Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center Dba Nature Center at Shaker Lakes

What it reported doing in 2024

The nature center has long been a leader in providing excellent environmental education for individuals of all ages. Particularly well- known for its early childhood curricula for head starts and other preschools in the area, the nature center provides environmental education programs and camps for thousands of children per year in its classrooms as well as on its trails and habitats which serve as its outdoor classroom. The center regularly evaluates and modifies its curricula to ensure that it fully meets all Ohio academic content standards. This year the center successfully completed its eleventh year of applied science for kids (ask) program for the cleveland metropolitan school district (cmsd), designed at the district's request to provide science education and unique hands-on field experiences for all preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade students in the district. This year, the nature center served 3,720 children with the ask program. Ncsl's other partnership with cmsd, the environmental educator in residence (eer) program, serves 4 classrooms of 4th and 5th graders, each of which receives 20 classroom visits and 2 field trips throughout the year. Eer also serves 5 classrooms of prek/k students who each receive 12 classroom visits and 2 field trips throughout the year. Professional development was provided to 164 teachers. The nature center also served 356 head start students and 24 head start teachers, each receiving 4 programs. In addition, the nature center served over 6,377 students from the cleveland heights-university heights and shaker heights school districts as well as other local schools and districts. Our team has expanded our education departments age demographic reach to include high school aged students by becoming the Ohio hub for the national youth climate institute certification program. We began with 5 chapter schools and plans for expansion. In addition to visiting students and program attendees, we had over 140,000 recreational visits to our trails. The nature center welcomed nearly 25,850 visitors into our building. -served 6,207 people through family and adult programming and events. -served 565 campers through our outdoor adventure camp summer program and 180 through our outdoor adventure camp spring break program. -special events were highly successful. The annual summer benefit had over 500 attendees and generated 109,475 in net revenues for the organization. -over 824 volunteers, interns and service-learning groups provided more than 9,911 hours of volunteer assistance in land management, education, events and administration for the equivalent of over 4.5 full-time staff members, or 344,804 worth of service. -volunteer programs at the nature center contributed to youth development (job skills) and opportunities. Volunteers assist the nature center in achieving the goals of conserving the land, connecting people to nature, and inspiring environmental stewardship. Volunteers are welcome at all levels of participation to support programming and other activities. Our volunteers are involved in pulling invasive species and planting native species, demonstration garden maintenance, outdoor adventure camps, education classes, welcome desk assistance, special events assistance, and office work. The volunteer program works with adult individuals, youth (13 and older), high school senior project candidates, school groups (both college and younger), and corporate groups to provide meaningful experiences at the nature center. -in september 2017, the nature center launched the enhancing your outdoor classroom campaign - a multi-year, 6.1 million capital campaign to restore and enhance its trails and habitats that serve thousands of visitors and school children annually. Capital projects completed between 2018-2021 included: the new ada-accessible lavelle family outdoor amphitheater; the new all people's trail boardwalk, a universally-designed, elevated boardwalk that immerses visitors in marsh and forested

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 83.8%; rating input score 84
• Fundraising efficiency: $8.12 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -19.7%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.42; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 5.6%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.6% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings