Impact Giving | How Donations Fit into Our Financial Recipe

At The Mountaineers, members, volunteers, and donors bring our vision of Adventure with Purpose to life through giving back in ways that enable us to create positive change for our community and our environment. Each donation, membership, and volunteer hour is essential. Just as each ingredient in a recipe plays a vital role, every contribution—from earned revenue to donor support—builds something greater.

In this blog, we’ll walk through our recipe, exploring how each financial ingredient contributes to our mission and how, together, we can contribute to a future filled with possibility and purpose. In the world of mission-driven impact, our impressive mix of earned revenue is rare: the combination of membership dues, course fees, and sales of books gives The Mountaineers a strong foundation for success. The added donations received through generous support enriches our mission and supercharges our impact to create a future full of adventure, learning, community, and conservation.

Preparing the Table for Adventure with Purpose

Giving back is intrinsic to our community. As we shared recently in “What is a Culture of Philanthropy?”, the readiness of Mountaineers members to pay it forward is the primary ingredient to our success as a nonprofit organization. Financial resources provide the table that allows us to introduce people to the outdoors, improve accessibility through scholarships, grow youth programs, bolster volunteer leadership development, and invest in infrastructure to enhance programming and publishing operations. Contributions also uplift our sustainability efforts such as low-impact book production, conservation education, outdoor recreation for future generations through advocacy, and more. Together, they provide the setting around which our community can gather and share the collective experience that brings us together. Every gift of time, talent, treasure, testimony, and ties, fosters lifelong connections to nature, expands opportunity for outdoor adventure, and builds a culture of conservation.

Revenue and Expenses: Every Ingredient Matters

The Mountaineers is a complex organization and building our annual operating budget requires time, care, and intention from a variety of community members. While our fiscal year begins on October 1, due to the breadth of program areas, volunteers and staff start working together as early as April to build a bottoms-up recipe for the year ahead. This approach leverages the skill and expertise of our volunteer leaders, lodge communities, and staff program managers to create the full picture. After a series of iterations with staff leadership and formal reviews with the Finance Committee, we present it to the Board of Directors for final approval at our October Board meeting. We’re grateful for the many people who pitched in to contribute the ingredients that lead to the board-approved budget of $11.56M in operating revenue and $11.53 operating expenses for the Fiscal Year 2025. 

When you look at the pie charts above, it can be helpful to know what is included in each segment. Programs includes lodges, properties, program centers, branch activities and courses, youth programming, conservation, leadership development and Global Adventures. Membership includes dues, quarterly magazine, bookstore sales, and community events. Publishing shows all books related expenses from signing new authors to the time you hold a Mountaineers book in your hand. Philanthropy includes revenue received through campaigns, Ridgeline and Peak Society gifts, grants and fundraising events; however, we do not budget for funds received through bequests or special-approved projects. The diversification of revenue offers a unique blend that can be mutually supportive of one another and allows us to share resources you see in Admin, such as staff leadership, accounting, insurance, IT, website, and support for day-to-day operations. 

Just like in a recipe, each ingredient adds its own unique value to the whole. Whether it’s a donation, volunteer time, or other contributions, each piece helps create the sustenance that fuels our most ambitious goals.

Each part of the organization is essential to creating a meaningful whole. This chart shows more detail about the key programs that contribute to a balanced, impactful revenue mix:

• Teaching & Gathering Places: Our lodges, program centers, and Kitsap Forest Theater offer gathering spaces that inspire learning, creativity, and community.
• Youth Programs: Focused on outdoor skills and conservation education through clubs, camps, and community groups across the greater Puget Sound region. 
• Member Engagement: Through membership dues, community events, advertising in our magazine, the Seattle Program Center Bookstore, and community gatherings to introduce new people to The Mountaineers.
• Adult Programs: Represent all of our adult-centric outdoor courses, activities, and events that take place across all seven branches, as well as Global Adventures.
• Philanthropy: Fundraising and events help us achieve mission-driven priorities while keeping memberships, programs, and resources affordable for all.
• Publishing: Includes sales of our own Mountaineers Books titles as well as revenue we generate from distributing publications for partners such as Green Trails Maps and the American Alpine Club.

