2009 Annual Report

Overview

Key Successes

Finances

Landscape: © Jean-Paul Ferrero / Minden Pictures, Woman: © CI/Photo by Michael Matarasso

Our Financials

CI is profoundly grateful for the continued loyalty and generosity of our contributors, who despite the economic turmoil of the preceding year maintained their support of CI at levels that enabled us to continue ongoing commitments and respond to critical programmatic needs with minimal disruption. We are, as always, humbled and inspired by our supporters who stood by us during this volatile time.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK: Click on our financial charts to enlarge.

CI is proud to have again earned the highest rating level from Charity Navigator and from the American Institute of Philanthropy. Charity Navigator’s “Exceptional” designation indicates that the charity “exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause.”

Net assets

CI closed FY09 with a modest $191,000 unrestricted operating surplus despite the difficult economy.

Temporarily restricted net assets, which represent donor-restricted funds to be used in future years, decreased by $33 million as we began implementation of some of the large grants awarded to us in FY08, as discussed above. CI closed the year with temporarily restricted net assets of $266 million, which will fund conservation programs over the coming three-to-five years.

CI received additional endowment contributions of $51,000. Earnings from the endowment support environmental education and training, field programs and general operations.

While we enter FY10 with considerable restricted resources to support our core programs, we continue to strive to build our unrestricted reserves to provide us with the flexible funding necessary to respond to urgent needs.

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Revenue

CI completed its most successful fundraising year in history in FY08 by raising over $230 million in new revenue and multi-year grants for programs to be implemented in current and future years.
In FY09 included $28.7 million in funding from the Walton Family Foundation in support of our seascapes work.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation renewed its support for CI’s programs with a new grant totaling $12.7 million.
CI’s Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund also received support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in the amount of $8 million, $4.875 million from the Government of Japan and $3 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the second phase of its work.
Our climate change program was bolstered in FY09 by the receipt of €4.8 million from KfW Bankengruppe for work focused in Papua New Guinea.
Dell also provided $2.8 million to support REDD+ projects in Madagascar.
The Kuwait America Foundation provided $1.3 million in support of climate change mitigation programs in Brazil and Indonesia.

Expenses

Despite the financial downturn, CI financial statements reflected expenses of over $144 million in FY09, representing our greatest investment in conservation in CI’s history.
We were able to maximize programmatic delivery by reducing support costs by 3 percent in FY09 while increasing programmatic services by 8.5 percent.
In FY09, CI invested 84.6 percent of each dollar spent into programmatic services.
Increased investment in our seascapes and marine programs account for the majority of increased spending in Field and Global Marine programs in FY09.
In FY09, CI awarded over $45 million—over 30 percent of total expenditures—in grants to partner organizations.