Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation

Annual Overview

2013-2014

 

Financial Information

DISLF began FY 2013-2014 total checking and savings had a balance of $210,215.70 and combined Community Foundation balance of $553,095.05 for total assets of $763,310.75

Ending balances for FY 2013-2014 Total Checking and Savings had a balance of $173,504.56 and combined Community Foundation had a balance of $713,771.05 for a total assets of $887,275.61 for an increase in assets of 16.2%.

$70,000 will be transferred to the endowment. The addition will be made in a lump sum to the total account.

Fundraising

Grants:

• The Glaze Foundation –Donated 7500 to be used as we needed.
• Poarch Creek Gaming donated $10,000 to the Foundation to underwrite MEAL

Marine Environmental Awards Luncheon (MEAL):

 

 

Purpose: The purpose of the award is to recognize those in our community who have demonstrated excellence in sustainability related to our waterways, marine environment or estuaries.   The award is to be presented at a public venue.

Gulf Coast Marine Environmental Excellence Award-Recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to marine environmental sustainability in the Alabama Gulf Coast Region. Winner: Skipper Tonsmeire

 

Gulf Coast Marine Environmental Leadership Award-Recognizes a business or organization whose efforts have resulted in the improvement of marine environmental sustainability in the Alabama Gulf Coast Region. Winner: Dog River Clearwater Revival

Candidate Selection: Nominations were solicited from the Trustees and the Advisory Board of the DISL Foundation, Friends of the Sea Lab and the greater community through the Chamber of Commerce and DISL Faculty.

The selection committee comprised of John Dindo, John Valentine, Russell Ladd, John Goodloe and Helene Hassell evaluated the nominees and unanimously chose the recipients.

The event:

A Luncheon was held at the Battlehouse Hotel on Tuesday, October 29. The Poarch Creek Indians were our Title Sponsor. The keynote speaker was Brian Skerry, a nationally known NatGeo Photographer. His presentation was excellent and very well received. DISLF purchased his new book Oceans Soul at cost and sold it at the retail value. Mr. Skerry donated the proceeds to the DISLF.  

Tickets were $50. There were 225 people in attendance.

 

Expenses
Total Battlehouse	$7,226.00
Speaker Total	$5,897.00
Gift	$240.00
Printing/publicity	$1,651.00
Door Prize	$110.00
Books	$2,712.00
Total Expenses	$17,836.00
Income
PCI	$10,000.00
Tables	$6,850.00
Individuals	$2,600.00
Book Sales	$3,700.00
Books to Gift shop	$700.00
Donations	$375.00
Total Income	$24,225.00
Net	$6,389.00

Friends of the Sea Lab:

Memberships have remained steady. 750 letters were mailed out in August.

Friends of the Sea Lab Income

	2010-2011		2011-2012		2012-2013		2013-2014
Students	1	$30.00	1	$30.00	0		1	$30.00
Individual	8	$400.00	9	$450.00	10	$500.00	10	$500.00
Family	53	$5,300.00	44	$4,400.00	91	$9100	89	$8900.00
Seahorse	5	$1,250.00	3	$750.00	10	$2,500.00	7	$1750.00
Skate	2	$1,000.00	3	$1,500.00	5	$2,500.00	1	$500.00
starfish	0	$0.00	1	$1,000.00	1	$1,000.00	1	1000.00
School of fish	1	$2,500.00	2	$5,000.00	2	$,5000.00	2	$5000.00
Comps					4		7
		$10,480.00	63	$13,130.00	123	$ 20,600	124	$17,680.00

 

 

Christmas Appeal:

The holiday appeal grossed $6400 with expenses of 350 for a net profit of 5651.57. 786 letters were mailed. We added a special recognition for memorials to Jim Green our recently deceased long time Board Member.

	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014
Gross Income	$6,150.00	$6,395.00	$6,001.57	$6,400
Expenses	$462.36	$653.27	$   350	653.27
Net income	$5,687.64	$5,741.73	$5,651.57	$5,741.73
Letters	650	805	750	786
Donors	32	35	34	30

 

 

Cocktails with the Critters:

 

CWC was held May 1^st from 6 to 9 p.m. at THE BLUE GILL on the Causeway

Music was by Delta Reign and our FEATURED ARTIST was Stig Marcussen

Tickets were $50.00 in advance and $55 at the door.

