This is the list of best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia. We decided to create this list to help people who would like to donate their funds to reliable organizations that will use them for fighting the climate change and minimizing its consequences.
The donation to charity is one of the noblest gestures in today’s world. Both blue and white collar employees, as well as some of the most famous and successful entrepreneurs in the world, use their funds to support the causes they believe in. Global warming and climate change are the most disastrous changes in weather patterns, caused by the mass consumerism and fast development of human civilization.
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We still don’t have strict environmental regulations that would slow down the climate changes, because wealthy lobbyists from various industries are investing billions of dollars to keep environmental disasters ‘under the rug.’ In addition to this many governments have failed to respond to the disastrous effects caused by the global warming. If you want to read more about the subject, we recommend you to take a look at our list of 11 worst countries that are responsible for global warming after you find the best climate charity.
Fortunately, now when science community has undoubtedly said that climate changes are real, fight against this dangerous phenomenon is easier than ever before. That is also the reason why climate change charities are becoming much more popular in the last couple of years. The struggle against climate change and the corporate interests that are ignoring it and putting the whole world in danger is far from being over. Environmental organizations will need much more funds and undoubted government support across the globe to decrease the world’s carbon footprint and mitigate the consequences of poisonous fumes that we are letting into the atmosphere.
We wanted to give our contribution to this noble cause by making a list of the best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia. This way you will be able to choose the organizations that will use funds for making a real change. Apart from donating money to the organizations from this list, the best way to help the fight against climate change is to support the local environmental organizations, run by the trusted individuals. The general rule when donating money to charitable organizations is to check their status in IRS and on various charity ranking websites. Also avoid organizations with copy-cat names and the ones that use telemarketing, e mail spam and other ‘black hat’ marketing techniques.
Climate change charity organizations aren’t only looking for money. So, if you are short on cash at the moment, you can also offer yourself to volunteer and support the cause with work. Every respectful nonprofit organization will gladly accept committed activist, who wants to spread the word about the cause and motivate other people to donate.
As sources for finding the USA entries for the list, we have used articles from two respected and reliable environmental websites. Earth Easy helped us finding environmental charities with high impact. We have also used Earth 911 to find even more climate change non-profit organizations. We have combined this information with the data from the Social Work Helper’s article.
Since we needed to equally rely on charities from all four countries we have also consulted the four most reliable charity review platforms. Charity Navigator for the United States, Change Path for Australia, Charity Intelligence for Canada and Alive and Giving for the United Kingdom entries. All of these charities provide data about the annual revenue of each organization. We have used these figures for ranking the organizations and creating a list of the best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
11. Bruce Trail Conservancy – Canada
Total revenue (2016): $3,083,891;
Unlike other organizations on our list, the Bruce Trail Conservancy sees the fight against the climate change as a secondary goal. Still, it is one of the biggest environmental charities in Canada. Their mission is to protect Niagara Escarpment and restore its natural habitat. In 2016 The Bruce Trail Conservancy has received the total revenue of more than $3 million, and most of these funds were spent on buying off the land, marking trails, and organizing land stewardship. The largest part of the BTC’s revenue comes from donations, and the organization has received a four-star charity rating on Charity Intelligence and A grade for donations accountability.
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10. Earthwatch – Australia
Total revenue (2015): $3,255,498;
Earthwatch, next on our list of best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia is not a big organization, but they have been funding and organizing scientific research, workshops, and expeditions whose purpose is to raise awareness about the climate change and its dreadful consequences, for more than thirty years. The organization tries to connect the scientific community with people from all walks of life and spread the message about carbon pollution, freshwater shortage and the possibilities for sustainable life and human-wildlife coexistence. When it comes to funds, their revenue has dropped in the last couple of years, but they are still able to collect more than $3 million from donations, which is a significant amount of money, especially if we take into consideration that they employ only eight workers.
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9. Greenpeace Environmental Trust – United Kingdom
Total revenue (2015): $3,654,727;
The UK branch of the Greenpeace Environmental Trust focuses on fighting climate change and air pollution, saving forests, grasslands and oceans and supporting agriculture that is good the environment. Last year they collected more than $3.6 million, and more than 91% of this money was invested in environmental projects. They had received most of their funds through donations and investments. The organization is famous for their non-standard approach to solving pollution and illegal hunting problems. One of the examples was the Greenpeace fleet of ships that hunt for illegal fishers and ocean polluters.
