Sierra Club Canada Foundation is a 4-star charity that is financially transparent. It has an average results reporting grade of B and reasonable overhead spending of 22%. The charity has reserve funds to cover less than three months of program costs. 

Founded in 1971, the Sierra Club Canada Foundation (SCCF) is a Canadian environmental charity with the aim of empowering people to be leaders in protecting, restoring, and enjoying healthy and safe ecosystems. The charity is made up of four chapters: Atlantic, Québec, Ontario, and Prairie, plus the Sierra Youth Coalition, a group whose mandate is to empower young people to become community leaders. The Sierra Club Canada Foundation has programs focusing on outdoor education (Wild Child), climate & clean energy, environmental & social justice, nature & endangered species, exploring & enjoying the outdoors, and conservation & the circular economy. SCCF spent $1.2m on programs in F2022 and $1.0m in F2023. SCCF does not provide a spending breakdown by program.

SCCF has not released its F2023 annual report, so Ci has used the F2022 annual report. The F2023 audited financial statements have been released, which Ci used.

Environment and Environmental Advocacy: SCCF works on the local, national, and international level to reduce greenhouse gasses and to promote sustainable energy practices, as well as to protect natural spaces and endangered species. In F2022, SCCF co-founded the Stop Atlantic Gas Alliance to push back against new LNG (liquified natural gas) projects and hosted two beach cleanups in Toronto (30 acres of Cherry Beach and 180 cubic feet in Tommy Thompson Park). To protest nuclear power in New Brunswick, SCCF sent 25 messages sent to decision-makers, gave five presentations, hosted three webinars, and issued 13 newsletters, one procedural request, and five policy statements. SCCF is also challenging the legality of expanding offshore oil and gas off Newfoundland and Labrador through two court cases.

Wild Child: The mission of the Wild Child programs in Edmonton, Halifax, and Prince Edward Island (PEI) is to provide child-led, play-based learning through repeated exposure to nature helping to foster a lasting relationship with the natural world. In F2022, the Sierra Club Canada Foundation delivered 60,000 hours of programming, doubling from the prior year. The charity also trained five educators in forest school outdoor education methodology and hosted 25 volunteer-led hikes and events.

Outreach and Media: In F2022, SCCF was featured in over 183 media stories, participated in two UN conferences (COP27 and COP15), issued over 20 policy positions and declarations, and delivered nine Sierra Youth podcast episodes. SCCF had 462,841 Facebook impressions (an increase of 149%), 159,927 Instagram impressions (an increase of 76%), and 46.8k Twitter impressions.

Sierra Club Canada Foundation had donations of $1.0m in F2023.

The charity received $178k in government funding representing 14% of total revenues. It also received $87k in project administration fees.

Administrative costs are 17% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 4% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 22%, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

Sierra Club Canada Foundation has $220k in reserve funds. These reserve funds are the charity’s cash and investments. The charity has less than three months of annual program costs covered by its current reserves. This shows a need for funding.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Sierra Club Canada Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 12, 2024, by Lily Ferguson.