By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bruceross@wi.rr.com
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s January, 2021 Volunteer Newsletter edition.
No, I’m not referring to the COVID. I’m referring to the old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times”.
And these have certainly been interesting times for all of us, forcing us into new ways of looking at our lives, our communities and, for WWA, our organization.
I’m pleased to say that WWA has been hardened – not broken – by these interesting times. But nine months ago, I wasn’t sure I’d still be around to write these words.
We have always been pretty lean and mean; we don’t have the deep pockets, strong endowments, wealthy philanthropists, and/or cash-rich corporate partners like those in the national organizations. Membership money and donations and event profits QUICKLY go into our missions. But this makes us HEAVILY dependent on our grass roots fundraising events. So when COVID really hit the fan in March, we took dramatic steps to balance revenue and expenses to be battened down for the expected storm.
- We reduced expectations of our grass roots fundraising in this process, and indeed, we have been forced to cancel or postpone 30% of our events. But the events that were held did phenomenally, setting records for attendance and funds raised. You had to be super flexible and find creative ways to make people comfortable with the event, and create the conditions for financial success. New models were developed that will continue into the future. I could not be more impressed with what WWA volunteers have done this year. WWA would not be here today without your extraordinary commitment. THANK YOU.
- We did a record number of Class A Raffles, and also did a few virtual events, and created new opportunities to diversify our funding streams. Calendar sales set a record, with over 4600 calendars sold. Indeed, we achieved and actually exceeded our annual revenue goals.
- WWA was able to apply for and receive a small PPP loan, but out of an abundance of caution, we have not “recognized” the funds as income yet, until we are confident the loan is forgivable. We can ill-afford a loan liability on our books right now.
- While no one enters the non-profit world to get rich, WWA staff compensation was already at the low end of that spectrum; but even that bee-waisted belt was tightened several notches, including our habitat work through Peter Z. We did this, even as we asked the staff to work harder – because that was needed to stay afloat. You can be proud that despite these cutbacks, your WWA staff remains enthused and committed to the WWA cause. By the way, I just realized that the staff averages more than 20 years with WWA (if you exclude me).
All of these things have helped us arrive at the end of our fiscal year healthily “in the black”, with sufficient reserves to weather the year ahead as we (fingers crossed) return slowly to some degree of normalcy. But even now, chapters have recently been forced to cancel or postpone their events until herd immunity arrives, so let’s not count any unhatched chickens just yet.