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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 3/15/2016 - Memorandum From Michelle Provaznik Re: 2015 Annual Report For The Gardens On Spring CreekTake Root. Grow. Flourish. 2015 Annual Report GARDENS on Spring Creek From the Director, Michelle Provaznik In partnership with the Friends of the Gardens on Spring Creek Board of Directors, we officially launched a $6.0 million capital campaign to complete The Gardens! The campaign has three phases: garden completion - $2.5 million; Visitor’s Center expansion/completion - $3.0 million; and endowment fund - $500,000. This has been a huge undertaking for a small organization, and we have had much success in a short amount of time: • Voters approved BOB 2.0, securing $2 million for completion of the Visitor’s Center • Lead gifts from Bohemian Foundation and Woodward Charitable Trust totaling $1 million - includes $500,000 in challenge matching grants. • Raised over $75,000 for the endowment fund securing a $25,000 matching grant from the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado. • Had the largest Colorado Gives Day and Annual Campaign donations ever! All monies were designated towards securing the challenge matching grants above. While 2015 was a lot of work behind the scenes regarding future development, The Gardens itself was a very busy place with education programs, volunteers, community events and beautiful gardens to be explored. I invite you to read on for information about this exciting year. Mission: To enrich the lives of people and foster environmental stewardship through horticulture. 2 Friends of the Gardens The Friends of the Gardens on Spring Creek is the non-profit partner of the Gardens on Spring Creek, a City of Fort Collins facility. The Friends is a member-based organization led by a volunteer board of directors. Its mission is to cultivate a world-class botanic garden through fundraising and advocacy. Over the years, their support and hard work have been essential to establishing and growing The Gardens. In 2015, the Friends Board, led by Randy Morgan, was instrumental in securing funding for capital expansion of our gardens, Visitor’s Center and the endowment fund, ensuring long-term sustainability for The Gardens programs and operations. Volunteers Our volunteers continue to amaze us with their passion, dedication and willingness to do just about anything we can dream up. They assist with gardening and greenhouse work, education programs and tours, special events, facility maintenance, gift shop and office tasks, and they serve on our Friends Board of Directors. There is nothing that isn’t touched in some way by our volunteers. Their support is both humbling and inspiring. In 2015, there were 1,400 volunteers who donated 11,377 hours of their time! This is nearly a 10% increase over 2014 and is valued at $262,473. We were pleased to honor the following volunteers at our annual appreciation event: Phoebe Slingman – Volunteer of the Year Ron Chappell – Compost King Nancy Gescheidt – Helping Hand Ken Dunnington – Helping Hand A special thank you to all of our volunteers. We simply couldn’t do it without them. Board Members Left to Right: John Papile, Jesse Eastman, Dulcie Willis and Jessica Hunter. 3 Thanks to the following people for serving on the 2015 Board of Directors: Jesse Eastman | Sally Guthart | Jessica Hunter | Randy Morgan John Papile | Marcia Petrun | Roger Warren | Dulcie Willis We also wish to extend a special welcome to new board members: Jeffrey Cullers | Nathaniel Budd We wish to extend extra thanks to: Funding Memberships: $24,455 Earned Revenue: $142,427 Endowment Fund Donations: $64,888 Grants: $30,500 In-Kind Donations: $59,340 4 Vision: To be world-class botanic garden that is community oriented, educational, experiential, and sustainable. Education Adult and youth education programs are at the heart of our mission of enriching the lives of people and fostering environmental stewardship through horticulture. While wet spring weather caused many cancellations of school tours, we had a 12 percent increase in children participating in Gardens youth programs. New all-day summer camps proved to be popular with both parents and kids. A 40 percent increase in scholarships utilized ensures our programming is available to all. Adult education classes kicked off in January with a series of gardening and art classes and continued throughout the year. Overall, we conducted 35 adult education classes with 559 attendees. In addition, the annual High Plains Landscape Workshop educated 350 people about sustainable gardening practices for Front Range gardeners while raising over $15,000 for The Gardens Horticulture and Education programs. Capital Donations: $698,570 City of Fort Collins: $475,922 Donations: $127,705 Horticulture Yes, it rained and snowed again at the Spring Plant Sale. And yet, we were amazed at the number of people who came out to buy plants and support The Gardens and our Horticulture partners at Colorado State University and Front Range Community College. It was the best plant sale ever—who would have thought? The horticulture staff and all of the volunteers did an outstanding job. Although we didn’t add any new gardens in 2015, our horticulturists and volunteers were busy getting our plant collection entered into a new plant database program. In the fall, we were excited to launch the program “Garden Explorer” so that virtual visitors can explore our plants. There is still much work to be done, but a huge step towards cataloging our collection was accomplished. The Community Garden Outreach Program continues to provide significant impact for many in our community. In spite of weeks of rain during planting season, under the tremendous care of staff and volunteers the Garden of Eatin’ produced 7,010 pounds of fruits and vegetables for the Food Bank for Larimer County and 227 pounds for classes, special events and programs. The Plant it Forward program collected 31,632 pounds of garden fresh produce from community members, organizations, businesses and 15 neighborhood champions. The Food Bank used the produce in its Food Share, Food Link and Kids Café programs. Special Events The Gardens Special Events continue to be important drivers of visitation and revenue while providing mission-oriented programming. Garden of Lights, the Spring Plant Sale and Halloween Enchanted Gardens were the most popular events of 2015. Our net revenue from events and sponsors was $176,784. This revenue directly supports our horticulture, education and community programs. We mixed things up with the Harvest Festival by partnering with City of Fort Collins Natural Areas and Larimer County to create Nature’s Harvest Fest—a mashup of our Harvest Festival and the Nature Festival. The first event was a huge success—and the live butterfly release was magical. The Gardens was surprised and honored to have Garden of Lights named the number 2 Holiday Display in the state of Colorado just behind the Denver Zoo by OnlyInYourState.com. It was exciting to have our handmade and homegrown display get some outstanding recognition. 