Our next Client Spotlight is the Quad City Botanical Center – a public garden in Rock Island that maintains hundreds of plants. We are honored to provide Quad City Botanical Center with accounting and payroll services so they can focus on their mission of bringing people and plants together in fun and meaningful ways. Continue reading to learn more about Quad City Botanical Center.
Tell us about the Quad City Botanical Center.
We are a private 501c3 not-for-profit organization operating as a public garden. We belong to the American Horticultural Society as well as the American Public Garden Association and are one of roughly 250 in the nation operating under that status.
What makes Quad City Botanical Center unique?
We are a living museum with thousands of different varieties of plants in our collection. Each day, there is literally something different to look at and experience. With current garden design techniques, public gardens are without a doubt a necessary seasonal experience for the public. We earn revenue through private gifts, foundation grants, special events, programming, and general visitation. We invest every dollar we earn directly back into our mission to create a better guest and learner experience.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
For me, the best part of my job is when I get to witness a learner in our gardens make a logical connection between plants and our daily lives, therefore creating a deeper appreciation for the vital role they play in our world. One of my favorite things to challenge guests with is to list the items they use in their lives from the time they wake up until the time they go to sleep. Much to their surprise, I can connect nearly every daily item in our lives to a plant somewhere along its path to the consumer. This includes everything from the mint in your toothpaste first thing in the morning to the cotton on your sheets last thing at night.
What is a recent achievement that Quad City Botanical Center is proud of?
Our business is extremely proud to be experiencing record-breaking growth in both our mission impact numbers with our local schools serving over 10,000 students in 2022 along with record-breaking general attendance numbers, with over 48,000 bodies through our doors in 2022. All of this generates more appreciation for the natural world around us and allows us more revenue to continue to grow our mission.
Where can we learn more?
What were the main challenges you faced before working with Total Solutions?
We are at a point where we require expert-level back office services to continue to serve our guests and learners at a high level but don’t necessarily require the amount of work that comes along with a full-time role. We also lack office space on-site as a garden. Lastly, we prefer to focus on what we are best at – growing and teaching – and not accounting and payroll.
Why Total Solutions?
It is a one-stop shop, with expert staff, easy communication, and a huge weight off our shoulders knowing that the back office work is being done timely and accurately.