While soliciting sponsors this year for the Howl-O-Ween Run it became apparent that we should not have overlooked giving more financial details in the past. The situation that shocked us occurred with one of Pat's sons, who owns a business, and was approached to be a race sponsor. His refusal and remark left us dumbfounded. "You guys bring in so much money you certainly don't need mine."

This comment was so far off of the mark that we couldn't help but believe that there must be other supporters who felt the same. As we contemplated the issue more and asked a few people, who rarely or never come to the facility, about their thoughts on the subject it became very apparent that there were extreme misconceptions. These beliefs not only existed about Wolf but the entire sanctuary industry. So, needless to say we are making sure that we give those details this year and every year from now on.

We will start with 2001's year-end financials and will get you the results from 2002 as quickly as we can after the end of the year.

First of all, we believe, it is very important for our supporters and the general public to understand that the sanctuary concept is relatively new in the animal welfare industry. The vast majority of animal welfare related funding is going to the more conventional pet shelters that accept unwanted animals and then adopt them out or euthanize them. This includes both private contributions and foundations making grants. Within this conventional community the prevailing mentality is that if an animal is deemed to be non-adoptable to a family setting that it should be destroyed, not sent to a sanctuary. Most pet shelters classify wolves/wolf-dogs as non-adoptable.

Because the sanctuary industry is so new it has not yet had time to truly organize itself. There are no established standards to control the use of the word 'sanctuary'. The range of standards that exist among organizations that call themselves sanctuaries is immense. Some organizations are actually glamorized zoos or breeding facilities, which are for profit operations. Some others have been established strictly for rehabilitation of wildlife and do not maintain a true sanctuary for non-releasable animals. They will euthanize those animals which cannot be reintroduced into the wild. Others operate much more like a typical rescue/shelter and do not provide long-term accommodations -- they strictly rescue those that are not wanted and then place them with individuals looking to adopt them. Even the standards for medical care, environment, food requirements, and cleanliness have not been established.

At this point in the industry's growth there are two national sanctuary associations that are attempting to standardize the requirements that will give the general public a measurement tool by which to judge a specific operation. These two organizations are The Association of Sanctuaries and The American Sanctuary Association. For more information about them you may link to their web site by visiting the 'Contacts/Links' page of our web site.

To date there are only 67 organizations that are accredited through one or both of these associations. (Wolf is accredited by both.) That does not mean that there are not many more very worthwhile sanctuaries that do not belong to these organizations. We believe that there are more high-caliber operations that choose not to be associated, for whatever reason. For the purpose of our discussion we needed some sort of criteria to make sure that what we were presenting pertained to strictly sanctuaries and not for profit businesses.

Out of those 67 that are accredited only eight specifically list wolves/wolf-dogs as animals that they will accept when funds are available. Out of those eight only TWO are geared only to wolves and wolf-dogs. Wolf is one of those two. The rest of these organizations deal with everything from non-releasable wildlife to farm and pet animals.

As we attempted to gather information for this article we used a web site called Guide Star. This organization provides basic data about nonprofit organizations, that have been qualified by the IRS as 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. The information that they provide is based on an organization's IRS tax filing which is called a 990. The 990's are a matter of public record and therefore available for public inspection. There were 11 out of the 67 that we could not find data on, which could mean that their filings are under a different name from what they use publicly, they don't currently have a 501(c)(3) classification or that they are a private foundation versus a public charity.

Within the remaining group of 56 organizations the following breakdown gives you an idea on how long they have been qualified as 501(c)(3) charities.

It is apparent from this chart how young this industry really is. Wolf falls into the 6 to 10 year category.

The next chart gives you the range of revenue reported on their last 990 filing. Wolf falls into the $150K to $250K category.

Unfortunately these numbers do not give any sort of indication as to how many animals are in the care of each organization. We suggest that if you are
interested in another specific sanctuary that you visit their web site which can be accessed through links on the web site of the two different sanctuary associations. These numbers do however, give you an idea as to the minimal amounts that are generated for accredited sanctuaries.

These numbers also do not accurately reflect the makeup of the funds received. Wolf receives a tremendous amount of donated materials and food that are given a value and are included in the total revenue numbers and are called In Kind Donations. Without spending an inordinate amount of time it would be difficult to provide this breakdown for all of the sanctuaries included in our analysis. Therefore,
at this point we will focus on the specifics of Wolf.

The next chart gives a breakdown of the revenues that Wolf received in 2001. The In Kind Donations, as you can see, are the largest source of revenue. The following chart will give you an idea of the types of items that are donated to Wolf.

Obviously the majority of materials donated is food. So much food, in fact, that it is significantly more than Wolf can use. Wolf continues to accept all of these
donations in order to maintain those sources. Wolf re-donates the surplus to other nonprofit canine rescues. Once you eliminate these contributions from the equation the picture starts to become clearer.

The expenses itemized below clarify the situation even more. As you study the numbers, please pay attention to the fact that there are no paid employees of Wolf. All labor provided to care for these animals and accomplish the education, rescue and fundraising aspects of Wolf are accomplished with volunteer time. This includes the founders, Frank and Pat.

In 2001 these efforts allowed Wolf to rescue 18 animals the majority of which were taken to other facilities. Wolf also orchestrated the placement of approximately 95 animals that needed new homes. Wolf maintained 18 enclosures containing a total of 41 permanent residents at the sanctuary. Wolf presented the formal education program to 43 groups, did information tablings at 30 events and gave 77 hands-on intern workshops. Also as part of its educational mission Wolf significantly expanded its web site and exceeded 64,000 hits by year end.

Although we believe we could accomplish much more with a minimally paid staff, we currently believe the priorities for cash dictate that the group of dedicated volunteers must continue to do just that -- passionately volunteer long hours.

In 2001 over 9,000 hours were volunteered to accomplish these goals. That number does not include the full-time (plus) efforts of the founders. As things usually go with volunteer efforts most of these hours are spent on animal care/facility maintenance and educational programs. The administrative and fundraising duties primarily fall on the founders, which prevents them from undertaking the larger projects designed to help even more animals.

Hopefully these numbers will dispel any misconceptions that you may have had about where your money has been going. Certainly no one at Wolf is living the high life. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.