Your generous support ensures we can teach
our next generation of river stewards!
Our programs engage students with onboard, hands-on learning while under sail. Our floating classroom brings a new perspective to our mission – to protect the Piscataqua region’s maritime heritage and environment through education and action – as students of all ages experience our local rivers and bays onboard a historically significant gundalow. Our programs engage students in onboard, hands-on learning while under sail.
The Gundalow Company strives to make its award-winning programs accessible to all students regardless of their ability to pay. With over 2,800 students from 120+ school groups each year, we’re reaching more river stewards than ever, but our support needs are growing. The fee collected from schools covers less than 25% of our costs, and the remaining program costs must be covered through multiple sources such as individual donors like you. We count on your continued support to keep our programs accessible to students of all ages.
Please make a donation today to ensure that our important work can continue. With your support we can implement our outstanding programs to connect students of all ages to the rivers and waterways throughout the watershed.
Our organization has experienced some substantial highs and lows this year. The highs have been significant such as bringing on a new Education Program Manager, completing another successful summer camp season with over 400 camp registrations, conducting our 3rd successful Riverfest event with this year being the first for free admission, and the positive growth of our Community Service sail program and partnerships. The lows have presented challenges including a late start to our school program sails due to the unexpected replacement of the propeller shaft on Piscataqua which in turn caused us to reschedule spring school programs to fit into a much tighter scheduling window, and most significantly the weather. These challenges were met head-on and adjustments were made but the impacts were felt throughout the season and in the case of the weather little could be done to overcome the high number of public sail and charter cancellations we experienced. . An analysis of cancellation rates that covers the past five years showed that we ended the season with a 22% cancellation rate which is nearly double the average cancellation rate over the period of the analysis.
Cancellations of education programs, public sails, and private charters have negatively impacted our bottom line this year and that impact has spilled over to our other sources of revenue and support. Combined with the instability in the stock market and inflation troubles, bad weather has pushed our ability to meet our budgetary and fundraising goals for this year to the extreme.
The life blood of any nonprofit comes from the unrestricted support raised by the organization’s annual fund and annual appeal. Throughout the years, the Gundalow Company’s annual appeal has been very successful in helping to raise funds to make up the difference in what schools can pay for our education programs and what it costs us to operate Piscataqua. This year we are significantly behind (over $10,000) in our annual fund contributions heading into the last three months of the fiscal year.
Therefore, I am asking everyone to make a stretch donation this year giving a larger amount than you have in the past. If everyone increased their annual fund contribution from 2022, we would be well on our way to our 2023 goal. We are working on challenge matches for November and December – essentially doubling your donation. Please look for updates and more details regarding the matches and the annual appeal via email in the coming weeks.
With your help we can finish this year in typical gundalow fashion by meeting or exceeding our annual fund goal! Thank you for your continued support!
Huzzah!
2022 has seen a welcome return to near normal operating conditions for the Gundalow Company. We’ve experienced an unanticipated rebound in the number of our school programs, a sizeable increase in the number of our summer camp attendees, a steady increase in the average number of passengers per sail, an expansion of our well received community outreach sails, and our volunteer force is growing and strengthening! All these factors are reflective of pre-pandemic levels and have renewed our dedication to protecting the maritime heritage and environment of the Piscataqua region through education and action!
Even with these positive indicators our commitment to developing the next generation of river and bay stewards continues to depend on your generosity in helping to help fund our school programs, shore programs, community outreach sails, and the upkeep and maintenance of Piscataqua and our fleet of small boats.
We are again at that time of year for our Annual Appeal. This appeal is our largest and most important when it comes to raising unrestricted funds. Unrestricted funds make up the largest percentage of our donations and give us the freedom to apply them to where we need them the most.
Our annual appeal will again last from October through the end of December with challenge matches available each month. Our goal is set at $60,000 and with your help we can reach that goal and perhaps exceed it! The challenge matches will allow your contributions to be matched dollar-for-dollar essentially doubling your support. Below is the schedule for the challenge matches:
| Month | Match Amount |
| October | $5,000 |
| November | $10,000 |
| December | $15,000 |
The rebound of our school programs, although wonderful, has brought to light a lag in the number of program sponsorships we depend on to help supplement our school program operating costs. As we head into the last quarter of 2022 it is vitally important that we continue to gather funding for these programs. Therefore, we are designating November as “Program Sponsorship Month” treating each donation received as a sponsorship opportunity for a student ($25), several students, or a whole class of students ($500) for a sail on the gundalow.
Year after year you have stepped up and supported us. We can’t do all of the things that we do without that support. We are thanking you in advance for helping us finish up 2022 with a bang!
Season’s greetings and a big huzzah to everyone! As we approach the end of the year I wanted to provide you with a quick update on our sailing season and to ask for your help with meeting our annual appeal goal.
2021 turned out to be a banner year for our sailing and camp programs! We had one of our best seasons of public sails with 5,950 passengers nearly eclipsing our all-time record from 2017 of 6,193 passengers. We set organizational records for the number of private charters (73), and number of River Rats camp registrations (327)! These were great results and validated that our decision in 2020 to remain open while following CDC, state and local COVID guidelines was a sound one. The only area we didn’t see a rebound in was in school programs in the spring and fall. As you know school programs are the main focus of the education part of our mission. This year we sailed with only 672 students which is about one quarter of the number we had typically sailed with prior to COVID. Now that more and more vaccines (and boosters) are becoming available we’re anticipating a return to near pre-COVID numbers with school programs in 2022.
