% |
| Total overhead spending | 21.1% | 19.4% | 20.3% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 115.9% | 90.1% | 76.9% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 1,344,694 | 1,309,947 | 1,299,502 |
| Goods in kind | 0 | 0 | 122,526 |
| Government funding | 90,028 | 454,130 | 58,564 |
| Fees for service | 1,786,137 | 1,115,268 | 1,493,840 |
| Business activities (net) | 0 | 0 | 350,401 |
| Investment income | 7 | 568 | 13,865 |
| Other income | 26,660 | 348,741 | 31,770 |
| Total revenues | 3,247,526 | 3,228,654 | 3,370,468 |
| Program costs | 2,620,382 | 2,314,386 | 2,429,312 |
| Administrative costs | 547,583 | 562,377 | 661,030 |
| Fundraising costs | 56,575 | 25,410 | 7,970 |
| Total spending | 3,224,540 | 2,902,173 | 3,098,312 |
| Cash flow from operations | 22,986 | 326,481 | 272,156 |
| Capital spending | 9,300 | (104,611) | 10,228 |
| Funding reserves | 3,037,615 | 2,084,556 | 1,867,215 |
Note: Ci included losses on equity investments in investment income, affecting revenues by ($nil) in F2021, ($nil) in F2020, and ($1k) in F2019. Ci reported covid-19 wage subsidies as government funding and removed the amounts from donations. Ci reported donated land as goods in kind and removed the amounts from donations. Ci gathered program, administrative, and fundraising costs from spending breakdown reports posted on the charity’s website. Ci excluded impairments of loans receivable from social enterprises, affecting program costs by ($410k) in F2020. Ci removed amortization on a pro-rata basis from program and administrative costs.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
1 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
6 |
$40k - $80k |
3 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2020
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Ecotrust Canada develops innovative economic solutions that promote environmental sustainability and social equity. For more than 25 years, we’ve been proving it’s possible to create healthy localized economies and resilient communities by embracing the connection between social and environmental well-being. Projects in fisheries, nature-based climate solutions, energy security, housing, and food systems have developed replicable economic models with catalytic potential. But much more work must be done. Like others around the world, we’ve witnessed how easily progress can be unraveled when viable alternatives to broken economic models aren’t readily available. We need to ensure that promising innovations become available to all communities.
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 604-682-4141