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.

IRS 501 c 3 Determination letter

Coming Soon 2023 IRS form 990 and  2023 audited financial statement and annual report and USDA Inspection.

Click here for 2022 IRS form 990 and  2022 audited financial statement and annual report and USDA Inspection.

Click here for 2021 IRS form 990 and  2021 audited financial statement and annual report and USDA Inspection.

Click here for 2020 IRS form 990 and  2020 audited financial statement and annual report and USDA Inspection.

Click here for 2019 IRS form 990 and  2019 audited financial statement and annual report and  USDA Inspection.

Click here for 2018 IRS form 990 and  2018 audited financial statement and annual report and  USDA inspection.

Click here for 2017 IRS form 990 and  audited financial statement and annual report and  USDA inspection.

Click here for 2016 IRS form 990 and audited financial statement and annual report and USDA inspection.

Click here for 2015 IRS form 990 and audited financial statement and annual report and USDA inspection.

Click here for 2014 IRS form 990 and audited financial statement and annual report.

Click here for 2013 IRS form 990 and audited financial statement and annual report.

Click here for 2012 IRS form 990 and audited financial statement and annual report.

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.

Note that we keep raising prices in order to keep our tour volume down under 28,000.

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.