The Yellowstone Forever organization was in dire financial straits before the coronavirus pandemic struck/NPS file, Jacob W. Frank
Editor's note: This updates the article with a statement Yellowstone Forever posted on its webpage.
Yellowstone Forever, which has struggled financially since 2016 when it was formed by the merger of the Yellowstone Foundation and the Yellowstone Association, has been further impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and might not survive without significant reductions in its financial burden, Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly said Saturday.
The superintendent's comments came in the wake of the nonprofit's move Friday to lay off most of the staff of the Yellowstone Institute, and several months after a financial audit of the organization prompted concerns that "there is substantial doubt about the ability of Yellowstone Forever to continue as a going concern."
There was chatter circulating on social media channels Friday and Saturday that the nonprofit's board of directors had decided to permanently shut down the Institute, though Sholly told Traveler "we will get the Institute back on line." That said, the superintendent expressed serious concerns about Yellowstone Forever's stability.
"YF is at a point where if they do not take major actions to reduce their financial obligations, they will not survive," he wrote in an email. "They were in very bad shape due to a range of poor decisions made post merger - 2017/2018, and while we thought they were on a better track this past year, they were still very fragile when COVID hit its major revenue sources.
"Right now, they have really no cash reserves, they've accumulated massive debt once again; like many non-profits, their philanthropy is down substantially, and their costs are far exceeding their revenues," added Sholly. "The board needs to make major adjustments, which are happening."
While Yellowstone Forever's communications director, Christine Gianas Weinheimer, did not return a phone call inquiring about the status of the Institute, later Saturday a post on Yellowstone Forever's webpage said the Institute's programs would not return this year and probably not next year as the organization restructures "to ensure the long-term viability of our nonprofit organization so that we can maintain the trust and support of our many supporters and donors."
The statement, which was not signed, said the nonprofit has suffered financially from the coronavirus pandemic. Going forward, unidentified Yellowstone Forever officials said that with a "new, leaner structure, YF will be focused on projects designed to raise money for direct contribution to the park." Not mentioned was whether the organization would also focus on public education in the park, which was the hallmark of the Yellowstone Institute.
The statement also referred to unspecified layoffs of full-time staff. "Without taking both of these steps, YF could not survive," it said.
Yellowstone Forever's accountants, Anderson Zurmuehlen & Co. of Bozeman, Montana, had cited concerns about the organization's financial stability in their latest review of the financials, which covered Fiscal 2019.
In that financial review, dated February 17, 2020, the Yellowstone Forever board stated that "the Organization is working to reduce operating expenses based on its recovery plan, which was implemented in fiscal year 2020. The goal is to create efficiencies, reduce redundancies, and review vendor contracts for potential savings."
That statement, which did not include the Recovery Plan, also noted that Yellowstone Forever has two lines of credit totaling $6.5 million, with $3.7 million available as of February 28, 2019, that it could fall back on "in the event of an anticipated liqudity need."
While the coronavirus pandemic has greatly impacted the nonprofit, which operates bookstores inside the park, runs educational programs through the Institute, and raises millions of dollars for a wide variety of programs ranging from wolf studies and fisheries restoration to the Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps, its financial problems predate the pandemic.
Philanthropic donations to Yellowstone Forever dropped by nearly $400,000 from Fiscal 2018 ($11,435,957) to Fiscal 2019 ($11,053,687). The cost to operate a dozen stores in the park was $3.3 million for the fiscal year that ended in February 2019, while the stores "generated $2,730,222 in net sales revenues and $782,728 in supporter contributions."
Operating the Institute cost $2,784,156 during the fiscal year, while revenues (educational tuition, fees, donations, and endowment proceeds) generated $2,178,063. Still, those revenues reflected a nearly $160,000 increase from Fiscal 2018, and participation was up to 7,897 from 6,130 the previous year. Overall, the documents said, "the Yellowstone Forever Institute had a record year" in fiscal 2019.
