Opened to the public only 38 years ago this month, the Chicago Botanic Garden has grown rapidly from acorn to thriving sapling. The Garden offers exceptional beauty, lifelong learning, healing, inspiration, and scientific discovery. With branches extending into distant communities, always with a keen focus on the citizens of Cook County, the Garden’s programs serve people of all ages and abilities.

In 2009, a year of economic crisis, the Garden’s staff, boards, volunteers, sponsors, and friends collaborated in remarkable ways. Together, we flourished. We set short-term records. We created ambitious yet thoughtful goals for the future, united by the title, “Keep Growing.” Over the next ten years, we will keep growing—deeper and stronger—to mature from splendid sapling to deep-rooted tree. We will fully realize our mission to promote the enjoyment, understanding, and conservation of plants and the natural world.

A few highlights from 2009:

• Record-breaking attendance—almost 900,000 visits—and the largest membership support in the Garden’s history confirm the relevance of the Garden’s mission and underscore the importance of this unique life-affirming haven.
• The opening of the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center—on time and under budget—enables the Garden to fulfill its commitment to global leadership in plant conservation science and education.
• The continuation of a remarkable partnership with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, its president, board of commissioners, and Steven M. Bylina, Jr., general superintendent,
  provides a thriving example of a model public/private enterprise.
• A new ten-year strategic plan—“Keep Growing”—charts a path to deepen the Garden’s impact across all programs and audiences. To focus our work and communicate with complete transparency, we have built a comprehensive new website around the plan:
  strategicplan.chicagobotanic.org.
• A strong bottom line in 2009 reverses the results of a disappointing 2008. In 2009 we all dug deeper. Each staff person committed to saving $5 a day. Donors maintained, and often even increased, their support. The Woman’s Board of the Chicago Horticultural Society and the Guild of the Chicago Botanic Garden intensified their efforts. The 700 families in the President’s Circle contributed more than half of the total Annual Fund. Corporate and foundation partners remained committed—as on-site volunteers and as financial sponsors. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County provided major critical, and timely, operating support.

Writing this now, nearly six months already into 2010, I feel grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the accomplishments of 2009. While preparing this report, I have read each of your names and reflected on your generosity. I am honored to serve an institution to which you offer your time and expertise, share your resources, and entrust the memories of those you love. It is only together that the Chicago Botanic Garden will keep growing; your generosity will help provide a broad canopy of comfort, inspiration, healing, and knowledge to future generations, but also serve as a living memorial to those who loved the Garden before us.

With sincere gratitude,

Sophia Siskel

Last June, when I became chairman of the board, I was delighted by the opportunity to deepen my commitment to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Serving in this new capacity has allowed me to continue working on securing the Garden’s future.

During 2009, the Garden—along with many other cultural institutions—faced the challenges of uncertain economic times. Then, as now, the board and staff adhered to the simple philosophy that good things will happen over the long term if we always remain true to the Garden’s mission and core values in the short term. Our commitment to these principles was strengthened by the Garden’s many successes last year.

While the economy was uncertain, the response to the critical need for plant conservation science was not. The Plant Conservation Science Initiative has raised nearly $40 million—enough to open the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center last September and launch the new Ph.D. program in Plant Conservation Biology with Northwestern University. I deeply appreciate the generosity of the Garden’s board, corporate and foundation supporters, and friends, and remain confident in our ability to reach our fundraising goals.

Despite our successes, the challenges we faced sharpened our focus on controlling our financial future. The Garden reduced expenses while expanding programs that provide new sources of revenue. These efforts, part of the newly adopted ten-year strategic plan, will allow the Garden to keep growing, and give us a firm foundation on which to begin to raise funds for the Children’s Learning Campus and other strategically important projects.

I want to express my profound respect for the entire Chicago Botanic Garden staff. The breadth of their talents, award-winning and record-setting accomplishments, and devotion to the natural world inspire me. I thank them and the entire Garden community for the welcoming embrace and generous spirit that made an exceptional year even better.

With appreciation,

Susan A. Willetts

In 2010, the Chicago Botanic Garden completed the first year of a new ten-year strategic plan, “Keep Growing.” The plan, presented on the Garden’s website, lays out a vision and set of values that focus on serving the needs of the Garden’s diverse audiences and on deepening our commitment to preserve plants and the healthy habitats on which they depend.

