Heidi and I would like to thank all of you for your support in 2023. We were able to donate $3,700 this year to various organizations because of your support. This was well over 100% of everything that we made in 2023 largely because the website is still not monetized as it has not been approved for Google Ads. Hopefully we can get there in 2024. We also did not deduct any costs at all.
Without any ads on the site, our revenue sources were Rakuten referrals, travel agency commission and credit card referrals. Unfortunately, dozens of people signed up for Rakuten and then never completed a purchase. Not sure what happened there but we missed out on several hundred dollars as a result. Hopefully those people eventually make a purchase. When they do, we’ll get the referral fee. With the credit card referrals, as of right now we just get points instead of commission. We calculate the value of those points for purposes of determining our total revenue for the year.
The response to the travel agency business has been great even with several people deciding to spend more money to book on their own for some reason. Unfortunately, a lot of the commission for trips booked in the last few months will not be received until 2024 but a few checks did come in this month. Our goal for 2024 is to donate over $10,000. Unless you book a big group or a very expensive trip, the commission for each trip is rather small so it will take several dozen bookings over the year for us to reach this goal. Every single booking matters whether it’s a $100 hotel room or a $10,000 cruise. At the end of the year, it all adds up, so we really appreciate everyone that has booked with us or even just asked us for a quote. We hope you had a great year, and we look forward to saving you money on travel in 2024!
For 2023, we supported the following organizations:
-Red Cross (with a focus on Florida and Maui disaster relief)
-Amazing Animals
-The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (in memory of Jef’s father)
-Tampa Bay Raptor Rescue
-Raptor Center of Tampa Bay
-Seaside Seabird Sanctuary
-Friends of Pelicans
-Birds in Helping Hands
-The Turtle Hospital
-Holmdel Theater Company
-Friends of Strays
-Humane Society of Pinellas
-Suncoast Animal League