Dear HMI Community,
2019 was a year of hard work that helped us build resilience for our organization. In an effort to put as much money towards programs as possible, we decided to sell our building and was able to accomplish that at the end of 2019, having all systems in place for a small rented office and all staff working remotely. Little did we know how much that resilience would be needed in 2020 with COVID19 and the economic challenges intensified by the virus.
HMI’s board and staff continued on our focus on how to maximize program impact for dollar spent. With that focus we were able to increase our net assets without restriction to $459,888, increasing our financial reserves by 33%. We also increased our gross program margin by 70%, and we decreased expenses by 23% with only 26% of our expenses allocated to administration.
Despite the focus on reducing overhead in 2019, HMI was still able to collaborate with over 90 organizations around the globe to deliver 61 days of programming. We also had 141 farmers and ranchers enroll in HMI’s Getting Started Courses and other online training. HMI was also able to increase the total amount of scholarships to over $27,000 to beginning and transitioning farmers and ranchers needing financial assistance. Overall HMI’s programming and global network of over 65 Certified Educators trained and presented on Holistic Management to 5,957 people, while also positively impacting over 11.9 million acres.
On the outreach front, we continue to expand our scope by educating more people about Holistic Management and HMI. By the end of the year, our outreach outcomes included over 22,360 Facebook fans and 16,000+ Twitter followers with almost 19,000 people subscribing to our e-letter.
With the outstanding success of last year’s REGENERATE Conference with over 500 people attending, we have already begun planning with the Quivira Coalition and the American Grassfed Association for the 2020 REGENERATE Conference. “Resilience in Times of Uncertainty” will be held online with a month long series of events leading up to the culmination events on November 19-20, 2020. We hope to see you all there as the opportunities to network with people around the world will be unparalleled with this new approach to the conference. There will be plenaries, breakout discussions, networking events, and opportunities to learn about innovative approaches that are helping people thrive in times of chaos.
The work and results achieved by our Board, staff, Advisory Council, Certified Educators, collaborators, and practitioners continues to inspire and humble us. We appreciate all those who are helping us fulfill our mission of creating healthy land and thriving communities through the practice of Holistic Management.
With gratitude,
Walter Lynn - Board Chair
Ann Adams - Executive Director
Click here to read the full annual report.