Laura Evans

Laura Evans is the founding Executive Director for the Nature Foundation, and she also serves as the Chief Advancement Officer for the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Under Laura’s leadership since 2013, the Canadian Museum of Nature has achieved record fundraising success including the largest gift in its history from the Ross Beaty Family. Laura has implemented a comprehensive fundraising strategy and created new programs to support discovery, research, and education. She is proud to work with a team of fundraising professionals, and a volunteer board that champions the Museum’s priorities across Canada.

Laura has dedicated over 20 years to fundraising, passionately committed to building relationships, identifying opportunities for support, and inspiring investments to create impactful outcomes. Laura is honoured to have worked with many wonderful donors and corporate partners in her career during which she raised over $40 million in support of nature, education, at risk youth, and the arts.  

A Certified Fund-Raising Executive (CFRE) and a Member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Laura has led advancement, outreach and fundraising for the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, Opera Lyra, and the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa.

Proudly Canadian, Laura has had a lifelong passion for nature from her days as a child, gardening and bird watching with her grandmother. Happiest outdoors, Laura loves to travel, and embraces opportunities to experience nature’s wonder with her family. Whether climbing a volcano or exploring the jungle, or reveling in the glory of our beautiful country, she enjoys hiking, kayaking, and listening to the call of the loons and the wind in the trees at the cottage.

Laura’s work is motivated by a desire for a future where nature is loved and respected, and she is inspired by her young daughter and all those who seek to understand and protect our natural world.

Laura believes we must invest in nature, because when nature thrives, we all do.

‍