$30,000 Is a Magic Number for BCA in 2018
BCA Funding & Development Committee Report, October 30, 2018, submitted by Connie Triplett, Chair
Membership fees alone have never been enough to maintain the staff needed to accomplish BCA’s important and unique work as a watchdog on federal and state land managers and industry regulators. In 2015, BCA lost a sustaining grant from the Tortuga Foundation which had provided a base for our budget for several years running. Changing priorities within an evolving Tortuga board of trustees resulted in BCA no longer making their list.
Scoria Lily TRNP July 2018 by Lillian Crook
In April 2018, the ND Wildlife Federation came to the rescue with a one-time grant of $30,000, together with an invitation to submit a second application in Spring 2019 if and only if we match their first grant dollar-for-dollar. The NDWF does not intend to support BCA at this level for the long term, but this very generous grant has given us time to re-group and work toward a long-term sustainable budget.
After spending several months considering how to diversify our fund-raising efforts (more on that in the next newsletter), our committee decided to lay out the immediate issue and make a serious plea to our members. Your response has been both gratifying and humbling.
The letters began going out on September 30th. In just one month, ‘you-all’ have contributed more than $9,300! Several members who had already renewed their memberships in 2018 sent additional donations. Many of you who had not yet renewed this year sent more than you have ever contributed before. We have also received pledges in the amount of $2,500 which we expect to arrive before year’s end. THANK YOU to everyone who has stepped up! We couldn’t do this work without a committed and participatory membership.
. . . And then . . . Jan Swenson received the very good news -- the Tortuga Foundation is back on our team!! We’re not yet sure about the long-term implications, but Jan has been notified that we will receive $30,000 from Tortuga before year’s end. You might think that would take care of our NDWF match requirement. However, because of the relative timing of the two grants, it does not. The Tortuga grant is meant to be allocated over the course of the next year, whereas the NDWF match must be met by April 30, 2019.
BCA’s Funding and Development Committee met October 28th to consider the implications of this wonderful news. Our recommendation to the full board is to allocate $10,000 (one-third of the new Tortuga grant) toward the match for the NDWF grant because the overlap period (January through April 2019) of the two grants represents one-third of our next fiscal year.
Combined with earlier donations and a successful silent auction at the annual potluck – many thanks to those who generously donated auction items and to those who enthusiastically purchased the items – we fully expect to have more than $24,000 of the required match in hand by the new year. We need to raise an additional $6,000 to secure the match required of the NDWF grant. If you have not yet sent in your 2018 renewal, or if you can send another donation of any amount, please do so before December 31st, so that we can move into the new budget year looking forward. Thanks!