Money shouldn’t be like ‘Cotton-Eye Joe’

There is a song that was popular when I was younger called “Cotton Eye Joe,” a one-hit wonder for a group called Rednex.

a part of the chorus went, “Where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from, Cotton-Eye Joe?”

While I can’t tell you where Cotton-Eye Joe came from or where he went, I can discuss where the

Humane Society’s money comes from and where it goes.

In the past, shelter operations have often been held with tight lips, kept secret on a need-to-know basis. However, the Board of Directors underwent significant changes in leadership a few years ago and its board now tries to offer transparency and accessibility in shelter operations. The board has elected myself as president since the change, and I take the responsibility seriously.

On the topics of transparency and accessibility, I think an important place to start is with the shelter’s finances. I’ve done my best to dispel several false rumors and I suspect more will come up in the future, so I want this column to be somewhere I can send people to get a basic understanding of our organization and its funding.

One question we often get on the phone from an upset caller is “Where are my tax dollars going?” My typical response is, “I would love to know that too!”

GCHS does not receive any funding from the county or from the state. The only government funds we receive in any way are from the City of Linton, as we bill on a per-animal basis at rates determined in about 2015 for animals the city’s animal control officer brings to us. Typically, we bill the city around $1,000 to $1,500 per year. All other county funding was discontinued in 2014.

We are not a charter of or associated with state or national organizations. We are sometimes incorrectly identified as a sub-organization of The Humane Society of the United States.

In reality we are an independent registered non-profit organization as a 501(c)(3). Any funding we receive from another nonprofit would be grant funding we have applied for.

Now that we have cleared that up, let’s discuss where our money goes.

Our largest expense is payroll for shelter staff.

Typically, we have a staff of six to seven full-time employees who work 40 hours a week and one to three part-time employees on staff. Beyond hourly wages, payroll expenses include employer payroll taxes, which are 7.65% of gross wages, unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation insurance, which is expensive because our work is considered high-risk for injury.

Our staff is the heart of our operations. We usually have 30-50 animals in our care on any given day and three to five staff members scheduled per day, based on how busy we expect to be. Beyond cleaning kennels, one requirement for our staff is to walk each dog at least once daily. This does take some extra time, but makes our dogs more adoptable as they have some leash manners and are more friendly, making meet-and-greets a bit smoother.

It is important to note that all of our board members, including myself, are volunteers and make no money from our involvement. We, every one of us, do what we do because we truly care about the organization and the mission!

The next largest expense is veterinary care. Our animals are spayed and neutered, fully vaccinated and microchipped before adoption, composing the majority of medical expenses. This expense category also includes medications for treating animals that come in sick or injured. In addition, we provide assistance to public pet owners in need by helping with the cost of spaying/neutering, microchipping and vaccinating.

Other expenses include animal food, cleaning supplies, building maintenance, utilities, building and vehicle insurance, public outreach efforts such as our voucher program and more. All of our expenses are accounted for in Quickbooks with receipts retained and we utilize Kemper CPA Group for payroll, reviewing transactions and tax filings.

We try to use money as responsibly as possible. We do as many things in-house, with our staff or volunteers as possible to save money. We also try to shop locally when feasible to help keep money in our community.

Where does this money to operate come from? We typically bring in about 9% of our income from adoption fees, service fees such as reclaim fees and owner surrender fees. The rest of our budget is made up of donations from the generosity of others. Donations, fundraisers and income from our investment account comprise the remainder of our operating budget.

We are very blessed as an organization to have an investment account at Edward Jones that we treat as an endowment. This account was created many years ago and has grown from bequeathals, money given by the estate of a person upon their death, by generous benefactors. These bequeathals became contributions to our investment account as part of the decedent’s last will and testament.

This account is invested in mutual funds made up of stocks and bonds with direction from a professional financial advisor. The funds that we invest in are typically considered “safe” investments to ensure the security of our funds. The value does vary but typically, in any given year, it creates “growth” and we use these dividends to help fund our operations.

A question I occasionally get when we announce a fundraiser or ask for donations is “Why don’t you use the money you have instead of asking for donations?” Our investment account is one of the reasons that I think transparency is important.

When our board thinks about our investment account, we think of the benefactors who worked hard and saved for their entire lives. They chose to contribute to animal welfare in Greene County as one of their final acts of generosity. We don’t believe that these gifts should be taken for granted, nor used without careful consideration.

We believe that by budgeting and focusing on treating the account as an endowment and only spending the growth dividend on the investment each year, we can allow the impact on animal welfare for Greene County animals that our benefactors have made to last indefinitely into the future.

We will use money from the account at times for large capital purchases when necessary. For example, this year we needed a new septic system and were able to access the funds necessary to have it installed, but if we were to frivolously spend the money from our account, continually reducing the value, we would quickly run out of funds to operate and would not be able to help nearly as many animals or offer as many services to the community that we do currently.

This is why we must fundraise and rely on donations. The growth dividends from our investment account and income from services and adoption fees cover some of our annual expenses, but not nearly all of them.

The remaining part of our expenses must be covered by the community. Over the last couple of years, we have slowly begun increasing our fundraising efforts and are placing donation boxes in businesses again.

In 2024, we plan to expand these efforts further. We will soon be announcing a large capital campaign as well as continuing to expand our programs and services such as spay/neuter vouchers, microchip clinics and the pet food blessing box. Donations and grants allow us to do this.

I’ve focused on the high points of our financials and hope that I have answered your questions. I think this type of transparency is important, because we want everyone in our community to feel that we are good stewards of the donations that we receive and are working hard to truly improve the lives of animals in Greene County.

If you are ever interested in learning more about how we use our donations, our expenses or

our operations, I encourage you to reach out to me or to any board member. We are always happy to discuss the shelter, offer a tour of our facility and answer questions. You can reach me by email at kegan@greenecountyhumanesociety.org and we can schedule a call or meeting.

In closing, I found this quote fitting after discussing how much we can accomplish for our community from the generosity of others: “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. - Warren Buffett

Kegan is the president of the Greene County Humane Society Board of Directors. His fellow board members include Cristy Phipps, Robin Jackson-Fulford, Patti Danner, Misty Ausman, Sharon Sparks and Keirsten Long.