Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Report August 1, 2013 - July 31, 2014
Keep Austin Beautiful 55 North I-35, Ste 215 Austin, TX 78702 P: 512.391.0617 F: 512.391.0624 info@keepaustinbeautiful.org Twitter: KAB_Austin Facebook: KeepAustinBeautiful www.keepaustinbeautiful.org
We provide resources and education to engage citizens in building more beautiful communities.
About Us
MISSION VISION
Our vision is for Austin to be the cleanest, most beautiful community.
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Board of Directors Tripti Ajgaonkar Community Rep.
Dennis Hobbs Texas Disposal Systems
Linda Moore Amelia Bullock Reality
Teresa Holmes Mortgage Pros
Michael Murphy Dell
Toni Houghton TDG
Matt Myers Republic Services
Doug Bradford Samsung
Holland Jones Whole Earth Provision Co.
Daniel Rumsey Waste Management
Ashley DeJong Casa SoCo
Kyle Jones Dirty Work Services
Deborah Auiler Telos Construction Carrie Bochenek Zephyr Environmental
Julie Fisher Samsung Austin Semiconductor Louis Garcia Applied Materials
Lisa Kaindl Dell Matthew Kuntz Tokyo Electron Todd McCay Freescale
Ryan Russell Star Nine Matias Segura III URS Corporation Ryan Valenza Winstead PC Justin Wang Peak Rock Capital
Staff Rodney Ahart Executive Director Alecia Casper Education Programs Coordinator
Monica Lopez Magee Director, Development & Communications Brent Ryndak Environmental Educator
Faith Donovan Fund Development & Operations Coordinator
Ilya Shmulenson Education Programs Manager
Ivey Kaiser Community Programs Coordinator
Ladye Anne Wofford Community Programs Manager
Kelly Lawson Environmental Educator Cora Lennert Event and Outreach Manager
Austin is growing at a record pace, making the protection of green spaces and public engagement all the more critical. Without innovative environmental stewardship efforts, we will degrade one of the most vital resources of our city. In order for more members of our community to develop positive and respectful relationships with nature, Keep Austin Beautiful is actively looking for ways to make service opportunities and environmental responsibility more accessible for people of all walks of life. Sustainable practices, outdoor play, and volunteerism are gaining momentum, but must keep pace with our exponential population growth.
About Us
About Us
At Keep Austin Beautiful, we are doing our best to keep pace. Over the last five years, the organization has grown significantly from two full-time employees to ten full-time employees in 2014, nine new board members were recruited, organizational infrastructure was established (a new employee handbook and financial policies to create more checks and balances, including the completion of Keep Austin Beautiful’s first, and now annual, audit.), education programs now reach over 11,000 youth annually, 23,500 volunteers are mobilized each year, and corporate service days and large-scale creek restoration projects are the norm. We proudly celebrate 29 years of keeping Austin beautiful with one of our most remarkable years yet. Please join us in reflecting upon our accomplishments this year.
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At-A-Glance 72
collected
11 tons of recycling
+
54,600
volunteer service hours contributed
At-A-Glance 10,570 youth educated
20,200
hours of direct contact educating youth 770 community projects completed
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Clean 15,560
volunteers engaged
$$$$$
$753,300
worth of service contrubuted back to the community
“We had SO MUCH FUN! Thanks to everyone at Keep Austin Beautiful for all you do!” - Linda McCoy Shriever, Austin Standup Paddleboarers If there is one thing Keep Austin Beautiful is known for, it is cleanups. Rightfully so, cleanups have been a core focus of the organization since our establishment in 1985. Keep Austin Beautiful supports community groups in completing cleanups by coordinating trash collection, identifying areas of need, recruiting volunteers, and providing cleanup supplies. Through ongoing cleanups and annual large-scale cleanups, we strive to create a litter-free Austin. Cleanups are also about creating a vibrant city, civic responsibility, neighbors meeting each other, and people feeling good as they give back to their community.
“Our students cleaned the perimeter of the Crockett campus and Garrison park…The kids felt empowered since this was their idea and they coordinated everything. And then when nearly 70 people showed up they were in awe!” - Melissa Gutierrez, Crockett High School
Clean Clean Sweep
On Saturday, April 12th, in just two hours, 3,500 dedicated volunteers removed 27 tons of trash from 130 locations throughout Austin, including public streets, parks, schools, creeks, and Lady Bird Lake. After all the hard work keeping our city beautiful, volunteers joined together at Fiesta Gardens to celebrate their accomplishments and enjoy free lunch, live music, children’s activities, environmental exhibits, a unique object contest, and door prizes, and more!
Clean Lady Bird Lake
Lady Bird Lake tops many people’s list of places to visit in Austin, but it also tops the list of places about which Keep Austin Beautiful receives trash-complaint calls. In response, we organize large-scale cleanups of the lake and raise community awareness about the need to protect the health of the lake. This year, 1,615 volunteers picked up 25,710 pounds of trash along the shoreline and from watercrafts.
Lake Travis Underwater Cleanup
On September 15th, we teamed up with Travis County, The Colorado River Alliance, and a dozen dive clubs for the 19th annual Lake Travis Underwater Cleanup where 1,015 volunteers geared up with wetsuits, scuba tanks, trash bags, and gloves to clean Lake Travis above and below water. Volunteers collected 1.6 tons of trash finding everything from common keys and glasses to the more bizarre, a 20-year-old cassette tape and a pink flamingo cemented in a bucket.