6 Visitation 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2,505 11,013 28,028 36,114 45,441 47,187 54,690 59,851 70,651 65,395 Community Partnerships Audubon Rockies – Nature’s Harvest Fest and Habitat Hero programs City of Fort Collins departments – work with Utilities to present the High Plains Landscape Workshop, REPS program and other classes; work with the Parks Department’s Botanical Team and Safety Committee; partnered with Parks, Park Planning, and Neighborhood Services to build community gardens in parks; co-host school field trips and planned Nature’s Harvest Fest with the Natural Areas Department, work with Wellness team on classes for City employees Branch Out Cider – Nature’s Harvest Fest Colorado Parks and Wildlife – Nature’s Harvest Fest Colorado State University – Departments of Horticulture; Entomology; Human Development and Family Studies; School of Business Marketing Department; Gillette Entomology Club – partner on events, host internships, Service Learning, and Key Cluster, SLiCE and club volunteer opportunities for students Early Childhood Council of Larimer County – helping to expand youth programs through information and outreach Food Bank for Larimer County – 7,010 pounds of produce grown at The Gardens was donated to the Food Bank; 31,632 pounds donated by local gardeners through Plant it Forward Front Range Community College – Spring Plant Sale partnership with Horticulture Department; Environmental Education Department – youth programs; intern host; volunteer site for service learning projects The Gabriel Foundation – provide youth and family presentations Garden Clubs – including the Northern Colorado Railroad Gardeners, Northern Colorado Daylily Club, Rocky 2145 Centre Ave. Fort Collins, CO 80526 970.416.2486 fcgov.com/gardens Advanced Energy Industries Bath Garden Center & Nursery Black Bottle Brewing Bohemian Foundation Brent & Becky’s Bulbs City of Fort Collins, Fort Fund City of Fort Collins, Utilities Clay’s Ace Hardware Coloradoan Colorado Gardener Colorado State University Extension Colorado State University Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Cornerstone Home Lending Co’s BMW Center and MINI of Loveland Crunchy Grocer DeAnge Stone Earthborn Landscape Design Ed Carroll Motors Equinox Brewing Eye Center of Northern Colorado Fiona’s Delicatessen & Catering Firehouse Books Flower Corner Corporate and Foundation Support The Gardens on Spring Creek and the Friends of the Garden Board are grateful to the many local businesses and foundations that provide in-kind services and cash donations to our organization. Their support is critical to the success of our special events and overall operations. Corporate and Foundation supporters in 2015 included: Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary Fort Collins Nursery Fort Collins Tours Fossil Creek Nursery Frameworks Timber Funkwerks Gallegos Sanitation Garden Art Landscaping Garden Thyme Harlequin’s Gardens Horse & Dragon Brewery Jax Fish House Kaiser Permanente King Soopers KUNC FM LaPorte Avenue Nursery Loveland Water & Power Madwire Media Mainline Miramont Lifestyle Center Moot House Natural Grocers Northern Colorado Daylily Club Odell Brewing Company OtterCares Outpost Sunsport Poudre Pet & Feed Supply Renewablue Restaurant 415 Savory Spice Shop Screen Door Studios Seasonal Soups Serendipity Spoons Soups and Salads Society of American Foresters Summit Lawn and Hardscape Swingle Target UC Health Urban Overalls Walmart Whole Foods Market Wilbur’s Total Beverage Wild Birds Unlimited Wild Iris Living Zak George Landscaping Zwei Brewing Mountain Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society, and Colorado Dahlia Society Girl Scouts of Colorado – complete service learning projects as part of scout badge programs High Plains Environmental Center – partner on education programs Larimer County Cooperative Extension – co-host Twilight Garden Series, High Plains Landscape Workshop, and provide Master Gardeners to teach classes Larimer County Department of Natural Resources – co-sponsor Nature’s Harvest Fest Larimer County Workforce Center – host internships Larimer County Conservation Corps – AgriCorps projects in the Garden of Eatin’ Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens – part of a national campaign to prevent childhood obesity through gardening and cooking programs Little Shop of Physics – Partner at Halloween Enchanted Gardens Loveland Youth Gardeners – co-hosted the NoCo Urban Homestead Tour fundraiser National Charity League – mother/daughter volunteers assisted with youth programs, garden projects and special events throughout the year Northern Colorado Beekeepers Association – youth programs and special events Plant Select® – host a Plant Select® demonstration site Poudre School District –host school field trips and service learning projects; serve on the School Garden Committee; provide community garden plots for Linton and Riffenburgh Elementary Schools; Summer Learning Institute for PSD employees Regional botanic gardens – collaborated with staff of regional botanic gardens including Denver Botanic Gardens, Cheyenne Botanic Garden, and Betty Ford Alpine Gardens Rocky Mountain Raptor Program – assist with youth programs and Nature’s Harvest Fest Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory – assist with youth programs SER Jobs for Progress – host interns Sproutin’ Up – Community garden partner United Way – volunteer site for Make a Difference Day; and part of DOVIA (Directors of Volunteers In Agencies). United Way helped with volunteer recruitment/pairing assistance for The Gardens U.S. Forest Service – Tree Trunks Volunteers of America – host site for the RSVP program 7 We opened another community garden at the Senior Center and now have 107 garden plots at six locations available across Fort Collins with many gardeners still on waitlists. We implemented a new community garden application process and plan to open another garden in 2016. Additionally, we piloted a new education/work day component providing gardeners opportunities for learning while meeting their community garden requirements. Community Garden Outreach Program 5 Randy Morgan who is also serving as the capital campaign chairman.