There are a few items in our Audited Financial Statements which may be helpful to understand.

1)      Comparing revenue numbers between 2010 and 2011.   

  1. Donations are up by about $130,000 which is good in these economic times.
  2. Grants are down by about $50,000 which is not surprising with government and foundation cut-backs.
  3. Memberships are up by $80,000 which reflects the initial benefit of new members who have joined during the year.   
  4. Other income is up $40,000 (this is money earned) by properties.
  5. Rental income is up by $15,000.
  6. Donations in-kind are down by about $5.5 million. Donations in-kind are largely donations of covenants or land and represent important conservation work, but do not represent cash. Donations in-kind are unpredictable in terms of their timing and thus this figure fluctuates wildly from year to year. In fiscal 2010, there were two very large gifts of conservation covenants.
  7. The Total Revenue is therefore approximately $5.3 million down from the previous year, but the CASH is up by about $200,000 in total.

2)      Salaries and benefits.

  1. Salaries are up by $520,000 over the previous year. This increase largely represents the investment in membership increase ($250,000 for the cost of the canvass crews in Vancouver and Victoria) and the costs of having a full-time CFO. In addition the staff had been reduced in the previous fiscal year and some rebuilding was necessary in order to deliver our programs. Salaries include people in the field who deliver programs, provide services or manage lands. For example: crews at campground, cooks at Abkhazi Garden, site staff, conservators and wardens.

3)      Transfers to other Agencies.

  1. These are down because of the timing of projects. These are funds transferred to Regional Government and the like. These are NOT a cost to TLC but ‘what we do’.

4)      Overall Expenses. Down by nearly $900,000 year over-year. This figure is impacted by the amount of funds we are able to forward to partners (item 3 above) in any given year.

5)      Assets. Up by $2.7 million dollars.

6)      Liabilities.

  1. Current Portion of Long-term debt up by $600,000. This is because several mortgages come due during the current fiscal year. A short-term mortgage is maintained waiting for Saanich Municipality to purchase the ‘Mount Douglas Park’ addition from the Madrona Farm Project. The Saanich purchase is expected to happen at the end of November. It is normal for mortgages which come due in a fiscal year to be replaced or renewed at their due date.

7)      Membership numbers: TLC Membership numbers are at an all time high. Increasing member numbers to 30,000 is a goal of the Be the Change Campaign.

8)      Auditors’ statements: This year they are different from last year largely because of new required language that applies to all audits.    

  1. The reference to working capital deficiency of $3,531,262. See #6 a above.
  2. The reference to unrestricted deficit of $2,925,520. This figure can be found on page 5 of the statement. This is a REDUCTION of about $300,000 from the previous year. In other words improving.

9)      Auditors Note 1 (b) Going Concern. While we of course must take this seriously it represents the impossibility of ‘guaranteeing’ that donations will continue. This same statement could apply to any organization that relies on donations or even on any business that relies on customers to continue to buy its products. While this note has more detail this year it is virtually the same as the notes placed in each of the last 5 years. A successful Be The Change Campaign will address all of the cash issues and increase the member base to 30,000 members. The members of TLC have a choice here – they can prove the auditors warning right or wrong depending on their support.

10)  The recent article in the Times Colonist appears to have left some readers with the impression that only 30% of donated money goes to charitable work. This is of course completely wrong. The true figure is closer to 85% of our donated money goes to our work. This impression seems to be because only a couple of figures were presented and a lack of knowledge about what these number mean.