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8. Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Canada
Total revenue (2016): $5,492,000;
CPWS, next on our list of best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia is the only charity organization that protects vast Canadian wilderness and clean water reserve. They provide legal protection for public lands and educate people to respect and save Canada’s diverse natural resources and wildlife. When it comes to revenue, in 2016 they have collected more than $5 million dollars, according to Canadian Charity Intelligence website. A Large part of these funds (more than 78%) has been spent on various environment protection projects, which involves the protection of forests, tundra, prairies, swamps, rivers, oceans, and beaches. Their major accomplishment this year was the establishment of Hecate Strait as a protected area.
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7. David Suzuki Foundation – Canada
Total revenue (2016): $11,452,000;
As one of the biggest charity organizations in Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, the number 7 on our list of best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia focuses on a wide variety of different issues and causes. Their five main concerns are climate change, water pollution, ocean health and the protection of ocean wildlife. They target people from different walks of life with education programs and workshops, scientific research and other forms of social engagement. Investing in scientific research helps them to advocate for environmental policy changes.
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6. Bush Heritage – Australia
Total revenue (2014): $12,857,000;
The Bush Heritage that ranked 6th on our list of best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia was established in 1991, and since then it is helping environmentalist causes by buying the land and natural resources. They also collaborate with the local Aboriginal communities in order to save Australia’s rich natural reserve. In 2014 the Bush Heritage collected more than $12 million through donations. Although they employ 33 steady employees and more than 20 part-timers, they have been maintaining a solid ‘revenue to expenses ration’ over the years. According to Change Path website, at the moment they have $3.39 million worth of assets.
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5. WWF – Australia
Total revenue (2014): $28,968,671;
We have chosen to add the Australian branch of WWF to our list of the best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia, instead of the WWF International, which has headquarters in the United States. The Australian organization branch works together with other smaller charities, institutes, Aboriginal communities, and individuals to stop the degradation of natural resources, and the extinction of endangered animal species. They have been quite successful in their quest, collecting more than $28 million in 2015. Although the organization employs more than 80 workers country wide, they were able to create a significant surplus over the last couple of years. Most of their funds come from private and business donations.
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4. Ocean Conservancy – USA
Total revenue (2015): $33,952,913;
Although Ocean Conservancy has a four-star rating, its Charity Navigator score is slightly lower than the other two US charities on our list. Still, this is the biggest ocean protection charity in the country and one of the biggest organizations of this kind in the world. In 2015 their revenue amounted to $33,952,913, and 73% of that money was spent on ocean conservancy programs. Their projects promote healthy and diverse ocean and protect the wild life in both Atlantic and Pacific. They also motivate people to stand up to the investors and big corporations that don’t respect the sea laws and protect sustainable local fisheries that don’t represent a threat to the ocean wildlife.
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3. Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts – United Kingdom
Total revenue (2015): $45,289,692;
We are continuing our list of best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia with the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts runs smaller environmental organizations throughout the country, and in 2015, they collected more than $45 million. Unlike most other organizations in our list, these funds weren’t collected through donations but the organization of charitable activities across the United Kingdom. More than 98% of this money will be spent on charity projects, while the other 2% goes to the organization, support costs and salaries for 54 employees.
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2. Earthjustice – USA
Total revenue (2015): $48,137,000;
Earthjustice, next on our list of best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia, stands behind the motto that Earth, like anyone else, needs a lawyer. Their work is highly appreciated in the United States and organization has received four stars on most charity rating websites. On Charity Navigator, they got a 93 (out of 100) average score and amazing 97 transparency rate. The organization is a real law firm that protects natural resources from investors and works for several hundred environmental groups and funds, including the Sierra Club.
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1. Sierra Club Foundation – USA
Total revenue (2015): $90,844,476;
Sierra Club Foundation is one of the biggest environmental charities in the United States and the winner of our list of best climate change charities in US, Canada, UK, and Australia. It receives most of its $90 million revenue through contributions, and more than 87% of that money is spent on various environmental projects. They often sponsor innovations that support environmentalist causes and scientific research that tries to mitigate the consequences of climate change. Their donations come from both individuals and large corporate businesses, and a large part of these funds is directed towards educating people about the climate change and helping them to keep the environment clean.
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