West Valley Humane Society’s $600,000 Loss in 2023 Explained by Bad Management, Funding Issues

The West Valley Humane Society posted a loss of just over $600,000 in 2023, and the simple explanation appears to be bad management and a lack of funding.

Numerous Canyon County residents contacted Idaho Dispatch about the loss of funds in 2023. Many were concerned that the money was stolen or spent on lavish gifts, such as a timeshare in Blaine County. Citizens wanted to ensure that things would be different under WVHS’s new board and management, as the shelter relies on taxpayer money for part of its operation.

Idaho Dispatch spoke with the new WVHS Board President, Nick Lippincott, about the loss in 2023 before he was appointed and how the new board intends to prevent it from happening again.

Lippincott told Idaho Dispatch he believes transparency from organizations that receive taxpayer money is critical to building trust with the public. He pointed to the website’s new section containing the organization’s IRS 990s, where citizens can see how money is spent. The organization has posted 990s dating back to 2019.

According to Lippincott, the 2023 loss was due to poor management of the WVHS’s funds. He said that any organization that receives taxpayer money must be transparent and take great care to ensure that the money is spent wisely.

Additionally, Lippincott wanted citizens to be aware of new changes to their website, such as the core principles by which the group will operate. According to the “Guiding Principles” on the group’s website, it says,

“Our ‘Core Values’ are the fundamental principles that shape our culture, decisions, and interactions. They reflect the ethical and operational standards that guide how we endeavour to always treat the animals in our care, our employees and volunteers, and the members of our community.”

One issue in particular that Idaho Dispatch asked Lippincott about was the timeshare rumor. Rumors circulated online that perhaps a massive chunk of the money in 2023 had been used to purchase a timeshare in Blaine County.

However, while Lippincott said a timeshare in Blaine County does exist with the WVHS, the timeshare agreement was from 2013, not 2023. He also said the timeshare was a gift, not a purchase.

Lippincott provided a document showing the original agreement for the timeshare, which you can see at the end of this article. The names of the out-of-state sellers have been redacted from the document. The value of the sale was “Zero” on the document, where it says, “For Value Received.”

Lippincott said the WVHS is working to end its contract with the timeshare at the time of this writing and hopes to have withdrawn from the contract by the end of the month.

In reviewing the IRS 990 from 2023, the total loss was $611,098. Total annual expenditures were $2,190,494, with only $1,579,356 in revenue.

Many of the expenditures were in the form of salaries and wages. “Other Salaries and Wages” were listed as $1,223,824, with another $81,452 for “Compensation of current officers, directors, trustees, and key employees.” Payroll taxes and employee benefits added up to over $289,969.

That’s nearly $1.6 million without counting office expenses, occupancy, travel, insurance, and other expenditures.

In 2024, for which the WVHS has already posted its 990, the organization had $1,965,309 in total revenue, an increase of $386,000 over 2023. The group also posted expenditures of $1,586,312 in 2024, down $604,182 from the previous year.

That means that WVHS’s move into the black for 2024 was primarily due to not spending as much money as it had in 2023 and increasing its revenue by almost $400,000, giving the group some reserve funds for the future.

When looking at the spending cuts in 2024, no money was paid to “Current officers, directors, trustees, and key employees,” compared to the $82,000 from the previous year, because there was no director during this timeframe while the organization was in a transition process. The “Other Salaries and Wages” was approximately $220,000 less than the prior year. Employee benefits were also cut by roughly $69,000. That’s over $371,000 in cuts with just those three categories.

Office expenditures were also lower in 2024, cut from $65,000 to just $40,000, and travel expenditures dropped from over $13,000 in 2023 to just $1,800 in 2024.

One expenditure that Idaho Dispatch did ask Lippincott about was a $24,000 penalty listed on the 2024 990. Lippincott said the penalty was an IRS fine resulting from the previous WVHS administration’s errors, and the new administration is working with the IRS to remove the penalty.

Overall, a complete line-by-line comparison shows that expenditures were cut across the board, allowing WVHS to profit in 2024 versus the massive loss in 2023.

Lippincott emphasized to Idaho Dispatch that part of the shelter’s problem is a lack of funding from its contracts with cities. He told Idaho Dispatch that the demand for the shelter is increasing; however, funding has not increased at a rate that allows the shelter to be as well-staffed as it should be.

When asked about the future of the WVHS’s financial stability and how the new administration is looking at the future, Lippincott said,

“Caring for the lives of animals and helping the members of our community is our primary goal and one that isn’t cheap. The goal for WVHS has always been, and will continue to be, to provide the best services and care possible. What is unfortunate is that doing so only increases the cost every year, and unfortunately, the cost of care in prior years, along with the supplemental services that WVHS provided to the public, exceeded the revenue generated. The current WVHS board empathizes fully with previous administrations and the incredibly tough position they were put in to meet the demand for care and services. In many ways, they should be commended for providing the amount of services they did on a budget that is drastically lower than that of our neighboring communities, which work in similar models.

WVHS’s contracts with our Municipal partners have not changed much, if at all, since it took over sheltering services for Canyon County, Nampa, and Caldwell. However, the populations and therefore the cost of services have done nothing but increase. It created a challenging situation in which donor funding had to be allocated to government programs, and over time, that support proved insufficient to close the gap.

For WVHS to do what our community expects and what our contracts require, we have to work together to ensure not only is the programming properly funded, but that we steward that funding responsibly and in a way that meets both the contractual obligations and the mission of WVHS.”

As for the deficit from 2023, Idaho Dispatch could not find anything, such as money disappearing all at once or a lavish purchase such as a timeshare, that explained the significant loss. From everything we have been provided and can review, the previous administration spent much more money than it should have, and a substantial decrease in funding did occur from 2022 to 2023.

Perhaps the prior administration saw the money they brought in for 2022 and felt they would have a similar amount in 2023. Here are the revenue amounts from 2019 to 2023:

2019: $1,436,799
2020: $1,397,634
2021: $1,412,905
2022: $1,964,099
2023: $1,579,376

One thing that should have concerned the prior administration was that the net from 2022 was only $1,757. Given that the revenue from 2019 to 2021 was far less than 2022, expenditures should have been followed more closely, and the huge loss could have been avoided.

Idaho Dispatch is happy to add additional information to this story if a citizen has evidence to shed more light on the issue. This report is our best attempt to explain the loss in 2023 and investigate online rumors, such as the timeshare rumor.

If you have any additional information you feel would be pertinent to this story, please send us a tip to greg@idahodispatch.com, and we will do our best to investigate.

Note: Thumbnail image from WVHS website.

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Tags: Animal Shelter, Caldwell, Canyon County, Cats, Dogs, Nampa, Nick Lippincott, West Valley Humane Society

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