In late March 2020, 324 Association member gardens responded to a survey. Survey results indicated sweeping closures that occurred suddenly and caused profound earned revenue-related losses and other economic impacts to garden business operations.

Despite all the important work accomplished by nonprofit organizations over the last hundred years, significant growth or scaled impact has remained an elusive goal for most of them.

Beyond gift shops, wedding rentals, and one-off plant sales, every garden has unique assets that could be leveraged to achieve the institutional mission and creatively generate revenue for the organization or reduce expenses.

Public gardens, which are centers for expertise, often have concerns with earned-revenue generation and education seeing consulting income as a conflict with their mission.

Growth is vital for any organization to be successful but many institutions do not strategically plan how, why, and where they invest resources to grow strategically.

For the purposes of this study, we have broadly categorised the results of the activities of botanic gardens into economic, social and environmental impacts.

Did you miss the Finance & Operations Symposium in March? A few of the symposium speakers brought their earned revenue focus presentations to the annual conference. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to learn more. 

We are living in a day and age where big data is discussed in every newspaper, trade publication, or blog we read. Public gardens need to connect more with our customers, deepen loyalty, and generate more earned revenue. But how?

Bellevue Botanical Garden Society has generously provided samples of artist/performer agreements for one-time events and annual events sponsored by thier partner group (updated annually). 

The triple bottom line refers to economic, environmental, and social value of an investment and is related to the concept of sustainable development.