Grants Data Reports

2023 Environmental Grants Data Landscape Snapshot (Report)

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OVERVIEW

Environment Funders Canada (EFC) and our research partners at DARO are pleased to share our 2023 Environmental Grants Data Landscape Snapshot Report with you.

The goal of this research is to gain an informed snapshot of the environmental grantmaking landscape in Canada.

This is the second year that EFC has collected environmental grants data from members and other funders in the sector. Thank you to the 68 funders who contributed datasets to this year’s analysis, an increase of 58% over the previous year. 

This year’s data includes 2,779 environmental grants totalling $291.8M in funding.

We are very excited to build on the data received to generate deeper insights. This year, we also added new questions and analysis to begin assessing some important elements of trust-based philanthropy. As more funders contribute their data year after year, we will be able to get a more accurate picture and see trends over time. 

INSIGHTS

Some highlights from this year’s analysis include:

  • The average amount most funders (23) are awarding per grant is $25K-$100K. Very few funders (3) reported average grant sizes of $1M+.
  • Conservation remained the most funded environmental category by total dollars awarded in 2023, followed by Climate Change and Environmental Education respectively.
  • 28% of the grants reported had an Indigenous focus. This amounted to over $90M in grants, representing 31% of the value of all grants reported.
  • An overwhelming amount of funding comes in the form of restricted programming support (90%), with very little unrestricted funding to grantees.
  • A majority of grants require reporting from grantees (61%).

We encourage you to read the report for further observations and insights.

LOOKING AHEAD

Currently, the raw data we have collected is internal to EFC and our research partner DARO. Only aggregate data is shared in the report.

Looking ahead, EFC won’t be collecting data from funders again in 2025. Instead, EFC and DARO will focus on providing funders with direct access to the data we have collected so far, to help inform their work. Funders who have submitted datasets will have the opportunity to request that their data be anonymized before the data hub launches.

In 2026, we will collect grants data for both the 2024 and 2025 years to provide the next data analysis report. We plan to repeat this process bi-annually.

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