2015 President`s letter - Ramapo Bergen Animal Refuge, Inc.

RAMAPO-BERGEN ANIMAL REFUGE, INC.
2 SHELTER LANE, OAKLAND, NJ 07436
EMAIL: PRESIDENT@RBARI.ORG
(201) 337-5180, FAX: (201) 337-2040
WEB: WWW.RBARI.ORG
April 17, 2015
Dear Members:
It is hard to believe that another year has gone by and that I am finishing up my second year as
president. It continues to be my privilege and honor to serve in this capacity. Like so many
years before, 2014 has seen its share of challenges but has proven to be one of the most
rewarding years yet. We have improved our financial position, grown our community
awareness, strengthened our internal operations, and most importantly increased the number of
lives saved! It is our extraordinary staff, dedicated volunteers and generous supporters who are
the backbone of our organization, and make all of our accomplishments possible. I speak for the
entire Board of Trustees when I say thank you for your support, trust, hard work and your
continued commitment to RBARI.
Last year I stated that it was our goal to operate RBARI as a competitive business with an
unremitting emphasis on our mission to increase adoptions by improving the adoption experience
and conducting ourselves as a professional animal welfare organization. I am happy to report
that our efforts are proving to be very successful. We have been trending upward in our adoption
numbers for the last couple of years, but this year I feel we’ve taken a much greater leap forward.
In 2014 we placed 417 cats and 313 dogs in their forever homes – totaling 730 adoptions. That’s
an 18% increase over our adoption numbers from 2013 where we saved 597 lives. While this is
a welcome increase, I’m sure you will all agree that we want – no we need – to do even better. I
am so proud of all our staff and volunteers for increasing our adoptions and look forward to
seeing what we can accomplish together in 2015!
It is our commitment to you as your Board of Trustees to build on our momentum of 2014 to
continue to make RBARI a stronger organization and most importantly stay true to our mission
and save more lives.
This letter represents the state of our organization at present.
Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees has evaluated itself and is in agreement to the following:
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The Board agrees we need to focus on raising more community awareness and marketing the
organization into untapped areas within Bergen County to create more adoption opportunities
and ultimately save more lives.
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RBARI will benefit from a Board that is more diversified. We have made strides towards
this goal in the past year by identifying professional skill sets that would benefit the
organization and we are actively recruiting to fit these needs.
The Board needs to strengthen its fundraising ability and create policies to protect the
RBARI brand. We have developed an acceptable usage policy for our logo and fundraising
event policies. We continue to recruit and work with professional organization to improve
on this front.
The current Board works well together and challenges each other to continual improve our
RBARI as a professional animal welfare organization.
I would like to note that no Trustee, member of any Trustee’s family or any Trustee-affiliated
organization has received any remuneration from Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, Inc.
Facilities
Maintaining our facility is a constant and costly venture. The costs associated with maintaining
our aging internal and external infrastructure continue to increase. In an effort to manage
expenses and increase the longevity of these resources, we have taken the initiative to re-evaluate
our maintenance plans and proactively budget for items that will require replacement within the
next three to five years.
We were very fortunate to have a design team from the HGTV and Travel Channel networks
partner with us on a special project called Save the Caged. The team remodeled our front lobby
and downstairs meeting room. The results are amazing and have made a real difference in our
appearance and created an overall welcoming look and feel for our potential adopters and
visitors. I truly believe that this modest renovation has had a substantially positive impact on our
reception area that has directly contributed to our increased adoption numbers.
While this makeover is a great short-term solution, we have simply outgrown our building.
Anyone who has visited recently can attest to this and it is something we have been aware of for
some time. To address this we have continued to investigate our options on how we can increase
our space and build a better RBARI for the future.
As you recall from previous years’ meetings, we’ve been discussing how we can improve upon
our space and even had some initial drawings created. Over the past year, we have forged ahead
with further architectural drawings and budget analyses. We have appointed Craig Goldman the
chair of our renovation committee and he along with the committee; have come up with some
exciting expansion plans which we will discuss at our annual meeting. We are currently
performing our due diligence, creating both build & project plans and finalizing budgets.
To fund this renovation, we will need to embark on a capital improvements fundraising
campaign. We look forward to launching the official campaign in the near future. I know many
have hoped that we would be further along in this project, but it is important that we go into this
process with eyes wide open and have a comprehensive plan to best serve the needs of our
shelter pets. This is our opportunity to build the RBARI of the future and it is important that we
take our time to do it right. I look forward to having a kick-off event for the renovation, showing
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you drawings, building models, and out vision for our future. Thank you to everyone who has
been working on this effort, contributing your time and ideas – your input has been extremely
valuable. We look forward to making great strides in the next year towards making this a reality.
Fiscal Condition
While 2014 came to a strong conclusion, that wasn’t the case for the first half of the year. By
closely reevaluating our expenses and renegotiating contracts with our vendors, we were able to
ultimately cut expenses during the lean winter months. The staff did an extraordinary job rising
to the challenge, while not sacrificing the level of care we provide out furry guests. A new
purchase order process was implemented and overall purchasing streamlined to be more
efficient. Again this year our aging HVAC and elevator maintenance and repair costs increased.