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Educate 120
“The curriculum is robust. Materials are high-quality and engaging. I’ve…totally enjoyed the experience.” - Danna Keyburn, Lutheran School teacher
Keep Austin Beautiful’s environmental education programs engage youth in service, connect them to the outdoors, and create leaders in the community. We provide guidance to help youth develop a strong respect for the environment by presenting stewardship concepts in a fun, interactive way, which empowers students to identify problems, find solutions, and take action.
education partners “I loved how tactile and interactive the lessons were… It was
wonderful that in every lesson, the students learned practical things that they could instantly apply to their own lives.” - Kyra Cruise, Maplewood Elementary School teacher
1,000 lessons led
“Leadership skills really improved. In fact, our core group of students would like to ‘lead the Green Teens next year... They plan to teach the units to our new members and design/drive our service-learning projects.” - Diane Hance, Grisham Middle School librarian and Green Teens teacher
Educate Leadership
Over the last year, our education team has led presentations at the national Children & Nature Network Natural Leaders Conference, and the Texas Environmental Education Advisory Council’s annual meeting. Coupled with our service on the Children in Nature Collaborative of Austin leadership committee and the prominent role we assumed in leading the Austin Independent School District’s adoption of more sustainable practices, we are seen as a leader in environmental education and other communities are seeking our guidance in creating education program models.
Green Teens
Long-standing funding from Applied Materials and increased funding from Dell, resulted in the financial and geographical growth of Green Teens. The afterschool environmental education program expanded from six schools to nine schools, growing our reach from 175 to 240 youth! Enrichment of the program also includes bolstering of the Green Teens summer internship to feature more professional development and leadership opportunities.
Generation Zero
Through a unique partnership with Austin Resource Recovery, we are at the forefront of zero waste education and helping Austin meet its 2040 “Zero Waste Goal” of reducing the amount of “trash” sent to landfills by 90%! In just two years, the Generation Zero program has educated 12,000 youth about recycling, composting, and conservation. The demand for the program has resulted in new partnerships beyond the classroom including troops, museums, and community centers.
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Beautify 160
projects supplied with tools from Tool Shack
$10,000 awarded to community groups through Neighborhood Beautification Grants
Austin’s natural beauty is one of our city’s greatest assets. The effects of completed beautification projects go well beyond the before and after photos we have all seen. Neighborhoods that are clean and beautiful experience increased property values, and are safer, and are an indication of a healthy community. This year, we placed tools in the hands of 6,500 volunteers, purchased more seeds to restore natural areas, distributed $10,000 in Neighborhood Beautification Grants, hosted a family-friendly Wildflower Walkabout, and built more partnerships to meet the demand of our city and volunteer base. Volunteers not only improved how Austin looks, but they also took care of our Earth by building habitats that give wildlife food and cover and serve as a carbon offset, removing invasives that disrupt the ecosystem, and seeding parks and along creeks to prevent erosion.
Beautify Windsor Park
Spurred on by individual residents’ interest in upgrading and beautifying the neighborhood, Windsor Park Neighborhood Association volunteers utilized a Neighborhood Beautification Grant to landscape a median at the entrance of their neighborhood. The transform along 290 and Berkman incorporated input from 60 residences who have certified wildlife habitats, land clearing from Dirty Work Services, plants from Great Outdoors, and soil and mulch from Organics by Gosh.
Walnut Creek
Led by Keep Austin Beautiful staff, 90 seventh-graders from Not Your Ordinary School ventured on a half-day adventure dispersing native seed balls, painting over a weathered bridge, removing invasive Johnson grass, and cleaning Walnut Creek. A student described the trip as: “This was the best field trip ever!” The Clean Creek Campus Walnut Creek service day was preceded by in-class lessons on watersheds and the impact of litter, giving students an understanding of the significance of their service and a foundation in science.
Blunn Creek Nature Preserve
Here is our not-so-short list of partners who joined us this fall for planting native prairie grasses to help restore Blunn Creek Nature Preserve: Bazaarvoice, Dell, Ernst and Young, Oracle, Raising Cane, St. Andrews Episcopal School, and The Advisory Board. While participating in project days, volunteers also learned about the history of the preserve, built berms, removed invasive trees, mulched trails, and watered new plants. All in all, 200 volunteers participated in eight project days to restore the area.
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TIN BE AU AUS
PA US
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Financials
TIN BEA
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Launched Keep Austin Beautiful Membership program with incentives.
82% of all donations go directly to clean, beautify, and educate initiatives!
Our accomplishments wouldn’t be possible without our many funders that contribute dollars, products, and services and our partners that share our mission to keep Austin beautiful. 79% of all donations go directly to clean, beautify, and educate initiatives! Through new sponsor outreach and fund diversification, we have grown our budget by 161% over a four-year time span. Particular achievements include 100% funding for Adopt-a-Creek restoration and Green Teens youth programming. Two years ago, we secured a $137,000 City of Austin, Austin Resource Recovery contract to implement a zero waste K-12 education initiative for two consecutive years with the option of four one-year extensions. Increased funding permitted Keep Austin Beautiful to expand its education and restoration programming increasing the number of schools served, the number of service projects completed, and ultimately the number of community members positively impacted.
Financials
FY 2014 Operating Revenue
FY 2014 Total Expenses
8%
Corporate $71,152.77
<1%
Other $575.97
6%
22%
Inkind $186,960
Fundraising $53,882
1%
Individuals $10,873
FY 2014 Total Expenses
82%
Programs $715,893
47%
Contracts $411,987
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The Future In the next two years, Keep Austin Beautiful aims to increase its positive impact in the community by: Raising awareness of who we are and what we do.
We look forward to continuing our work in the community!
Diamond
Platinum
The Future
Our Sponsors
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Austin Coca-Cola | Brown Distributing Company | Calendar Holdings LLC Noodles & Co | Randalls Food Market | Whole Foods Market
Partners
Austin Resource Recovery | Austin Parks and Recreation Department Watershed Protection Department | Travis County
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(C) Keep Austin Beautiful 2014