Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy
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.
97%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 97 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy:
Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy is a five-star charity that is financially transparent. It has an above-average results reporting grade of A-. For every dollar donated to the charity, 97 cents are available to go to the cause, which is outside Ci's reasonable range.
Founded in 1997, Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy (EBC) maintains and protects nature preserves in the Niagara Escarpment. It seeks to conserve land with ecological, cultural, historic, or scenic value. The charity also educates and engages the public about conservation through hikes and visits to its preserves. EBC states that more than 230 plants and animals in Ontario are at risk.
A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 100 Rated Charity
EBC’s main program is land conservation. Charity Intelligence calculates EBC spent $1.3m on its programs in 2024. It also received $1.5m in donated land and easements.
EBC uses two main approaches to conserve land: conservation easement agreements and land both bought and donated. It negotiates conservation agreements with landowners, which allow owners to create a list of restrictions on human uses of their property. EBC then takes responsibility for protecting the land and issues a tax receipt for an agreed-upon portion of the land’s market value. EBC also accepts land donations and severances, whereby owners transfer their land to a preserve held by the charity as either a donation or a discounted sale. EBC states that it typically offers tax receipts worth 60% to 97% of the value of a sold property.
As of 2024, EBC reports that it has protected 249 properties, totalling 24,867 acres of protected land. In 2024, EBC added 11 new preserves and expanded two more, that increased its protected area by 1,067 acres. The charity also reports it removed over 500kg of Phragmites (an invasive reed) from its Wydlewood Cove and Plue Nature preserves.
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Results and Impact
Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy has protected 24,867 acres of land. It breaks it down into 5,211 acres of wetlands, 14,834 acres of forests, and 4,823 acres of other sensitive terrain.
EBC reports that it protects 64 of Ontario's 270 species of conservation concern. This includes at-risk species such as the Queensnake, Little Brown bat, Jefferson Salamander, Butternut Tree, and Golden Eagle.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not completely represent Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy’s results and impact.
Charity Intelligence has not yet rated EBC on impact (n/r). This does not affect the star rating.
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Finances
Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy’s audited financial statements follow line-item costing, which is not a best practice. It does not clearly differentiate between program, administrative, and fundraising costs.
In 2024 EBC received $1.3m in donations. The charity also received $1.6m in government funding, which is 35% of total revenue. EBC received $1.5m in donated land and easements, which is 33% of total revenue.
Administrative costs are 2% of revenues (excluding investment income). Reported fundraising costs are 1% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 3%. For every dollar donated, 97 cents are available to go to the cause. This falls outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending, which ranges between 65 to 95 cents to the cause.
EBC spent $1.3m on its programs in 2024 excluding donated goods used, which is 42% of its revenue excluding donated goods. In 2024 it had a surplus of $1.6m.
EBC has $1.2m in reserve funds (cash and investments). The reserves can cover 93%, or eleven months of program costs.
In 2024, EBC reports using CanadaHelps for online donations and declares these online donations as an external fundraiser. Most charities report the net received from CanadaHelps but EBC reports gross donations with the $3k online fee included in fundraising costs. EBC received $70k in donations through the CanadaHelps online portal.
This charity report is an update that has been sent for review to Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on July 22, 2025, by Grady Simpson.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 2.1% | 1.1% | 0.9% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 1.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Total overhead spending | 3.3% | 1.1% | 1.0% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 92.5% | 247.3% | 278.9% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 1,293,578 | 621,163 | 1,362,320 |
| Goods in kind | 1,470,000 | 1,390,080 | 3,602,000 |
| Government funding | 1,559,935 | 3,059,195 | 7,248,999 |
| Business activities (net) | 86,405 | 87,766 | 86,982 |
| Investment income | 101,445 | 79,804 | (159,711) |
| Other income | 1,865 | 9,715 | 39,633 |
| Total revenues | 4,513,228 | 5,247,723 | 12,180,223 |
| Program costs | 1,265,152 | 1,011,641 | 1,012,820 |
| Donated goods exp | 1,470,000 | 1,390,080 | 3,602,000 |
| Administrative costs | 92,258 | 55,667 | 106,872 |
| Fundraising costs | 32,546 | 759 | 8,996 |
| Other costs | 7,693 | 9,305 | 3,933 |
| Total spending | 2,867,649 | 2,467,452 | 4,734,621 |
| Cash flow from operations | 1,645,579 | 2,780,271 | 7,445,602 |
| Capital spending | 2,337,410 | 2,959,190 | 6,412,010 |
| Funding reserves | 1,170,081 | 2,502,065 | 2,824,554 |
Note: Deferred capital grant: EBC uses deferred accounting. To show donors information on a consistent basis, Ci adjusted for deferred capital grants. This affected revenue by ($1k) in 2024, ($1k) in 2023, and ($1k) in 2022. Deferred revenue pertaining to operations: Ci adjusted for deferred revenue pertaining to operations. This affected revenue by $282k in 2024. Donated land and easements: Ci included donated land and easements as donated goods expense. This affected expenses by $1.5m in 2024, $1.4m in 2023, and $3.6m in 2022. T3010: Ci used the charity’s T3010 filing to report government funding, administrative costs, and fundraising costs.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
1 |
$80k - $120k |
3 |
$40k - $80k |
1 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2024
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Comment added on August 20, 2025
In March 2024 Interim CEO Saba Ahmad turned over the leadership of the charity to Beth Gilhespy and resumed her role as Board Chair. Saba Ahmed stepped down as board chair until January 2025, when she stepped down. Beth Gilhespy has over 20 years experience as CEO/Executive Director of environmental charities, including 14+ years at the helm of the Bruce Trail Conservancy, another leading Charity Intelligence environmental charity. The organization does not retain third-party fundraisers and instead does all fundraising in-house with existing staff and volunteer support. In order to support the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy as a growing land trust, Beth and her team are continuing the work of protecting sensitive and vulnerable land, and placing added emphasis on stewardship of the almost 25,000 acres in their care.
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 1-888-815-9575