a AAC member Bernd Zeugswetter THE AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB ANNUAL REPORT 2017
a AAC member Jeremiah Watt
A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO When I took the helm at the AAC in 2005, we looked inward and asked: who do we represent? Who do we want to be in the future? The answer came back consistently: we want to be the Club for all climbers. We had long been associated with expedition climbers and alpinists. We talked of reaching summits— often by new and difficult routes—as the culmination of a dedication to climbing. We spent decades honoring achievement within the narrow mountaineering community, while the sport of climbing was subdividing into a multitude of specialties, each with its own culture. Looking back, it may not have seemed momentous for us to give our Underhill award for climbing achievement to John Gill in 2008 for advancing bouldering, but for the AAC, it was a significant nod to the evolving and multifaceted nature of our identity.
In 2011, we reaffirmed this direction and the organization’s growth accelerated. Mountaineering became just one of many ways for people to engage with the Club. We changed the name of Accidents in North American Mountaineering to Accidents in North American Climbing. Our efforts to keep up with this landscape demanded a board, staff, and volunteers who could represent and reflect the new dynamics in climbing. We revised our mission and vision to reflect who we strived to be. We actively sought women to lead and found how difficult it can be to change a culture—like that of our board or staff—and make those changes stick. The results of our steps towards inclusion have brought nothing but good news. Our 20,000 members bring a diversity of thought, location, climbing interest and political point of view that helps us deepen our commitment to 2017 ANNUAL REPORT | 1
change. Our Craggin’ Classic Events are meant to connect local climbing communities across the nation. This attention to grassroots needs and changing community created a platform for conversation, learning and conservation that now vies with our Annual Benefit Dinner for financial results. These events are emblematic of the balance we strive for: honoring our heritage as a Club while welcoming fresh outlooks and continuing to proactively evolve. I firmly believe that the fiscal health, membership growth and the array of other successes listed below has been made possible by the changing complexion of our volunteers across the nation and the concerted effort by our board to develop variety within its ranks. So much of what we have done seems inconsequential by itself. Together, small moves create change, and today, the AAC is more open, more inviting and more capable of taking even bolder steps in the years ahead. We’ve been able to bring our traditional membership and leadership along on this path. There have been debates, hiccups and missteps and there will be more, but the AAC is a very different place than it was a decade ago. We must continue to forge ahead in these new directions. We have begun the journey and I am proud of how far we’ve come. Thank you each for the role you play in where we’ve been and where we’re heading.
a AAC member Ken Etzel 2 | THE AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB
Phil Powers CEO American Alpine Club
TOGETHER WE...
50 x 50
$50,000
Convened in Washington, DC with 50 climbers to attend 50 meetings with legislators and agency leaders
Awarded in Cornerstone and Research grants for conservation projects and scientific endeavors in mountains and crags around the world, respectively
23,000
2,660
Comments submitted for the protection of Bears Ears National Monument
Climbers gathered across the country at our local Craggin’ Classic Series events
25,844
144
Nights spent under the stars at one of the AAC’s five campgrounds
Live Your Dream grant projects funded; over $70,000 awarded
2017 ANNUAL REPORT | 3
ADDITIONALLY, WE... ཀྵཀྵ H osted a panel discussion with Paiute leaders at our Bishop Craggin’ Classic event ཀྵཀྵ W orked to increase visual representation of all climbers across digital channels ཀྵཀྵ D eveloped womens-specific clinics at each of our Craggin’ Classic Series events ཀྵཀྵ Featured the first female on the AAJ cover ཀྵཀྵ A ppointed Deanne Buck as our new–and second– female board president ཀྵཀྵ F eatured our first female keynote at the Annual Benefit Dinner ཀྵཀྵ Developed a member composition task force ཀྵཀྵ S tarted the process of developing an educationspecific grant to cultivate the leaders and role models of tomorrow
4 | THE AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB
a AAC member Leon Legott
a AAC member Jeremiah Watt
BY THE NUMBERS:
FINANCIALS
3% 44% 37%
REVENUE $4,035,873
26% GENERAL & ADMIN
CONTRIBUTIONS PROGRAMS MEMBERSHIP
54%
8 | THE AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB
FUNDRAISING
10%
OTHER
16%
MEMBERSHIP
EXPENSES $3,809,029
9%
PROGRAMS
CLUB GROWTH, ‘09 – ’17
20,000 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 5,000 2009
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017 2017 ANNUAL REPORT | 9
MEMBERSHIP: CLIMBING DISCIPLINES
Ice Climbing
2.72%
Gym/Indoor Climbing
3.66%
Bouldering
4.45%
Hiking/Backpacking
4.65%
Non-technical Mountain Climbing
4.94%
Ski/Snowboard Mountaineering
4.97%
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Alpine Climbing
19.28%
Sport Climbing
22.12%
Trad Climbing
33.21%
MEMBERSHIP: TOP 5 BENEFITS
Rescue Publications Gear Discounts Lodging Facilities Climbing Grants
2017 ANNUAL REPORT | 11
MEMBERSHIP: AGE
MEMBERSHIP: CLIMBING EXPERIENCE
28.68%
24.54%
14.18% 12.30% 10.11%
9.80%
51 - 60
61 or Older
0.40% 18 or Younger
19 - 25
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26 - 30
31 - 40
41 - 50
5 + Years
2 - 4 Years
1 - 2 Years
Less than 1 year
MEMBERSHIP: ETHNICITY
MEMBERSHIP: GENDER
1%
Male Female 28%
White
Asian/Pacific Islander
Hispanic or Latino
Other
Other
71%
Native American
Black or African American 2017 ANNUAL REPORT | 13
MEMBERSHIP: HOUSEHOLD INCOME 10.68%
12.21%
16.3%
MEMBERSHIP: INSTRUCTION BEGINNINGS 62.22%
14.13%
16.97%
16.17%
29.72% 7.96% 0.95%
$25k or under $100k - $149,999 14 | THE AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB
$25k - $49,999 $150k +
$50k - $99,999
Prefer not to answer
Mentor/Friend Climbing Gym Instruction
Online Instruction
2.47% College Club Local/Regional Club
MEMBERSHIP: LOCATION DENSITY MAP
2017 ANNUAL REPORT | 15
16 | THE AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB
WHO WE ARE MISSION To support our shared passion for climbing and respect for the places we climb
VISION A united community of competent climbers and healthy climbing landscapes
a AAC member Jeremiah Watt
2017 ANNUAL REPORT | 17
UNITED WE CLIMB americanalpineclub.org