Annual Reports required from Conservation Districts

[Marsha Setzkorn-Meyer]

Does your state require specific end of year reports from your districts to be submitted to your division to show accountability for the funds they have received during the year? The type of report we are looking for is more detailed than the Annual Report given to stakeholders at their annual meeting. Are you willing to share your report?

[Coreen Fallat]

Hi Marsha,
We do ask the county conservation departments (our district equivalent) to complete an annual report each year. We use SurveyMonkey to do this and use those responses in a variety of ways. We create a publication that summarizes information (see link), and we also use other responses to gather information that help us improve our programs and report other information to specific audiences. Feel free to drop me a link if you would like to talk more.

https://datcp.wi.gov/Documents2/2021LandWaterReport.pdf

Coreen Fallat
Wisconsin
608-224-4625

[Abbey Grey]

Good Morning Marsha,

We require Districts that receive state grant funding from us to turn in a final report on their grant work at the end of the calendar year.  We then take those reports and generate one page ‘Fact Sheets’ to have readily available for District use, as well as to be taken to legislature each year to show the good work the State funds are supporting.  The website link I provided above is to our ‘District Operations Page’ and has the 2022 Fact Sheets available as well as the 2023 Final Report document for your reference.  I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!

-Abbey Grey

Colorado

303-656-8834

[Blair Gordon]

Mi Marsha,

Virginia provides significant operational and cost-share funding to our SWCDs through annual grant agreements. As part of those agreements, there is required quarterly and end-of-year financial reporting. We have developed a simple excel spreadsheets for district to report their financial activity but also require copies of their profit and lost statements and balance sheets from QuickBooks. Additionally, our online Ag BMP database also has some financial accountability functions so that we can track our cost-share funding to every BMP approved and installed by the SWCDs.

I’d be happy to share our quarterly and end-of-year excel template with you. We also hosted a webinar training on how to properly fill out the financial reports and I’d be glad to send you the link. Please feel free to reach out!

-Blair Gordon

Virginia

[Tom Gordon]

In Maine, all Districts must submit their annual reports to the Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry by February 1st in order to qualify for state funding.

The District Annual Report should include the following:

1. Proposed budget for the new fiscal year
2. Financial Report for the completed fiscal year
– Balance Sheet
– 12-month Profit & Loss Statement
– notation of any accounts or real estate not included in these financial reports
3. Annual Plan of Operation  – including estimated staff time for:
District Administration;
Support for NRCS;
Education & Outreach;
District Technical Assistance;
Grant-funded Projects;
Other District projects.
4. A list of major accomplishments of the District during the preceding year
5. List the names and contact information of current Supervisors, Associates, and staff

I compile the financial data to do a “bang-for-the-buck” analysis — the ratio of total District revenue to the State allocation and the ratio of District revenue to the population of the District.

[Jake Wilson]

In Missouri we require all SWCDs to use a web based financial tracking(we don’t call it accounting) system to track all of their finances, regardless of the source. State funding is the primary source of funding for districts and we review 100% of transactions for eligiblity from state funding on a quarterly basis. We have 114 districts and usually send out around $3 million per quarter in district grants. Districts do not actually handle cost-share funds, those come directly from the state to the cooperator. Since our financial tracking system is web based it also allows our staff to check up on districts whenever we want to ensure that transactions are being entered in a timely manner.

[Allisa Carlson]

Per our state statute, the Washington State Conservation Commission (WSCC) requires annual reports from conservation districts. Up until 2020, we required the same format every year – each conservation district would fill out a form that WSCC staff formatted into one page for each conservation district, that would be compiled into one report, along with summaries of accomplishments for each of our programs. Recently, we have adjusted the timing of this detailed level of reporting. To match our biennial funding cycle, we now require that each district submit a detailed one-page report at the end of the biennium (odd-numbered years), and for the even-numbered years we develop a more summarized version of the reports with a couple of key highlights of district projects. You can find the reports on our website: https://www.scc.wa.<wbr />gov/annual-reports-and-<wbr />strategic-plan

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