Dear Friends,
It is our pleasure to report that at the end of QLF’s fiscal year on 31 August we had an operating surplus, the third year in a row that we have been able to deliver better than “balance.” We finished FY ’10 having spent $2.4 million, reflecting an orderly reduction of more than a half a million dollars over the last few years. Such a downsizing demonstrates not only how this organization has overcome the Great Recession, but also how we have chosen to configure QLF for the years ahead — outlined in the Case for QLF’s Future, a 2007 report to the Governing Boards.
It is management’s contention that “bigger” is not better. Instead, it is more important to determine QLF’s “effective fighting weight.” That will be critical to answering questions concerning long-range planning; succession and transition of QLF’s leadership; while determining future programming type and mix. QLF’s character and personality, our program strengths and diversity are best expressed, we feel, in our current size. Being smaller and a bit more nimble allows us to respond quickly to needs and to take well considered risks in an effort to meet Mission, all the while maintaining our adaptive nature in a highly competitive fundraising environment.
The QLF Congress in 2006 in Hungary showed us what our continuing role should be: investing in leaders, remaining with them, supporting them in every way, building our QLF Alumni Network of exceptional individuals, and applying the Network’s enormous potential to meeting the regional and global stewardship challenges confronting all of us.
Looking at our end-of-year expenses by program, International Programs (defined as all conservation exchanges and stewardship activities connecting us to regions outside of North America) is just under 20% of QLF’s budget. The Sounds Conservancy (primarily driven by endowment draw and foundation support) is 4%. More than 60% of our operations are in the Atlantic Region. The Atlantic Region (New England and eastern Canada) still dominates the use of our program dollar. Administrative functions, including fundraising and board relations (in two countries), was slightly less than 20%. With cross-border legal complexity taken into account, we are satisfied with the modest level of these non-operations categories.
What you will discover in reviewing the photographs and captions in this report is that QLF, rather than remaining static, is responding effectively to the needs of a fast-changing world. As stated in our Mission, QLF exists to support rural communities and the environment in our home region while sharing our model of stewardship of natural resources and cultural heritage with other places around the world.
Thanks for all you do to keep QLF vibrant in thoughts and deeds. This new year, 2011, is our 50th. We look forward to it being very special.
| Lawrence B. Morris President and CEO |
Elizabeth Alling Executive Vice President, COO |
| Robert A. Bryan Founding Chairman |
Donald K. Clifford Chairman of the Board, U.S. |
| Phillip Nadeau Chairman of the Board, Canada |
James. N. Levitt Chairman of the Executive Committee, U.S. |