Order up! Delivering Impact and Accomplishing our Mission 

We couldn’t do any of our work without our volunteers—your gift of time is essential to delivering our mission and helping people get outdoors. Running our organization also requires financial resources beyond what volunteer efforts alone can provide. Donations are a powerful way members can deepen their impact by helping us build the infrastructure we need to stay strong into the future. Many of our most dedicated volunteers also choose to give as donors because they see firsthand the difference The Mountaineers makes. By both volunteering and donating, you can amplify our impact, creating a stronger, more sustainable community for everyone.

Philanthropy empowers us to strengthen and enrich the member and volunteer experience, making it more consistent, accessible, and impactful. Additional funding also helps us to sustain essential needs—insurance, technology, facility upkeep, compliance, and strong leadership—that keep our organization thriving. These contributions also enable us to uphold the standards required of a nonprofit, from compliance and reporting to tax-deductible donations and eligibility for crucial funding. 

If you’re a longtime member, you’re likely familiar with the core programs that exist because we’ve incorporated donations into our financial recipe. These impact initiatives are built into our operating plan and are integral to achieving our vision to contribute to a future where all people can confidently enjoy and are inspired to protect the natural world. By investing in these areas, our donors help ensure that every member has a meaningful and memorable experience:

• Scholarships: decrease financial barriers to our programs as part of our commitment to improving access to outdoor opportunities for all. 
• Leadership Development: provide members and volunteers with continuous education in group facilitation, education and instruction, equity and inclusion, and risk management. 
• Teaching and Gathering Places: invest in spaces that bring our community together and provide artificial training locations like the friction slabs to help reduce our carbon footprint. 
• Mountaineers Books: help to grow the number of books we publish, strengthening our platform for emerging authors, local expertise, and conservation storytelling.  
• Connecting Youth to the Outdoors: provide transportation, gear, and skilled instruction to offer youth with safe and enjoyable outdoor experiences.
• Conservation & Advocacy: address permitting challenges and strengthening our voice as advocates for our land, waters, and climate. 

Philanthropy doesn’t just help us meet our budgetary goals; it empowers us to go beyond and sometimes includes specially-approved projects and initiatives. We use these additional resources to amplify our impact in ways that would otherwise be impossible, including:

• Carbon Footprint Reduction: investing in sustainability initiatives.
• Capital Improvements: building and enhancing facilities.
• Extending Advocacy Efforts: expanding outreach and environmental advocacy through our leadership role in OA Washington.
• Tribal Engagement: strengthening partnerships and collaboration with indigenous communities.

It is exciting to see how much our community has invested in our ability to achieve our mission.

This “extra” layer of giving makes the difference between meeting our goals and advancing our vision in ways that inspire long-lasting change.

Baking to Perfection: Measuring Success

When you make a gift to our organization, you’re investing in an “Adventure with Purpose.” We measure this impact in two meaningful ways: 

1: Intermediary Measures (Adventure): These metrics offer a view of participation and reach, showing how our community engages with various programs.They give a tangible view of engagement, growth, and connections reflecting the breadth of our impact and the ongoing fiscal health of the organization. They include things like: 

• Program engagement and revenue
• Course enrollments, trips, miles explored, and youth program participation
• Membership growth, retention, and satisfaction
• Overall operating contribution 

2: Outcome Measures (Purpose): Our ultimate goal is to inspire a community that lives with purpose. Success means fostering a culture of conservation and advocacy, empowering underrepresented voices, and creating an inclusive outdoor community. Key metrics here help us to measure quality and depth of engagement and relationships: 

• Cultivating a sense of belonging through community and connection to nature
• Building high-impact relationships for conservation and policy advocacy
• Inspiring community action on behalf of our natural world and outdoor recreation

How to Get Involved

The recipe alone can’t create impact; it’s the collective effort and passion of our community that brings the recipe’s impact to life. Your expertise, time, and generosity set the table for everything we achieve together. Whether you’re giving financially, volunteering, or sharing our story, each action is vital to building an outdoor community that’s stronger, more inclusive, and ready to make a difference.

If you are inspired to make a gift, please visit mountaineers.org/donate or call 206-521-6006.

The Mountaineers® is a 501(c)(3) organization supported through earned revenue and elevated through charitable contributions, tax ID:27-3009280, 7700 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115.