This is where you can help us with our annual appeal. For the month of December, we have a $20,000 challenge match in place. That means every dollar donated during the month up to a total of $20,000 will be matched dollar-for-dollar essentially doubling those donations. As of today, we have raised just under $10,000 for the month so we’re almost halfway there. We’re doing everything we can to position ourselves for a strong financial start to the 2022 season and meeting or exceeding our annual appeal goal will go a long way to helping us meet that challenge. Every dollar counts and a $25 donation will sponsor a student on one of our school programs helping us to meet our operating costs more effectively. To donate, visit our website at www.gundalow.org/Get-Involved/Donate or you can send a check to: Gundalow Company, 60 Marcy St. Portsmouth, NH 03801. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
If you have already made your annual appeal donation please accept our heartfelt thank you for your role in supporting our mission. Your contributions are helping to sustain us as we head into another challenging year. Please consider joining us in developing the next generation of river and bay stewards by donating to the Gundalow Company’s 2021 annual appeal. We wish you happy holidays and look forward to seeing you in 2022!
As you can imagine, this has been a year full of trials and challenges. No one had a crystal ball and could foretell that a worldwide pandemic would cause us to cancel all of our spring school programs, delay the start of our sailing season until July and severely limit our ability to carry out our mission of educating the children, residents, and visitors to the Seacoast area about the maritime heritage and environment of this iconic watershed.
However, our staff and crew are a tough and resourceful lot, and even with the prospect of cancelling the entire sailing season hanging over our heads, we did what this organization has always done – we collectively hitched up our pants, tightened our belts and put on our thinking caps. In a matter of weeks this spring we leaned in and pivoted. We became proactive electing to focus on the opportunities that COVID was presenting to review and enhance our current programs and in that process develop new ones. The determination and resourcefulness of the staff and crew led the way allowing us to salvage a large portion of our sailing and camp seasons. We accomplished the following:
- We hosted a series of Zoom events throughout the spring on maritime heritage and environmental issues
- We created a new set of online learning resources for schools to support local teachers
- With the cancellation of almost all our school field-trip programs, we reconfigured our fall programs with small classes and outdoor learning opportunities to support local families and continue meeting our mission
- We created a new set of procedures for public sails and charters that allowed the public to get out on the PISCATAQUA in smaller groups
- We adjusted our summer camp program to shorter days and extended these programs to the end of August
- We retained all employees with the assistance of state and federal relief programs
All of these major accomplishments and many smaller ones were attained throughout the season allowing us to provide the public and our members and supporters with a fun and healthy opportunity to explore this beautiful watershed from a unique perspective. We feel very fortunate to have been able to provide those opportunities and I’m happy to report we made it through the entire sailing and camp season with zero cases of COVID-19 among passengers, campers, staff and crew!
On the financial side we applied for and received a Paycheck Protection Program loan which allowed us to keep our wonderful staff, crew, and camp counselors on the payroll. We applied for and received a grant from the NH Nonprofit Emergency Relief fund which continues to help us offset revenue losses resulting from cancelled school programs and the reduced number of passengers and campers. The most encouraging thing was the incredible amount of support we received from our members and donors throughout the year helping us to raise $13,000 in June during NH Gives Day and over $20,000 at our annual Party for Piscataqua last month! We continue to be humbled and grateful for our community’s support.
We have survived this sailing season through generosity, innovation, grit and determination, something this organization has in spades. However, as we look ahead to 2021 it’s clear we will have to continue operating in uncertainty. The pandemic is still very much present, and the financial effects do not look positive for non-profits like us. We stay committed to our mission of providing opportunities for students, residents, and visitors to the Seacoast area to experience our rivers and bays firsthand. We want to be in the best position we can when the time comes to resume full operations. To that end, we started our annual appeal in October, a month earlier than normal. We are setting our annual appeal goal at $60,000, a goal we feel we can achieve only with your help. Through the incredible generosity of several of our donors, we have established a series of challenge matches. These matches are designed to encourage more of our members and supporters to make a contribution by having matching dollars available, essentially doubling their donation. For October we received $5,000 in matching funds (and we met the match goal!), in November we have $10,000 in program sponsorship matching funds and we are anticipating more matching funds for December. If we are successful we will have positioned ourselves to safely make it through the first quarter of 2021 and possibly beyond.
All of the successes we’ve experienced in this topsy-turvy year are a direct result of careful planning, unrivaled generosity and unflagging determination. The Gundalow Company is a direct reflection of the character of its members, volunteers, and supporters and because of that we’ve risen to the occasion and met the challenge to remain a viable and successful organization even in the face of a world-wide pandemic. Thank you for believing in our mission and thank you for being there for us.
See our education program in action:
Checks can be mailed to the Gundalow Company at 60 Marcy Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801. For gifts of securities, etc., please email the Development Office or call 603-433-9505.
The Gundalow Company is a nonprofit charitable organization under U.S.IRS Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. Our nonprofit tax identification number is 02-0598530. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent provided by law.
