The Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center in downtown Mobile is confronting one of the most serious financial challenges in its history after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funding within the first week of its new executive director’s tenure.
Jan McKay had barely settled into her new role leading the science center when she learned that the Exploreum’s entire request for $688,000 in performance contract funding from the city of Mobile had been denied. McKay said she found out about the cut just six days into her new job, during what was supposed to be a welcoming celebration for her arrival.
The timing could hardly have been worse. The Exploreum had also been receiving $500,000 annually through a BP grant tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement, but that funding disappeared in 2014 as well. Combined with the loss of the city’s performance contract dollars, the science center’s overall budget has been cut by roughly half, according to McKay.
“We are not sure that we will be able to survive,” McKay said, describing the cuts as a blindside that hit an organization with no advance warning and little time to adjust. She noted that few businesses could absorb a 50 percent reduction in income without a serious threat to their operations.
The funding cut is part of a broader shift under Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s administration, which has proposed redirecting money once used for performance contracts with nonprofits toward repairing the city’s aging infrastructure. The proposed fiscal year 2015 budget includes cuts of roughly 46 percent to nonprofit and community organizations that have historically relied on city support.
The Exploreum had been one of the largest beneficiaries of that funding stream, receiving $616,467 in the revised 2014 budget, a figure that included a $212,467 allocation the city had previously covered directly for the facility’s utility costs. That represented a significant increase from the roughly $404,000 the center received in 2013 under former Mayor Sam Jones, when utilities were also covered separately.
City officials have expressed confidence that the Exploreum can adapt. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said McKay’s background could help the organization shift toward a more sustainable model that relies less on taxpayer dollars and more on donors and patrons. But McKay pointed out that the Exploreum currently has no reserve fund or endowment to fall back on, and financial records show the organization had less than $200,000 in cash on hand against an annual operating budget of about $2.3 million.
Options under consideration include reducing the center’s operating days from seven to as few as four per week, though McKay noted that move creates its own financial trap, since reduced hours mean reduced revenue from admissions and the gift shop without proportional savings in fixed costs like staff salaries.
Despite the financial uncertainty, the Exploreum’s daily operations showed no signs of slowing down. School groups filled the center for tours, and staff were preparing for the opening of a new IMAX exhibit, “Voices of Jerusalem,” expected to draw hundreds of members to an opening event. The center serves an estimated 160,000 visitors annually and has hosted more than 400,000 schoolchildren on field trips since opening in 1998.
McKay said she plans to meet with the Exploreum’s board and accountant later this month to map out next steps, including whether new corporate and foundation partnerships could help close the roughly $1 million funding gap left by the combined loss of city and BP settlement money.