Sadly it is not surprising the Cayman Islands Humane Society (CIHS) is facing declining revenues.

David Reid, board member and rotating chairman of CIHS as reported today (5) in the Caymanian Compass said, “Fundraising has declined with the recent changes to continuity and the change of key players. We need to build support with new initiatives because things have slowed down.

“Donations to the thrift shop are significantly down, while sales are down by one third, and that is a major contributor to our budget.”

I said it is not surprising because the CIHS, a registered charity, which has received large contributions from many events over recent years has been the subject of a power struggle.

Yes. A power struggle.

Earlier this year there was an online petition that was also sent to the media campaigning for the removal of then CIHS president Carolyn Parker. When the board said they stood behind Ms. Parker an emergency meeting was called by some CIHS members calling themselves Volunteers United Cayman.

At this Emergency Meeting the group were able to remove not only Ms. Parker but replace all but two of the existing board members with their own candidates.

As all these positions are unpaid and these board members give up their time and talents I can well believe they were very angry at being embroiled in all this. I am sure they all had other things to do.

The words “key players” was used by Mr Reid. A lot of these key players put their hands in their pockets, contributed funds, were able to persuade other persons in the community to do like wise and to promote the CIHS as a target for fund raising from all the various island wide clubs/associations including the private sector.

As a member of the public I would not want to contribute to any charitable institution that has a doubtful management structure with members calling for a president to resign. All of this should have been done behind closed doors.

The last thing a charity that relies largely on public donations does is air its dirty washing out on the Internet!

One thing I noticed immediately was the total lack of information being released to this media house from the new board. When Ms Parker was there we received information every week promoting the work of the CIHS including appeals that we were most happy to publish.

I had to learn the CIHS was URGENTLY seeking funds from another media house!!

The CIHS budget also encompasses the society’s few paid staff, and is mostly drawn from donations and retail operations, Mr. Reid said. Donations come largely from companies and individuals. None is from government.

iNews is very happy to help CIHS where we can but we also need to be told as I don’t really have the time to go searching for their news.

When charity workers fall out it is very detrimental to the non-profit organization they profess to promote. Word of mouth is the best tool to employ whether for good news or bad. Better even that iNews or any media house