Since Yellowstone Forever's fiscal years end in February, the Fiscal 2019 financials actually reflect calendar year 2018 business and don't indicate how things went last year for the organization.
The Institute, which was the face of the Yellowstone Association, had been idled this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, and on Friday the Institute's staff was either laid off or fired, according to some on the staff. Permanently shuttering it would represent a colossal failure of the 2016 merger. At the time, Heather White, who was Yellowstone Forever's first CEO, heralded the combined resources of the foundation and the association, stating that the new entity would "become a national model for public-private partnerships to protect and support the park."
"We will combine the outstanding history of educational programs, products, and services of the Yellowstone Association and the legacy of critical fundraising support from the Yellowstone Park Foundation into a dynamic, unified education and fundraising partner for Yellowstone and its splendor," White said in October 2016.
White's tenure raised questions about whether top staff was being paid too much. When she left the organization in June 2019 she was being paid $303,192 in salary and benefits. Just days before she left, the organization offered large discounts on summer programs in the park just weeks after reportedly laying off some staff.
According to the organization's FY2019 990, its overall salaries jumped nearly $1 million from 2018 to 2019, from $6.4 million to $7.3 million at the same time that revenues were dropping. It's seven top staff combined received $1.19 million in salaries during that period, which ended with Yellowstone Forever showing a $3.8 million deficit for the year. Overall, however, the financial document showed Yellowstone Forever ended the fiscal year with $14.6 million in assets.
Sholly described the Institute's status as one of an organization on hiatus, not out of business.
"The Institute has been an incredible partner over the past decades. It is filled with professionals who are very passionate about Yellowstone and have dedicated a tremendous amount to providing world-class education for Yellowstone's visitors," he said. "Year-to-year, the Institute is a revenue-neutral program, under normal conditions. Unfortunately, due to COVID, the Institute would not have done much programming this year, and even if they could have ultimately, it would likely have operated at a deficit. If YF was stronger financially, that wouldn't be as big of a problem. That is not the case.
"... We will figure out the Institute and the best path to pursue moving forward."
Through the years the institute has offered year-round programs, ranging from a day to a number of days in length, in the national park. Founded in 1976, the Institute's programs revolved around Yellowstone’s plants, animals, geology and history. In 2010 it opened its Yellowstone Overlook Field Campus near Gardiner, Montana; prior to that acquisition the Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley was the base camp for many of the institute's field programs.
There was a lobbying effort in support of the Yellowstone Institute launched on Facebook.
The Institute's operations have been well-loved and developed a dedicated corps of participants and supporters. In light of the layoffs Friday, concerns that the Institute possibly would be mothballed prompted harsh criticisms of Yellowstone Forever's board.
"So disheartening to see the Institute is no longer. This is the worst mistake YF could have made," wrote Mikayla Bell on Yellowstone Forever's Facebook page. "Shame on the board members. This is going to be a mistake YF will not heal from."
Added Kathy Haines, "Don’t waste my time asking for money until you get rid of the current board."
In an open letter to Sholly posted on Facebook, Carolyn Harwood Bulin, who worked as program manager for Yellowstone Forever, said discarding the Institute would be a tremendous mistake that would greatly impact fundraising for Yellowstone Forever.
"Donors want to support education in addition to the dozens of other projects for which we raise funds. Donors have been skeptical for years about the merger, and if the Institute is dissolved under the guise of COVID-19 impacts, legions of supporters will know the truth," she wrote. "Yellowstone Forever’s reputation will not recover again, and there will be dire impacts on project funding for the park. If our philanthropy team is struggling to raise money now, how are they supposed to do so in the face of such additional adversity?"
Comments
Perhaps this gives the NPS a chance to regain control over the educational efforts of the park. I never understood why any non-profit was allowed to gain so many property holdings in the surrounding area rather than turning their profits back to benefit Yellowstone!
That is incredibly sad as I was scheduled to be an artist in residence for YNP this summer. Being an artist in residence at a National Park has been a long time dream of mine. I started with Yellowstone because of the abundance of wildlife and because I worked there one summer.
