Transparency

Big Fish has continued to grow rapidly since inception. Fiscal responsibility and transparency are exceptionally important to us. Over the first four years we’ve been able to increase the number of programs & Veterans we serve within our capability to support and also build up reserves. In 2023 a decision was made to spend down some of our reserves in order to reach a strategic goal of serving 275 Veterans and simultaneously boosting operational capacity. These expenditures combined with having to pay required deposits for some of our 2024 events resulted in expenditures exceeding revenue. We remain committed to prudent financial stewardship and aim to maintain a reserve of at least 6-months of expenditures on hand. 

This graph also shows the imperative for Big Fish to strategically look at focused fundraising efforts in order to sustain growth moving forward. Individual donations account for over 75% of total revenue since inception.

From 2020 through 2022 we’ve been able to operate exceptionally lean; 96 cents of every dollar went directly toward impacting Veterans through programmatic expenses. This is significant and a credit to all the volunteer hours provided by our community and board members.

In 2023 we hired three part-time employees and moving forward we realize the need to allocate more resources towards operations and dedicated fundraising in order to advance our mission and serve more Veterans. However, we are committed to responsibly stewarding our investor’s contributions by growing sustainably.

In just four years, we have grown from serving 62 Veterans per year to 276 in 2023. We also have an ambitious target of serving 400+ Veterans in 2024. Keeping programmatic costs under $1,500 per Veteran (without compromising quality) will require $710,000 overall revenue (assuming 85% return on investment to programs). This creates a need for strategic partnerships and focused fundraising efforts.

Part of our strategic vision is to secure our own property for events; allowing us to have less reliance on outside vendors and venues. Having our own property will increase the efficiency of our programs and allow us to be better positioned to provide greater opportunities for Veterans and their families.

Big Fish serves Veterans in three primary ways: designing & producing events ourselves, collaborating with partner organizations, and providing organizational support to other groups & foundations that share our strategy and align with our values.

Moving forward, we intend to increase the number of our own unique events based on our three pillars that can be more readily integrated with partnerships. As our resources grow, so will our ability to create & collaborate. This will require more organizational capacity and access to venues with the right infrastructure to support our design until we are able to secure our own property.