All of that said, our overall year end numbers were very good compared to the prior year:
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Total revenue increased by 28%
Total expenses decreased by 6.8%
RBARI operated last year in the black
RBARI modestly increased our cash reserves
Our major fundraisers, Tricky Tray and Whiskers & Tails, were attended by record numbers and
sold out well in advance of the events. Revenue from both events strongly out gained the
previous year, helping our overall revenue from fundraising increase by $45,000 from 2013.
This is a strong indicator of the tremendous hard work accomplished by the event committees
and the overall strength of our organization. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Regina
Rodriguez (chair of the Tricky Tray) and Gail Dickard (chair of Whiskers & Tails) and
congratulate their committees for this overwhelming success. I look forward to building upon
our successes in 2015.
In conjunction with Whickers & Tails, we launched our Partners in Caring program.
Orchestrated by our executive director, Tricia McAleer Mantzouranis. The Partners in Caring
program debuted with a net revenue of $194,000. We look forward to expanding this program in
2015.
Strong showings in revenue from adoptions, general donations, and grants also contributed to the
overall 28% increase.
Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge has shown a net gain at the conclusion of 2014, however we are
not resting on our laurels and recognize there is still work to be done. We set the bar high last
year, but I know we are all up for the challenge to make 2015 an even better year. We must
continue to manage expenses in every manner possible without adversely affecting the quality of
care we provide to our four-legged residents. Our goal is to curtail our expenses yet still
maintain a quality facility, while increasing our donations so that we can continue to grow our
reserves to ensure RBARI’s future. We are continuing to pursue the goals in our strategic plan
and have now had four successful years operating in the black.
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Operations
Under the leadership of Tricia McAleer Mantzouranis and Shannon Barkocy, we have tightened
up our day-to-day operations, improved our veterinary partnerships, and improved our reach in
the community. This has helped our bottom line and strengthened our operational and financial
positions, making us a stronger organization.
In a continuous effort to invest in the education and development of our staff, we were once
again able to secure dedicated funding to send three of our staff members to the Best Friends No
More Homeless Pets National Conference this past year. At the conference, they were able to
attend educational seminars and collaborate with like-minded animal welfare professionals from
across the United States. The feedback from the participants was again outstanding. They were
able to share ideas and experiences with their new network of animal welfare friends and came
back excited to share what they had learned. The experience was so successful that the donor
has agreed to sponsor the conference again this year.
It is so important that we invest in the people who are front and center carrying out our mission.
That is why we will continue to pursue additional educational and training opportunities for our
staff. This holds true for our dedicated volunteers as well. Linda Rosemann continues to excel
as our Volunteer Coordinator. Linda has revitalized our volunteer program in the past year
improving our orientation process, training, scheduling, implementing quarterly volunteer
meetings to improve communications, solicit feedback and share ideas. Additionally, we have
another generous donor who has sponsored a monthly dinner reward for our volunteers of the
month and to show our appreciation for all of their hard work.
Our humane education program continues to develop and is sustained by some wonderful
volunteers. We are committed to growing these programs as resources become available. We
are looking into offering educational sessions at the shelter and courses such as cat and dog CPR
classes.
We have completed our emergency preparedness plans and are currently budgeting to put it into
practice. Our team will review our preparedness plan with our local first responders and the
Office of Emergency Management (OEM) officials to ensure it is sound and properly
communicated to all applicable parties, as well as provide training to our staff and volunteers.
The primary goal of the plan is to:
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Protect life and property
Ensure appropriate communication with internal and external resources both in the planning
stages and in the event of an emergency
Maintain and restore essential facilities and services
Ensure business continuity
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It is our strong hope that we will never need to use these plans, but we owe it to our animals,
staff, volunteers and supporters to be prepared and continue our mission regardless of
circumstance.
As I’ve stated before, it has become increasingly evident that there are more rescue groups in our
region than ever before. While this is a positive for animal welfare in our area, it requires us to
stay competitive. To ensure we do so, we must continually review our intake and adoption
policies to ensure we have balance in our kennels and optimize our opportunities to save more
lives. We have implemented post adoption visit surveys to provide visitors to our shelter a
means to provide feedback so we can improve. This is an ongoing effort and will be
continuously evaluated.
Finally, I would invite everyone to take a moment to reflect on our amazing organization, our
accomplishments and the countless people who have made RBARI the successful animal refuge
and adoption center it is today. It’s important to know where you stand today, to properly plan
for tomorrow, and ultimately set goals to create the RBARI of the future. It’s our common goal our mission - to provide warm shelter, medical care, food and love to companion animals in need
that brings us together. It’s this wonderful organization called the Ramapo-Bergen Animal
Refuge that unites us. The Board of Trustees is committed to moving our organization forward
and will continue to work diligently to further our mission in the hope we can save them all.
As always we welcome your comments, questions and ideas as we look forward to a successful
year saving lives and being a positive influence within our community. I look forward to a
successful 2015 working along side all of you.
All my best and warmest regards,
David P. Jump
President, Board of Trustees
Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, Inc.
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