I couldn't have said it better. Please everyone, vote in November, and stop the privitization of our public lands
There was another interesting article on YF in this morning's Bozeman Daily Chronicle. In the past, Michael Wright did a series of muckraking articles on YF; however, this one is by Melissa Loveridge and entitled "Yellowstone Forever lays off half its staff, suspends educational programs." It's not a long article; but, if you're interested in the topic, it contains nuggets of valuable information.
In her article, Loveridge quotes both Superintendent Sholly and YF's new acting CEO Edna Johnson, who just replaced their former interim CEO John Walda, as confirming that YF has "laid off" 33 employees, half of its 66 remaining staff. We should all remember that this current lay off string is being confirmed because, only months after a previous circuitous and contrived YF purge of older, experienced, and higher performing retail staff that occurred from the fall of 2018 into the spring of 2019, YF's former interim CEO Walda blatantly denied to Michael Wright that lay off ever happened, instead asserting YF had only declined to fill some vacant positions. Many of us found that denial amusing ...but in a somewhat painful sort of way.
Both Sholly and Johnson, seemingly operating as a tag team of sorts, confirmed YF had suspended its educational operations, noting "the suspension of the Institute will be temporary, although long." Not too reassuring for those of us who have studied history and recall that the Roman Empire was also temporary, although long. Loveridge, however, was then quick to remind her readers that a "June 6 news release on the organization's website said the institute will likely not return to operations anytime in 2020 or the following year."
But, Loveridge was also careful to give equal time for white collar excuses and rationalizations. Johnson, who started her career in journalism before soon shifting to corporate communications, branding, and public relations, emphatically asserted "We are passionate about the mission of the Institute and we will be working to figure out how to bring it back," adding "COVID had a dramatic and devastating impact on Yellowstone Forever, as it has organizations all around the country." Many of us with up close and personal experience with YF have a hard time remembering the actions of the higher levels of YF management reflecting much believable passion "about the mission of the Institute" at all. Although Ms White would look out into the distance and say things like "philanthropy through education" or something like that, we all knew she was in it for the $300,000 a year and her road trip expense account and really couldn't care less; but, it seems like Edna knows she needs to do some really good messaging at this uniquely transformative juncture in time ...or maybe just realizes the jig is up and she better do some fast talking. She then tagged her teammate Sholly, who apparently did a great job of picking up YF's cues and noting that YF "was already in a fragile state financially ...prior to this COVID pandemic hitting us" and it "hit right at a time where the organization was in the process of recovering."
All of this would move me to tears, except for the fact that I wrote in a previous letter that my "concerns have been magnified by almost all of the new information revealed since last June; but, I am most concerned by the accumulation of information on YF's financial activities since the merger, including Form 990 federal tax filings, and the patterns in those activities. These patterns are, at least to me, starting to look like a gradual depleting of the financial assets inherited from the old Yellowstone Association. Some of YF's leadership have already left the organization, taking accumulated public donations with them. Frankly, if this situation is not addressed in a timely manner, I fear more such individuals will use the economic disarray associated with the pandemic as an excuse for a further implosion of the nonprofit, possibly taking more public funds as they leave." The date on that letter was April 22, 2020, and BINGO!
Loveridge's article also quoted Sholly asserting YF has been "facing financial issues essentially since its creation from the 2016 merger of two other nonprofits, the Yellowstone Association and the Yellowstone Park Foundation." According to the article, YF had ~$4.2 million in debt last July, had begun to dig itself out of that hole by early 2020, when the debt had fallen to $3.2 million. However, Yellowstone Forever's debt has reached $5.1 million, almost a million dollars more than it was in June of 2019. "The reality is that the operating cost of the organization far superseded the current revenue levels," added Sholly.
