Dear Member,
Words cannot express how grateful we are for the support of our community at 2023’s year-end. Your gifts not only enabled us to meet our $270,000 goal to sustain our work, but also to exceed it by more than $50,000. Every single winter snow cat trip, classroom program, weather observation, Higher Summits Forecast, Science in the Mountains lecture, and research project depends on this outpouring of generosity. We could not do our work without you.
Few other nonprofits are as reliant on donor support as the Observatory — with your gifts accounting for more than half of our operating budget. This makes your impact immediate and dramatic. You make it possible to continue our work to become the Observatory of the future: One that serves our community and nation as a dynamic resource for weather and climate research and education. Not only that, you ensure we can continue providing weather services that support visitors to our region as well as the community that works to keep them safe. Here are a few examples (among many) of your impact:
- Your support funds research and discovery, as our research team continues in earnest to understand the effects of liquid precipitation falling on snow pack, and how rain-on-snow events may be increasing flood potential and avalanche risk. This work will help communities and businesses prepare for extreme weather in our region as well as support recreation and safety for our backcountry community. Our research will be greatly aided as we modernize and expand the Mount Washington Regional Mesonet.
- Your support funds science learning for adults and children, as our education team works to provide new school day, afterschool, virtual, and field trip experiences to students throughout our region and the world, even as we undertake a busy winter trips schedule and continue our virtual Science in the Mountains series. A key component of this work with schools includes educational fields trip in partnership with the Mt. Washington Auto Road, Mount Washington Cog Railway Company, and New Hampshire State Parks to make Mount Washington more accessible for young students.
- Your gifts fund new weather services, as we work with a few generous donors who pledged $68,000 in restricted funding (not included in the totals I reported above) to enable us to provide improved forecasts and educational programs over the next year with partners in television and radio throughout New England. We’re still in discussions on this work, but improved equipment and facilities on Mount Washington are in our future to enable us to provide yet more weather guidance for the recreation, safety, conservation, business, and other communities we serve across New Hampshire.
Thank you. We are grateful for your support. You not only helped us secure our two matching gifts from our Board of Trustees ($30,000 in November) and an anonymous donor ($50,000 in December), but also to surpass our highest aspirations for success. Your support means our staff can continue to innovate, build new partnerships, and fulfill our mission to advance understanding of the natural systems that create Earth’s weather and climate.
Please reach out to me anytime if I can ever be of help to you. And I hope you have a wonderful start to the New Year.
Sincerely,
