Northern Lights Wildlife Society Success Story

Overall Fundraising

Northern Lights Wildlife Society takes a diversified approach to fundraising, balancing digital giving with more traditional outreach to ensure broad support throughout the year.

💡Individual Giving

Individual giving forms the foundation of NLWS’s fundraising, and the majority of this giving flows through CanadaHelps. The organization has cultivated a loyal and engaged donor base over decades, with many monthly and yearly giving donors. This consistent stream of donor support enables the organization to sustain its day-to-day operations and plan long-term programs.

💡Campaign-Based Fundraising

Throughout the year, NLWS runs several story-driven campaigns that connect donors to the impact of their donations. These include Paws for Freedom in the spring, which is centered around the annual bear releases, and the Wild Baby Shower in July, which highlights the costs of caring for newborn animals and invites donors to contribute toward specific items like milk replacers. These campaigns are activated for a limited window, including digital donation forms via CanadaHelps, keeping the messaging timely and relevant, and helping donors see the real-world impact of their contributions.

💡Holiday Online Fundraiser

Dawson’s Lights, an online holiday fundraiser that began in 2011, has since become a cornerstone of NLWS’s giving season. Donors “buy” light bulbs to illuminate a large community tree – a campaign that originated from a simple suggestion and grew into a tradition with its own history and following. This year, as the original tree has reached the end of its life, NLWS is working with the local town to repurpose the trunk into ornaments for sale, keeping the story alive in a new form and looking for a new tree for this year’s event.

💡Legacy Giving

Legacy giving represents a meaningful and growing portion of NLWS’s income. The organization has built strong relationships with long-term donors who choose to leave a gift in their will, and NLWS takes an intentional approach to stewarding these connections. Angelika has also created in-memoriam and tribute giving opportunities, including gifts from weddings where guests are directed to donate to NLWS instead of traditional presents.

💡Grants & Corporate Support

In recent years, companies have proactively approached the charity with grant opportunities, and the team has leveraged the organization’s substantial community following – including over 100,000 social media followers and a 6,000-strong monthly newsletter list – as a compelling case for corporate partnership.

💡Direct Mail

NLWS continues to invest in direct mail, producing an annual newsletter that is mailed to existing donors and distributed to community spaces such as doctors’ offices, dental clinics, and local coffee shops. Each newsletter includes a QR code linking to the donation form on their website, bridging print and digital donor bases, and helping attract new donors across demographics.

Digital Fundraising with CanadaHelps

CanadaHelps plays a central role in enabling Northern Lights Wildlife Society’s digital fundraising efforts, helping the team connect with donors and communicate impact effectively.

☑️ Custom Donation Forms & Impact-Led Giving

NLWS uses custom donation forms embedded on its website as the primary giving gateway. The forms use the suggested donation amounts feature, wherein each amount tells donors exactly what their gift will provide. For example, $25 might buy a small jar of honey for the bears to share, $35 gets a week of milk replacer for a rescued fawn, or $50 a paw of freedom for a bear being released. This approach transforms a transactional ask into a meaningful, personal moment for the donor.

“If you give people the feeling of their impact, they’re much more inclined to participate than if we just ask them to donate $25. And then when they see a video of bears being fed, or we’re putting a bucket of apples out, they feel, ‘well, I bought that bucket of apples.’ It becomes their thing. Wherever you can connect the donor to the result, they get invested. And that’s the goal,” shared Angelika.

☑️Securities Giving

NLWS has been able to leverage securities giving through CanadaHelps significantly. Previously, the organization processed securities gifts through a dedicated bank account. Now, it is a much simpler process as donors can be easily redirected to the CanadaHelps platform, where the transaction is handled seamlessly. “Adding securities giving through CanadaHelps transformed what used to be a cumbersome, multi-step process into something effortless. Now, when a lawyer calls about a client’s securities donation, I can simply say: ‘go here’, and it’s done. No complicated process, nothing on our end. We love it,” emphasized Angelika. The ease of the process has also made it easier for NLWS to promote securities giving publicly on its website.

☑️Charity Profile

NLWS maintains an active Charity Profile on the CanadaHelps platform, which serves as a discovery point for new donors. Monthly donations flowing through the Charity Profile reflect a steady stream of supporters who find the organization through CanadaHelps’ search and discovery tools, complementing the traffic generated by NLWS’s own website and social media.

☑️ Monthly Giving

Monthly giving through CanadaHelps has been a steady and resilient revenue stream for NLWS, holding strong even through the disruptions of the pandemic. “We make a point of encouraging donors who can no longer give financially to stay connected through our newsletter and social media. Many who stepped back during the pandemic have since returned and resumed donations, because they never truly left the community,” shared Angelika.

☑️ Automated Tax Receipting

The automatic issuance of tax receipts through CanadaHelps removes a significant administrative burden for the NLWS team. Donors receive instant confirmation of their gift, and the organization does not need to manage receipt delivery manually.

☑️ Reporting & Donor Insights

Angelika regularly uses CanadaHelps’ reporting and visualization tools to track giving trends and share progress with her board. The platform’s dashboards make it easy to compare year-over-year performance at a glance, and Angelika uses screenshots of these visuals in board presentations.

Results with CanadaHelps

NLWS’s deepening use of CanadaHelps has contributed to consistent growth in revenue and overall fundraising capacity.

