Greater Yellowstone Coalition

About 50% of the revenues go towards wages & salaries. Too much of the revenues goes towards keeping the coalition in existence instead of promoting and preserving Yellowstone. The bicycle tour is outstanding but the revenues.

I was a founder of the GYC, and here writing under a pseudonym. So I have been a member of the GYC since the early 1980s when we established it. It was first the Greater Yellowstone Alliance. A place like the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem) that sprawls into 3 states and many jurisdictions needs an overarching organization.

The GYC has done a good job conserving the environmental and scenic resources of the GYE. Over time the organization has had its great moments and some that were less. Some staff now have been with them from the start, and are retiring.

When I was on their Board of Directors, I noticed the caution with which they approached things and how well they secured the financial status of the group. They also paid the executive director a lot for an organization like this, but compared, of course, to corporate CEOs even back in the day, it was a token. I do not know about the Board's demeanor today. I have just scant experience with their Board today.

As a board member who was instrumental in helping the Greater Yellowstone Coalition purchase and renovate the new building, I am extremely pleased with the results in particular the fiscal benefits our headquarters will perpetually yield for our conservation programs.

The GYC board and staff began thinking about purchasing a building when the real estate market in Bozeman was spiraling upward. Our rented offices sold twice during our tenure and correspondingly our rent increased substantially. Our Board of Directors concluded that owning our offices was a prudent fiduciary move that would provide long-term fiscal stability to the organization. After 30 years as the leading conservation organization in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, GYC now has a permanent home that speaks to and financially supports our conservation values.

Every dollar of money invested into our building project was raised separately from our annual conservation and operational fundraising efforts. At no point during the building project did GYC curtail our programmatic work. In fact, during the two years of renovation work on the building--which coincided with the brunt of the national economic downturn--GYC maintained or increased its commitment to our wide variety of conservation programs in and around Yellowstone National Park.

Immediately upon occupancy of the new building, GYC began saving operational money. Within the next two years, we will realize approximately $75,000 in annual savings--money saved over paying rent and lower energy expenses due to the L.E.E.D. certified building's solar thermal water and PV electric systems. All of the savings gained from the new building will be directly reinvested in our critical conservation work. The new building is not only the organization's permanent home, but it also strengthens GYC's position to continue building for the future of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

My professional career is in academia (Professor) where I teach, research, and publish on animal biology, population restoration, and conservation. I agreed to and was honored to join the GYC board after recognizing the deep commitment and success of the organization in protecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, its natural functioning, and its threatened animals. I also recognized the professionalism of the Board and the high degree to which the Board considers scientific evidence to guide their conservation decisions. GYC seeks cooperation and coordination first, but fights if necessary to protect the ecosystem. It is an excellent organization.

This is an outstanding conservation organization. Its quarterly publication, The Advocate, is fantastic - full of information and it's beautiful, too. GYC sets ambitious goals and it gets things done. It works well with partners. It's a highly effective organization.

I have been following GYC for 12 years and I am continually impressed with the organization's effective advocacy. They know what they are doing. They choose important campaigns and they win. If GYC hadn't been defending Greater Yellowstone for the last 30 years, the Ecosystem would be a much diminished place.

Greater Yellowstone Coalition has wasted millions of dollars of donor money on building themselves excessively expensive facilities at $278.00 per sq ft (their published figure, see Bozeman Chronicle article) and then leasing a solar system that will further waste donor money. These kinds of self serving actions from GYC makes it clear their managements direction is not in the best interest of the agenda they sell to their donors.