SHORT 'Two Weeks from Closing' Helen Hughes CEO Mountain Sanctuary

In this SHORT episode of Purposely, we are back with HelenHughes, Chief Executive of Sanctuary Mountain Mangatautari, on what she found when she lifted the bonnet on one of New Zealand's most remarkable conservation organisations, and what she did about it. Helen was the seventh CE in twelve years when she arrived.Three months in, she started asking basic questions about how the place was funded, and the answers were not good. The sanctuary had been running at an operating loss of around $50,000 a month, masked by grant funding landing atirregular intervals. At its lowest point, there were two weeks of cash flow left. On top of that, Helen had inherited a team that had grown disconnected under a previous leader who was working remotely and part-time. Her response was to go to media. She sat with her teamfirst, told them what she was about to do, and went public with the financial reality. It was not an easy call, and it was the right one. Philanthropic funders responded with around $250,000, which bought time and breathing room.But Helen was clear that a rescue was not a strategy. The sanctuary needed to stand on its own feet. Since then, she has been building new revenue streamsalongside the core grant funding. Tourism is the biggest opportunity: 300 visitors a day at full capacity would bring in $3.5 to $4 million annually. An education programme now brings 6,000 students a year through the sanctuary,with global virtual tours being explored. On-site accommodation generates $40,000 a year through Airbnb. A native nursery, recently taken commercial, is expected to add $90,000 to $100,000 annually, growing rare trees most nurseries cannot access. And then there is the biodiversity credit programme, builton work started by a previous CE and developed with Sean Weaver at Ecos. It is the only accredited programme within the International Biodiversity Credit Alliance, listed on a major international carbon trading platform within a weekof applying. The model turns the sanctuary's annual operating costs into priced units of conservation work that can be sold to the market. It is early days, but it is genuinely new ground. • Walking into a funding crisis: what Helen found threemonths into the role • The decision to go public with financial difficulty,and why it was the right call • Why grant dependency is not a strategy, and what to doabout it • Tourism, education, accommodation and nursery: buildingdiversified revenue • Biodiversity credits: how the sanctuary became theworld's only accredited programme • What it takes to turn an operating loss of $700,000into near break-even in one year Key Themes