Our attendance was over 400 again this year.

 

Committee Members

 

Angie Gaillard-Chair

Luella Hunt-Reservations

Suzanne Damrich-Decorations

Mary Ellingwood-SA Stylist

Tomi Sue Mayer-SA Stylist

Erin Goodloe-t-shirts

Charlene Dindo

Angela Payne

Julie Sirmon

Amy Thompson

Margaret VanLoock

Claire Wilson

Goldie Burkholder

Helene Hassell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tickets

	2014		2013
	Income	Tickets	Income	Tickets
Corporate Sponsors	$37,050	172	$37,250	178
Individual Sponsors	$7,750	57	$6,750	44
In-Kind		38		26
Advance Ticket Sales	$5,000	100	$7,450	149
Gate Ticket Sales	$2,835	51	$2,605	49
Silent Auction		149		178
		566		628

 

We color-coded the tickets stubs so we can identify where the majority of our crowd is getting their tickets. It looks pretty even across the board. Again we need to do a better job of ticket collection at the event.

 

Many thanks to Luella who handled mailing out tickets for ticket sales, sponsors and silent auction. That was a great help in the whole process.

 

Note: we mailed the sponsor ribbons with the tickets to make sure they got them!

 

Donations Totaled $1400

 

In-kind sponsors

1. WKRG $20,000 to $30,000 worth of air time!!!!! And they have agreed to do it again next year.
2. Gwins who has done most of our printing in the past agreed to give us a 40% discount on anything they could put their name on.
3. Stephen McNider donated t-shirts again this year it is a $950 value. It is a nice thing to have and some people really look forward to it. It promotes our event year round!
4. Carpe Diem-We rewarded Carpe Diem with a sponsorship this year since they let us use their meeting room free of charge for our monthly meetings

 

Silent Auction –This year’s auction generated a gross revenue of $21,032, less consignment costs of $1775 resulting in net sales of $19,257 from 100 items, giving us an decrease of $5093 down 20% LY. The fmv of the items this year totaled $35,939 a decrease of $5815. This area generated 31% of our Net income.

 

The decreases resulted from having less trips and several merchants and artitsts gave lower priced items this year.   Also we undervalued a few things on the starting bids. We still have a reputation for having a high quality auction. The merchants and artists were very generous again this year and our committee did an excellent job of acquiring great items!!!

 

Other income:

Featured Artist – Stig Marcussen brought in $885 which he splits with us 50/50.

T-shirts sales totaled $1219.   Ninety-Eight t-shirts were donated by Steven McNider again this year and they were really good looking. 60 shirts were sold at the event. Erin Goodloe took this area over and did a great job with the set up and sales. This was pure profit.

Trustee Sponsorship-Trustee sponsorship totaled $4550. This sponsorship shared by all the trustees underwrites some of the expenses which allows the ticket price of the event to remain at a reasonable rate. Without this support we would have to raise the ticket price.

Gross Total generated for the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation - $81,721.00

Expenses – $19,222

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Grand Total Net Profit generated for the Sea Lab Foundation -       $62,498

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Publicity – Stig’s artwork was used for invitations, billboards and posters.

900 invitations were mailed out a month in advance.

Luella had a group of students earn service hours for stuffing and labeling our invitations. Helene mailed them at the DI Post office.

 

Decorations – Suzanne Damrich offered her talented services as Decorating Chairman. Her creativity and design gave the atmosphere casual, inviting elegance and interest.   The Tulips in glass bowls were beautiful.

Photography – Charlene Dindo, Margaret VanLoock and Andy Dees, as well as Leigh Faircloth, spent the evening taking meaningful photos of the event and our attendees enjoying the evening.

Melissa Mills, IT Director at the Sea Lab, prepared a video of previous Cocktails photos as well as photos representing the Lab which ran on the TV screen throughout the event.

