Financials

The image of a roller coaster comes to mind. gcrg was undoubtedly on a “high” the previous fiscal year after a significant financial rebound, yet our current year-end financial statements have brought us careening back to earth. The situation drives home the fact that nothing is a “given”—every year is a struggle and a challenge. An extremely competitive grant environment coupled with a struggling economy is a harsh reality for non-profits everywhere. Consequently, the financial picture can change drastically from one year to the next.
So what happened? Most significantly, grant income dropped. Every year gcrg tries to maintain our ties to certain foundations while investigating and pursuing other sources of support. Some years it reaps benefits; other years it doesn’t work as well as we would hope. That’s simply the nature of the beast. This past fiscal year, gcrg lost a long-term funder as they turned their attention to other deserving programs. This is not uncommon, but unexpected all the same. We sincerely thank the Ruth H. Brown Foundation for so many years of wonderful, wonderful support. We highly value that relationship, and we hope to renew it in the future. Additionally, another funder shifted from bqr support to oral history funding. We are simply thrilled to commence re-building our compendium of oral histories—producing more interviews is eminently necessary as our remaining supply rapidly dwindles. However, that shift meant that those previously covered bqr expenses had to come out of our general operating budget. To compound the situation, some of our other grant income dropped slightly from previous levels.
Needless to say, we remain deeply grateful to all of our funders for their ongoing support of gcrg and our programs. Without their help, we would not be able to do the work we do. Our sincerest thanks go out to the following foundations or organizations for their assistance this past fiscal year:
Ceres Foundation
Chehalis Fund of the Tides Foundation
Flagstaff Cultural Partners
Grand Canyon Conservation Fund
Grand Canyon Monitoring & Research Center
Norcross Wildlife Foundation
Teva
Walton Family Foundation
We have another key ingredient in our favor—our wonderful members. Your tax-deductible donations throughout the year are absolutely invaluable to our financial health. You are indeed the bedrock upon which this organization is built. Take a look at the contributor list in this issue. We’re extremely gratified that it’s such a long one, demonstrating the depth of support for this organization. Additionally, a quick perusal of the Circle of Friends article in this issue will bring home how quickly a support base can build when everyone works together towards a common goal.
As the new fiscal year begins gcrg is going to try our best to “climb that hill” again. Thankfully our balance sheet remains strong so we may move forward with a fair degree of security. We’re already hard at work, and we’ll keep plugging away—researching new funders, writing new grants, keeping up with grant administration, and building strong relationships with foundations. We’re even looking at the gts as the perfect venue to raise money through raffles and a silent auction. I am certain that gcrg members are utterly talented people, so if you have a uniquely wonderful item (or service) you think might work for either the raffle or silent auction, we’d love to hear from you. Our sister organizations, the Whale Foundation and Grand Canyon Youth, do a fabulous job in that vein, and we don’t want to poach on their territory too much, so we’d like to break new ground with innovative, interesting, and beautiful items to entice you to spend your hard-earned cash. I’d like to think that there are enough supporters and enough talent out there to make all of these endeavors an unqualified success.
In the meantime we strongly urge all of you to help in whatever ways you can—keep paying those dues, encourage others to join, send us a contribution (see the Circle of Friends article in this issue), volunteer your time, or give us your fundraising ideas. You have an active part in keeping this organization strong, and we need you to do so.
Thank you so much for your continued faith and support in the Grand Canyon River Guides organization. We’ll do our absolute best to remain
worthy of that trust.

Lynn Hamilton
Executive Director

Income

Membership income $ 40,572.02
GTS income & grants 18,542.00
General contributions 18,210.00
Circle of Friends contributions 15,181.00
Adopt-a-Beach grants/contributions 13,145.00
First aid class income 10,165.00
AMWG/TWG grants 10,000.00
BQR grants 7,715.00
Sales (t-shirts, hats, etc.) 6,774.50
Plant field guide grants 6,100.00
Oral history grants 3,500.00
GTS overhead reimbursement 925.57
Grant administration income 610.00
Interest income 430.83
Bad checks (35.00)
Total Income $ 51,835.92

Expense

Payroll expenses* $ 41,135.45
BQR (production, printing, postage) 37,949.84
GTS expenses 19,449.97
AMWG/TWG 13,457.90
First aid class expenses 9,221.01
Adopt-a-Beach 7,768.48
Rent 5,050.00
Postage 3,532.95
Cost of sales 3,124.68
Plant field guide expenses 3,061.84
Printing 2,145.31
Telephone 1,542.50
Meeting expense 1,319.52
Office supplies 1,229.81
Utilities 1,151.88
Depreciation expense 986.00
Other (bank charges, taxes, etc.) 812.95
CRMP expenses 536.36
Internet 497.40
Insurance 418.77
Repairs 366.52
Total Expense $ 154,759.14
Deficit $ (2,923.22)
*includes gcrg, Adopt-a-Beach and gts payroll expenses

Note: Profit & Loss Statement does not reflect hundreds of hours of donated services for bqr proofreading, irs annual report, Guides Training Seminar, website maintenance, clerical support, donated equipment and more…

Grand Canyon River Guides, Inc.
Balance Sheet as of June 30, 2004
Assets
Cash in checking/savings $ 65,500.13
Postage & security deposits 2,233.98
Total Current Assets $ 67,734.11
Fixed Assets
Computer & office equipment $ 39,076.45
Less depreciation 37,682.19
Net Fixed Assets $ 1,394.26
Liabilities & Equity
Payroll liabilities $ 880.18
Restricted funds 1,323.83
Equity 66,924.36
Total Liabilities & Equity $ 69,128.37General Members 1,001
Guide Members 752
Bqr Circulation 1,802