Where Does All The Money Go?
November 14, 2010 No CommentsBeing a new Rescue, CVHR feels that it is important for our donors to understand where our money goes. We often have people ask why we charge an adoption fee if the horses are surrendered to the rescue. Basically, adoption fees go to pay for the grain, hay, and farrier. If we have something like dental work, extraordinary vet bills, capital improvements, we fundraise for those items separately.
This is to give you an idea of what we pay for each month. I have not included the “pesky ponies” in this because they skew the averages all up. All of them put together probably add 1 more horse to the feed bill.
Current Residents:
- Ready
- Pumpkin
- Groovy
- PT
- Breaker
- Huey
- Traveller
- #506
- Money
- Frodo
- Dixie
Seniors:
- Rosebud
- Karma
** Not included in accounting: Pesky Pony Crew
Horse Rescue Accounting Averages:
1 regular horse – $60 hay per month, $32 grain = $92 feed per month
1 SR horse – $30 hay per month, $128 Sr Feed = $158 per month
Total Feed cost: $1328 per month
Our Average Adoption fee is $500. We have a few that are higher and some that are lower. In order to break even, we need to adopt out 3 horses per month. How do we do it? Our feed bill is usually significantly lower from March – October which allows us to stock up hay for the winter. CVHR does not at this time owe any money or maintain charge accounts for feed or vet bills.
There are no paid employees here at this time. Most of the horse care is done by Cindy Smith who is founder, Executive Director and Barn Cleaner.
Donations:
We depend on donations for capital improvements and repairs. We also depend on donations for out of the ordinary vet bills and feedlot horses as well as transportation if necessary. QT expenses are higher because the horses have to be stall kept and there is additional labor, feed and shavings so the first month expenses for feedlot horses are always higher.
Hay Fund -
Our plan was to use the projected adoption fees this month to buy additional hay in January as we have been feeding all horses hay since July instead of October. We have had 2 pending adoptions fall through this week. While this does not cause an emergency, it does mean that we need to re-evaluate our hay supply and budget. We should be fine through November and December but will need to buy hay for January, February and March. Rather than wait until it IS an emergency, I am going to start fundraising for the hay now.
