Southern Delaware Botanic Gardens Inc

“Ray sander sheryl swed president exec. Dir. Married”

“The treasurer reviews the draft 990 in detail with the president. After both the treasurer and the president have approved the draft, the form 990 is reviewed with the exectutive committee, which includes the president, executive director, vice president, secretary, treasurer, director of information technology, and one other board member.”

“The organization requires each member of the board of directors to review and sign a conflict of interest policy statement upon being appointed to the board and annually thereafter.”

“The executive director makes recommendations, then the budget committee makes the initial approval and the full board makes the final approval. No officer currently receives compensation.”

“The organization's governing documents are available to the public upon request.”

“The delaware botanic gardens at pepper creek strives to exalt nature's beauty, to delight and educate visitors, and to study and preserve the natural ecosystems of sussex coutny and delmarva. The delaware botanic gardnes has created a unique, sustainable, inspirational, and accessible garden for public benefit and enjoyment.”

“The organization allocates a percentage of each employees payroll and employer taxes to a capital asset. Total wages and taxes were 275,636 for 2021, of which, 45,346 was allocated to property and equipment for 2021. Volunteers among the many unique characteristics of the delaware botanic gardens is the central role of volunteers in every facet of the organization from management and oversight to implementation; from garden design to garden planting and maintenance. Highly experienced specialists volunteer as information technology director and financial director/treasurer. The volunteer photographer is a licensed drone operator whose photos and videos have dramatically captured the historical development and beauty of the gardens. In 2021 the delaware botanic gardens had only five paid positions - director of horticulture, director of facilities, director of development, financial manager, and senior gardener. In 2021, dbg had 82 active volunteers who donated 19,716 hours. This brings our total volunteer hours from 2016 to 2021 to 120,571 volunteer hours. These volunteer hours are the lifeblood of dbg. These volunteer hours have collectively contributed more than 3 million in equivalent staff salaries that dbg would otherwise have had to raise. This estimate is based on the average hourly value for volunteers in delaware (2018-2020), as reported by the nonprofit group, independent sector. These hours equate to more than 58 work-years of effort during the period 2016 to 2021. The vital contribution of the dbg volunteers was recognized by delaware governor john carney in 2021 when he awarded the governor's outstanding volunteer service award to the dbg volunteers. In 2021, the 19,716 volunteers hours were directed to the following activities: -garden planting and maintenance: 4065 -docent program, including staffing events & tours: 5168 -it management and business software development: 506 - grant writing and grant management: 1815 - photography and videography: 418 - management, including finances, fundraising, marketing and public relations: 7744”

“The organization uses a cpa firm to do their daily, monhtly, and year end bookkeeping. The organization engages a second, independent cpa firm to perform a compilation at year-end and to prepare the organization's form 990 tax return.”