Evergreen is a 4-star charity that is financially transparent. It has an above-average results reporting grade of A- and overhead spending of 36% which is outside of Ci's reasonable range.

Founded in 1991, Evergreen is an urban environmental charity that aims to create green community spaces in cities. The charity's work addresses climate change, housing affordability, and access to nature. Evergreen states that 78% of large Canadian cities have continued to lose tree canopy over the past 20 years and 80% of Canadians live in urban areas.

Evergreen works in two areas: Evergreen Brick Works programs and National programs. 

In F2023, 69% of program spending ($11.5m) went to Evergreen Brick Works programs. In 2010, the charity opened Evergreen Brick Works, Canada’s first large-scale community environmental centre. Located in Toronto, the centre offers events about how to live and work sustainably. Evergreen Brick Works also hosts seasonal and cultural events, such as a Day of the Dead festival. In F2023, Evergreen had 33,000 guests attend over 180 events at the Brick Works and over 145,000 people visited Saturday Farmers Markets. Evergreen introduced two new programs to help kids better understand climate change and hosted its first ever Good Mourning Festival, a two-day, culturally rich event, that saw over 10,000 community members celebrate and reclaim death as a special part of life.

In F2023, National programs received 31% of program spending ($5.2m). Evergreen runs various programs across Canada to promote healthy and dynamic urban spaces. In F2023, the charity relaunched the Evergreen Conference which brought industries, cultures and regions together to examine the potential of public space to address social, ecological and economic challenges. There were 39 speakers, 14 unique sessions, and 406 in-person and 364 online participants. In F2023, Evergreen supported over 5,500 people across Canada with innovative housing solutions through its Housing Supply Challenge Support Program. The charity also hosted 11 ravine activations across the city and co-produced five podcast episodes of Future Fix.

Evergreen’s audited financial statements do not break out government funding and investment income from donations and fees for service. Ci reported revenues from the charity’s T3010 filings with the CRA.  

Evergreen had donations of $3.6m in F2023. It also had $9.8m in revenue from the sale of goods and services and $718k in rent revenue.

The charity received $5.5m in government funding representing 28% of total revenues.

Administrative costs are 13% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 23% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 36%, which is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

Evergreen has $1.9m in reserve funds. These reserve funds are the charity’s cash and investments. The charity has one month 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 Evergreen for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 6, 2024, by Lily Ferguson.