Sierra Club BC

About Sierra Club BC:

Founded in 1969, the Sierra Club of British Columbia Foundation (Sierra Club BC) advocates to conserve and protect British Columbia’s environment and wildlife from the effects of climate change. It fights for a quick shift away from fossil fuels to a low carbon economy. The charity also runs educational programs to educate the public about BC’s wilderness, species and ecosystems, and the importance of climate stability. In Sierra Club BC’s The Future is Here report, it states that over the last 120 years, average temperatures have risen 0.6°C on the coast, 1.1°C in central BC, and 1.7°C in northern BC. As a result, ecological zones are beginning to elevate and shift north, causing an adjustment to animal migration and breeding patterns as well as flowering times.

Sierra Club BC runs environmental advocacy and awareness campaigns (84% of program costs in F2016) that aim to defend nature, stabilize Canada’s climate and take meaningful climate action. Its current campaigns focus on fossil fuels, climate solutions, forest, southern Rockies and the Site C dam. In 2016, it reports to have hosted or attended more than 60 outreach events. Sierra Club BC promoted citizens to speak out for salmon and Canada’s climate by rejecting Petronas’ Pacific Northwest LNG proposal. In 2016, more than 11,315 people sent letters to the Prime Minister and almost 400 people called the federal environment minister.

The charity’s education program (16% of program costs in F2016) provides 90-minute education sessions to elementary classes in BC where it teaches children about local wildlife and the importance of biodiversity. In 2016, Sierra Club BC reports it led 172 nature-based workshops for 4,000 students, down from 220 workshops for 5,500 students in 2015. It also facilitated 4 teacher professional development workshops that engaged over 250 teachers in 2016.

After being a public interest environmental lawyer for 4 years, Hannah Askew became the new Executive Director of Sierra Club BC in July 2018.

Results and Impact: In February 2016, after more than 20 years of advocacy, the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements were implemented. 3.1 million hectares (85%) of the region’s temperate rainforests are now permanently off limits to industrial logging. This represents 12% of Earth’s remaining ancient coastal temperate rainforests. Because of Sierra Club BC’s advocacy and fundraising efforts, the federal government rejected the Enbridge pipeline and tankers project in 2016. As a result of 11,315 letters being sent to the Prime Minister and almost 400 calls to the federal environment minister in 2017, Petronas cancelled its fracked gas proposal in the Skeena River near Prince Rupert. Weeks after, the proposed Aurora fracked gas terminal was also stopped.

Financial Review:

Charity Intelligence has taken the cost allocations for fundraising and administration from Sierra Club BC’s T3010 filing with the CRA. The F2017 annual filing was not yet posted when this report was updated. Without this additional information, the charity’s overhead spending and program cost coverage may be misrepresented for F2017.

Sierra Club BC is a medium-sized charity with donations of $1.0m in F2017. Administrative costs are 20% of total revenues and fundraising costs are 17% of donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, $0.63 goes towards its programs, falling just outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Sierra Club BC’s funding reserves of $769k cover 1.2 years of annual program costs.

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

Updated on August 29, 2018 by Derek Houlberg.