How Big Cat Rescue Spends YOUR Money

Sources of support.  Big Cat Rescue was founded Nov. 4, 1992 and has been a 501(c)(3) non profit entity since 1995.  The two primary sources of revenue to support the cats and the educational activities were the revenue from the educational tours (up until COVID in 2020) and donations from caring individuals, corporations and foundations.  Donations to the sanctuary are tax deductible.  The sanctuary receives no government funding and relies totally on private support, primarily from individuals.  We pay no fundraising solicitors.  As a result, our management, general and fund raising expenses together account for less than 11% of total expenses.

Audited Financial Statements.  In addition the IRS Form 990 that it has filed since 1995, the sanctuary has produced Audited Financial Statements since 2003.  In 2004 the sanctuary had positive cash flow, and by 2017 we are able to generate enough revenue to set aside a reserve of about 10 months of expenses.  Accumulating reserves to weather downturns in the economy, and eventually building an endowment, will be critical to the long term survival of the sanctuary. Even though all of our cats were relocated to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge by the end of 2023, we are still responsible for funding their care for their lifetime.

Below is a summary of the audited statements. The links below the summary lead to pdf files of the complete Form 990 and Audited Statements.

Visitors.  While the sanctuary started having a few visitors as early as 1995, the efforts to expand that as a way to educate the public began in 1998.  We can only take in a small number of cats each year.  We believe we can save far more cats by educating people about not getting them as pets and not supporting activities that they may not realize lead to abuse.  So attracting visitors to our educational tours has become a major part of our mission.  The growth in visitors over the years, heavily due to word of mouth, is evidence that we are fulfilling that mission.  The sanctuary has been closed to visitors since March 15, 2020 due to threats from COVID and the false narrative in Tiger King that caused FreeJoeExotic crazies to threaten the lives of the cats.

Year

Visitors

%

1995

43

1996

85

98%

1997

398

368%

1998

4,208

957%

1999

8,913

112%

2000

10,678

20%

2001

12,455

17%

2002

10,955

-12%

2003

11,875

8%

2004

17,891

51%

2005

22,442

25%

2006

26,497

18%

2007

24,664

-7%

2008

24,734

1%

2009

26,154

1%

2010

26,128

0%

2011

28,474

9%

2012

26,743

-1%

2013

32,002

20%

2014

27,316

2015

25,978

2016

28,472

2017

30,190

Questions. If you have any questions about our finances, please feel free to email Finance@bigcatrescue.org.

Donations and Other Ways to Help.  For ways in which you can donate or other ways you can help, please click here.

Florida law requires that all charities soliciting donations disclose their registration number and the percentage of your donation that goes to the cause and the amount that goes to the solicitor.  Our registration number is CH-11409 and 0% of your donation goes to a solicitor.