⬆️9% increase in monthly revenue via CDF in the past year
⬆️6% increase in monthly revenue via Charity Profile in the past year
⬆️1600% all-time increase in securities revenue

Growth in Overall Digital Donations

The organization has seen steady growth in digital giving, driven by accessible donation forms and engaging campaigns that resonate with supporters. This includes a 9% increase in monthly revenue via CDF and a 6% increase in monthly revenue via Charity Profile in the past year.

Steady Growth in Monthly Giving

Monthly giving through CanadaHelps via both the custom donation forms and the charity’s CanadaHelps Charity Profile has proven to be one of the most stable and predictable revenue streams for NLWS. The organization’s monthly donor base has held strong, with many lapsed donors returning once their financial situations stabilized post the pandemic.

Increased Securities Giving

The introduction of securities giving through CanadaHelps has opened a new and growing channel of major gifts for NLWS. The charity has seen a 1600% growth in securities giving since it began accepting gifts of securities with CanadaHelps.

Increased Reach Through Campaign-Specific Forms

By creating dedicated donation forms for each seasonal campaign, NLWS has been able to tell focused stories and track the results of each initiative separately. This approach has made campaigns more compelling for donors and easier to evaluate for the team.

Why Northern Lights Wildlife Society Recommends CanadaHelps

For Angelika and the Northern Lights Wildlife Society team, CanadaHelps is a trusted partner in their fundraising journey. The platform’s ease of use, comprehensive reporting tools, and breadth of features make it possible for a small team to manage a sophisticated, multi-channel fundraising operation efficiently.

What stands out most is how the platform has grown alongside the organization. From custom donation forms and monthly giving tools to securities processing and campaign management, CanadaHelps has consistently offered solutions that meet NLWS where it is and help it reach further.

“CanadaHelps has helped us grow into an organization larger than we ever imagined. It’s been quite the journey, and CanadaHelps has been a real part of that. As the platform has evolved, so have we – because the tools it offers have made more possible for us,” shared Angelika.

Angelika commends the platform’s accessibility, reliability, and the quality of support the CanadaHelps team provides. “I always recommend CanadaHelps. It’s easy to work with, comprehensive, and gives me real insight into where we stand – compared to previous years, across donor groups – without having to dig through everything manually.”

Impact on the Community

Since its founding in 1990, Northern Lights Wildlife Society has made a profound and lasting contribution to wildlife conservation in British Columbia that extends far beyond the shelter’s walls.

Wildlife Rehabilitation & Rewilding

Over 36 years, NLWS has taken in and cared for hundreds of bears, moose, grizzlies, and other BC mammals, nursing them back to health and preparing them for successful reintegration into the wild. To date, the shelter has received 833 black bears and released 755 – a release success rate of over 90%. Of 40 grizzly bears admitted, 34 have been rewilded (85%), and 81 of 106 moose (76%) – a rate the team shares among the highest for this species anywhere in the world.

Landmark Research Programs

NLWS is currently running three major research programs: the Black Bear Project, the Grizzly Bear Project, and the Moose Project. The Black Bear Project involves radio-collaring 150 or more bears across BC over five years – believed to be the largest rewilding research project of its kind by number. These studies produce peer-reviewed research and real-world insights that inform habitat protection, collision prevention, and population management. One study, conducted in partnership with a BC university and funded by ICBC, led to a nearly 90% reduction in moose-vehicle collisions on a key stretch of highway by adjusting the timing of roadside brush-cutting.

Community Education & Coexistence

The organization delivers programs to schools and community groups, focusing on how people and wildlife can share space safely and respectfully. For instance, when a radio-collared bear hibernated in a culvert and woke up in a residential area, NLWS turns the moment into an opportunity for education, using social media to celebrate the community’s coexistence practices and encourage others to follow suit.

Broad Partnerships for Greater Impact

NLWS works with a wide range of partners – government agencies, universities, hunting organizations, environmental groups, and industry – united by a shared goal of supporting healthy wildlife populations. The team takes a pragmatic approach: if a partnership helps the animals, NLWS is open to it. This philosophy has allowed the organization to build bridges across diverse stakeholders and maximize the reach of its work.

Looking Ahead

Northern Lights Wildlife Society is thinking ambitiously about its next chapter, with a focus on deepening community engagement, expanding research, and evolving its fundraising model to meet a changing landscape.

Emerging Fundraising Channels

Northern Lights Wildlife Society continues to explore new fundraising avenues, including initiatives like grant funding and e 50/50 draws. For the first time in 2025, NLWS is venturing into 50/50 draws/raffles, adding a new and accessible giving option for donors who enjoy a participatory fundraising experience.

Expanding Media Presence

NLWS has dedicated resources to broader media outreach, partnering with Notified – a press distribution platform – to share high-profile rescue and release stories with journalists nationwide and into the US. The goal is to use compelling animal stories to attract new donors and raise the organization’s profile well beyond its existing network.

Evolving Donor Engagement

The team is actively exploring creative new ways to grow NLWS’s donor community. This includes engaging younger demographics who may not yet have the means to donate financially but can contribute through advocacy, social sharing, and community building – recognizing that today’s engaged follower can become tomorrow’s loyal donor.

Research Sharing & Knowledge Transfer

NLWS is developing a dedicated page on its website to host past and ongoing research, making findings accessible to the public, partner organizations, and other wildlife shelters. The organization is also working on a comprehensive moose care manual to share its hard-won expertise with other facilities – an effort that could improve survival rates for this challenging species beyond NLWS’s own walls.

For more information about Northern Lights Wildlife Society, visit www.wildlifeshelter.com