CWC Budget Analysis	Budget 2014	Actual 2014
Income
Tickets-Gate	$3,500.00	$3,035.00
Adv Ticket Sales	$7,000.00	$5,150.00
ind sponsors	$6,000.00	$7,750.00
corp Sponsorship	$35,000.00	$37,050.00
Trustee Spons	$4,600.00	$4,550.00
Silent Auction	$20,000.00	$21,182.00
Artist	$1,000.00	$885.00
T-Shirts	$500.00	$1,239.00
Donations		$1,600.00
Total Income	$77,600.00	$82,441.00
Expenses
Prinitng	$1,000.00	$812.02
Postage	$400.00	$321.30
Advertisement	$450.00	$450.00
Band	$1,500.00	$1,500.00
Food(tx+grat)	$10,000.00	$10,343.90
Beverage	$4,000.00	$2,745.00
Decorations	$300.00
Lighting	$200.00
Policeman	$90.00	$100.00
Paypal fees		$493.00
Reimburse Artist		$442.50
other
Silent Auction Consignment	$1,000.00	$1,775.00
Ribbons		$239.80
Silent Auction
Total Expenses	$18,940	$19,222.52
Net Income	$58,660	$63,218.48

New Additions:

1. The New BayMobile was unveiled and dedicated at the beginning of CWC. The short ceremony included Helene, John Valentine and Cedric Hatcher, Gulf Coast President of PNC Bank. The educators set up touch tables on the back porch.
2. Grant Harkness, owner of Blue Rents donated a tent for the entrance to the event. It made the area look very festive and was easy to spot the entrance.
3. Used the silent auction committee to carry signs through the party at the appropriate times indicating that Silent auction was about to close so folks could get their last bid in.
4. Patrick Wilson handled the drawing for the Door Prize thus freeing up Helene to help with Silent Auction.
5. We hired a police officer at $90/hr for 3 hours to help people with parking.

6. Will consider closing the Auction in stages next year.

In conclusion:

We met all of our goals from last year and CWC continues to be an event that is considered by those in the community to be a fun and worthwhile event.

Administration:

1. A reception hosted by DISLF was held to unveil two new sculptures at the Esutarium. One, The Heron by Casey Downing was underwritten by the Trustees in memory of Freda Roberts the late director of DISLF.   The other, Rays by Frank Ledbetter was funded by money from the fundraiser , Funds for the Fishes. Members of the Friends of the Sea Lab and their families were invited. About 60 People attended. The food was provided by the DISL cafeteria. Beverages were provided by DISLF.

Trustees

Partick Wilson, Chair

Bryan Thames, V. Chair

Scott Browning, Treas.

Margaret VanLoock

, Secretary

Walsh Arendall

Kinley Bell

Rick Courtney

Kevin Cross

Fred Cushing

John Dindo

Mary Ellingwood

David England

Russ Ford

Tom Gaillard,

John Goodloe

Grant Harkness

Luella Hunt

Neil Kennedy

Russell Ladd

Angela Payne

Julie Sirmon

Chuck Stapleton

Jay Thompson

Richard Tremayne

Bud Urquhart

John Valentine

 

Advisory Committee

Erin Wheeler –Chairman

Melissa Baker

Fred Brock

Scott Browning

Goldie Burkholder

Suzanne Damrich

Karlos Finley

Floyd Fraser

Lisa Goodloe

Bill Haffner

Dr. Robert Harlin

Doug Hungerford

Austill Lott

Tara Marshall

Tomi Sue Mayer

Dottie McKean

Eliska Morgan

Sonny Middleton

Jocko Potts

Marty Stapleton

 

 

Tours: John Valentine, John Dindo along with Helene hosted tours of the Sea Lab for the following people.

 

• Bradley Goodyear Smith
• Louise McCarron
• Karlos Finley

 

New this year: An Executive Committee, a Finance Committee, Friends of the Sea Lab Committee as well as a Cocktails with the Critters Committee were established this year. Policies and procedures were developed this year which pertain to Fiscal Responsibility and the Friends of the Sea Lab Program. Policies will continue to be developed and amended throughout the year.

 

Respectfully Submitted;

 

Helene Hassell

Executive Director

8/19/14