DU Family and Friends:
Happy New Year!! It’s hard to believe 2022 is here and duck season has come to a close. I hope and trust each of you took advantage of the holiday season to spend valuable time with your families and friends and were able to get out an enjoy the fruits of our labors by enjoying a waterfowl hunt. We finished the fall fundraising season with incredible success and our Event Income numbers in NC are up 76.4% over last year. Additionally, our State Campaign Program/Major Sponsor program is also off to a great start with 17 new Life Sponsors, 19 Upgrades, and $480,000 in new commitments. While we certainly expected a strong fall fundraising season after the heavy restrictions placed on our state due to the pandemic, I believe we were all surprised by the massive outpouring of support of our mission through our various events throughout the fall. Simply INCREDIBLE performance and THANK YOU. We had more record breaking events than ever before and the momentum is building.
The close of the duck season signals February here and the spring fundraising season starts. We are poised to continue breaking records at dinner events across the state and potentially having a record breaking year. NONE of this happens without you – our passionate volunteers and supporters across the state. THANK YOU for everything you do to support North Carolina Ducks Unlimited and our mission of wetlands conservation.
Our CEO, Adam Putnam, provided an inspiring summary in our Annual Report which I’ve reproduced below. I’ve also provided a link to additional information which includes a link to view and download the Annual Report. I encourage each of you to familiarize yourself with the Annual Report and the consistent delivery of our mission even during the pandemic.
I’m off to DU’s annual Leadership Conference this weekend and look forward to seeing and networking with our passionate leaders from across the country. I hope to see you at events this spring and THANK YOU again for all of your hard work, your time, and your passion for wetlands conservation!
Regards,
Brian
Mud, money, and members.
Thanks to nearly 85 years of focus on these simple principles, Ducks Unlimited has become the world’s largest and most effective private, nonprofit wetlands and waterfowl conservation organization. And in Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21), as the organization has done for more than eight decades, Team DU delivered its work through a series of partnerships with private individuals, landowners, agencies, scientific communities, and businesses.
Each year, Ducks Unlimited promises to spend at least 80 percent of all funds raised on our conservation mission. We met that goal again in FY21 with 83 percent of our revenues going toward wetlands and waterfowl conservation and education.
Team DU celebrated a monumental conservation milestone with more than 15 million acres of habitat restored or protected in North America since its founding. To put that number in perspective, that’s more than 23,000 square miles, an area the size of West Virginia! And we’re accelerating our efforts to ensure that we reach 16 million acres in record time.
In support of our mission, Ducks Unlimited generated record revenues of $340 million in FY21. More than 52,000 DU volunteers hosted more than 400,000 attendees at 4,500 in-person and virtual events, raising $61 million across the United States.
None of this would be possible without mud, money, and members. The past two years remind us how important we are to each other and how much we miss our DU family when we cannot be together. We are humbled by your passion, tenacity, and creativity.
Link > Thank you for everything YOU’VE done to support Ducks Unlimited this year!