The Garden is indeed growing and flourishing. Throughout 2010, as a result of your investment, we already began to see positive results, as measured by a variety of record-setting accomplishments:

The Garden is growing so more people from around the world can learn from and be inspired by 385 acres of exquisite display gardens, four rare natural areas, and more than 61 acres of lakes and waterways.
In 2010, the Garden welcomed more than 900,000 visitors, exceeding by 2 percent the previous attendance record (of 23 percent year-over-year attendance growth, set in 2009), and further establishing the Garden as a leading Chicago, and national, attraction.

The Garden is growing so more children can experience the power of nature and receive essential science education.
In 2010, more than 25,000 children in school groups, 2,300 in camp and Scout programs, and another 80,000 in family groups participated in Garden programs designed to strengthen their connection to nature and nurture their curiosity about science. For students from preK to Ph.D., the Garden’s Science Career Continuum provides science education critical to our future as a nation and species.

The Garden is growing so more families enjoy greater access to fresh vegetables and the nutritional benefits, as well as employment opportunities, they provide.
In 2010, Green Youth Farm and Windy City Harvest program participants, along with community partners, harvested more than 25,000 pounds of produce that was sold at markets or donated to food pantries in low-income neighborhoods in Cook and Lake Counties. These programs are growing with new partners to create more jobs in urban agriculture.

The Garden is growing so more college graduates with science degrees can gain valuable work experience, further their career, and help protect America’s natural resources.
In 2010, a record 138 interns in our Conservation and Land Management Internship Program, funded by the Bureau of Land Management, benefitted from paid internships in 13 western states. In 2010, a record 31 graduate students were enrolled in the Garden’s master’s and doctoral programs in Plant Biology and Conservation delivered in partnership with Northwestern University. Taught by the Garden’s plant biologists in the laboratories of the Garden’s Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center, the program uniquely trains students to address the conservation challenges of our time.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is growing its impact—in these ways and many more. Please visit strategicplan.chicagobotanic.org to monitor our progress. In addition to providing measures of success, this website offers testimonials from those we serve. These personal stories demonstrate the Garden’s relevance, and, when reviewed together with our measurable achievements, demonstrate that we employ your investment thoughtfully. I am grateful for the generosity you have shown; your engagement allows the Garden to continue its journey along the path from great to legendary.

On behalf of the Chicago Botanic Garden,

Sophia Siskel
President & CEO

When I became chairman of the Chicago Horticultural Society in June 2009, I followed in the footsteps of visionary leaders whose investments of time and resources had enabled a degraded marshland to grow into a renowned public garden on land owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. Then, as now, I embraced the opportunity to ensure our beloved Garden’s future is as successful as its past was remarkable.

Under the able leadership of the Garden’s senior staff, in partnership with the Society’s Board, the Garden adopted a new ten-year strategic plan in 2009. Entitled “Keep Growing,” the plan acknowledges the Garden’s mission can only be fulfilled if the Garden is financially secure.

While solidifying the Garden’s financial position is a long-term pursuit, in 2010 a laserlike focus throughout the Garden generated positive results that greatly strengthened the foundation on which the future is being built.

• Membership revenue was the highest in Garden history, as were contributions to its Annual Fund. Growing these revenue sources provides a larger offset to annual operating expenses.
• Sixty-one percent of contributions to the Annual Fund were from members of the President’s Circle, who annually give $1,000 or more. Unrestricted support from this loyal donor community underwrites plans supporting the Garden’s four operational pillars: Buildings and Gardens; Marketing and Visitor Experience; Science and Academic Programs; and Education and Community Programs.
• The Woman’s Board continued its historic role by managing profitable events that now provide critical support of the Rainwater Glen and Green Roof Garden. Proceeds from the Guild’s Harvest Ball help to underwrite the Garden’s programs for children and teachers.
• Revenue from corporate sponsorships grew by 25 percent. Diversifying our revenue sources over time will reduce the risks of future economic uncertainty.
• The mission of the Garden as well as the successful public/private partnership between the Garden and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County contributed to the Garden continuing to receive the unique and essential resources that each of these partners provides.

During the next nine years, the “Keep Growing” strategic plan will shape the future of the Chicago Botanic Garden. I encourage everyone who belongs to the Garden or cares about its mission to join me in growing their own contribution to the Annual Fund. Together, with a nod to the past, we can help the Garden secure its future, as well as our own.

On behalf of the Chicago Horticultural Society,

Susan A. Willetts
Chairman of the Board