Financial Report

Hurricanes and Shutdowns Impact Spending but Not Revenue

While the Refuge was closed for “just” 45 days due to Hurricane Michael and the prolonged government shutdown, the disruption to normal Refuge operations of both those events extended over a much longer period. Refuge staff usually involved in conservation, education, or public use activities found their time taken up by cleaning up, preparing for shutting down, and getting back on track to resume operations. It turns out that you can’t just flip a switch and turn a complex operation like the Refuge off and on. The planning and preparation on both ends require a lot of time and effort.

For the Friends finances this meant a significant reduction in expenditures from past years due to the reduced time Refuge staff had to work on the projects funded from Friends contributions. Overall revenue was not much effected with memberships and donations holding steady while Nature Store profits were near last year’s record – even with 45 fewer days of operation.

The end result of steady revenue and decreased expense was a large budget surplus ($38,000) to begin FY 2019-20. The board used this surplus to create a $30,000 Leadership Priority program which will be used by Refuge Manager, Terry Peacock and North Florida Refuge Complex Project Leader, Dan Frisk for unfunded Refuge priorities in the next fiscal year.