Here's the problem with all of those excuses and rationalizations. When the Yellowstone Park Foundation gang, which is now the YF gang, sold themselves for the merger with the Yellowstone Association, they did it with a whole lot of big talk, branding, spin, and corporate communications hype about how they and their Board of Directors would bring some higher level of business, retail, and fundraising expertise to everything previously operated by the old Yellowstone Asssociation. Well, guess what? That stodgy old Yellowstone Association had been quietly and successfully operating since 1933, successfully operating the Yellowstone Institute since 1976, and, going back as far as 2013, never reported a loss greater than $61 thousand in any one year and brought a solid ~$13.7 million into the merger. So, clearly, YF has damned sure not really been "facing financial issues essentially since its creation" has it?
With its supposedly superior business acumen, the Yellowstone Park Foundation gang, which is now the YF gang, has been running basically the same operations as the old Yellowstone Association, but seems unable to do so without racking up annual losses in the millions of dollars. This Yellowstone Park Foundation gang, again now the YF gang, also contributed less than half as much net assets to the merger than the old Yellowstone Association for a total YF starting net assets balance of roughly $20.2 million. However, by February of 2019, less than three years after the merger, the newly merged nonprofit's net assets had plummeted to less than $15 million under YF's management, overseen by YF's Board of Directors; that's over $5 million gone in less than three years. In business, we might call that a hostile takeover followed by a corporate raid. Again, at the rate the assets of the old Yellowstone Association are being drained, it almost looks like bankrupting this influential conservation nonprofit was the intention from the very beginning. And, Cam Sholly still seems to be carrying their water.
Again, I believe there is reasonable cause to justify a full federal investigation, including an IRS investigation, into YF and into where the money went and is still going.
Sounds very much like a hostile takeover to me. The Trump administration with their new appointment of Cam Wholly is the blame. The administration visited the park not too long ago with hopes to commercialize the park. To replace non profits and sound scientific education with commercialized industry and chaos. Best way to stop this endeaver is to change administration. The country is going bankrupt already and/or at least the middle class are! Didn't people know about this when they voted this administration in? This administration has no regard for national parks, wildlife, habitat and/or the environment. Money symbols are all they see, a fast buck, a big pay out, leave a trail of waste for someone else to clean up! I'm sure those CEOS who Trump appointed are sailing on a yacht somewhere on the Riviera, with the people's donations and money! Someone mentioned why didn't we, the people have a say! We do have a say, it's with our vote, and it's coming up in November. No doubt that will be fraught with unsavory schemes as well. Not sure if there will actually be a fair election? This is a take over not only of Yellowstone, but of many other American institutions as well. Nature and parks are on the cutting block and sadly will be sold to the highest bidder!
I appreciated your well researched and written comment. I did respond to much of what you have written in my own post, that may not get posted due to what may be deemed as political in nature. However, thank you for your insights and point of view. Your post, simply put, good journalism, shedding a light on unsavory practices, corruption, and greed. A hostile takeover, with the current administration's hands all over it. November's coming! Time for a change!
Have you discovered time travel? The "hostile takeover" occurred before the current administration was the administration.
Okay then, if you agree that what has happened in YF truly does represent a "hostile takeover," but simply believe the current administration was not involved, then I'm certain we can rely on you to loudly and publicly demand that the current administration 1) step in; 2) remove the YF management and Board of Directors before more pilferage can occur; 3) initiate a full suite of unfettered federal investigations, including IRS investigations of any tax improprieties or possible cases of self-dealing within this nonprofit; 4) recover, through civil court actions if necessary, the public donations wasted through improper or illegal activities; and 5) restore those funds to a properly reconstituted Yellowstone Association so that they can continue the outstanding work that organization did before any of these YF folks ever got involved.
You are going to do that, aren't you? No? Even you recognize that the very thought of us relying on a GOP supporter doing anything like that is absurd? Well then, I guess we have no choice but to seriously consider Ms Kircher's advice and perhaps vote for sweeping and drastic changes, in both the Senate and the Executive Branch in the coming November elections. It's good you stopped by and helped us get through the logic of all that. Please drop by again, soon.