2023 Annual Report

Refined and Growing

2023 has been a year full of new experiences, new team members, and new friends! Our exhibits, guest numbers, programs, and reach have grown. Our staff has grown as well to increase our capacity and run all the excitement. Here are the numbers this year and the make-up of who has visited:

11,765 visitors

39 Field trips of school groups or local organizations, compared to 22 the year before

Notable Happenings:

Thanks to a 2021 grant from the women of Impact 100 TC, our Earth and Space Lab was completed, including:
- 4 interactive Virtual Reality stations
- A portable full dome Planetarium that had over 1,400 visitors this year!
Summer Day Camps were a hit:
- 153 kids enjoyed day camps over 9 weeks this summer
- Thank you again to Five Shores for the use of their event tent, and to the Waring Family for use of the outdoor space!
The Adventure 333 Airplane took flight to our rooftop to stand proud for the inspiration and adventure that Cognition offers to the community!
Our Second Annual BREWMASTERS, Brew-off and Magic Show took place at Five Shores Brewing on December 17, (4:00-7:00) at Five Shores Brewing.
- We are grateful to announce we raised just about $7,500 to help us maintain the center and services through the winter!
- We are still in need of support to carry us through the slower, financially trying winter season, when our families need us the most. Please consider a donation to help us keep our doors open and our prices affordable for our families.

Guest Breakdown

Our new animals to the “Live! Nature” part of Cognition: An ocean tank, purchased with funds donated by Benzie Central’s sixth grade (‘22/’23 schoolyear), that is home to a sea urchin, two clown fish a tiger shrimp, two hermit crabs, and many more ocean creatures. We also welcomed Sir Hiss the milk snake and Archie the hedgehog.

Dan Trigg, Google Review

“Fantastic place to take your child to explore and embrace science, technology, engineering and math. Friendly and knowledgeable staff. I'm thrilled that a place like this exists in our community!.”

Financial Review

Cognition is funded by daily admission and membership fees, program services, a small gift shop, and community support. Here is the breakdown of the past year:

Income Makeup

In order to keep prices affordable for families, in accordance with similar centers in the state, we rely on individual contributions for about 30% of our annual operating budget. Grants are another kind of income. Those that apply to our regular budget are included here, but many times grants are for special projects that have their own special expenses. Those are not included in these diagrams, but are described below.

Expense Breakdown

Our largest expense is the incredible human resources it takes to run the center. Part of Cognition's heartbeat is to be relational. It takes a multi-skilled, interactive staff to complete the projects and create the relationships that make up Cognition. We believe that this is a priority in spending and hope to increase this area in the future. It is the team behind Cognition that makes it such a special place!

Grants

In 2021 Cognition was awarded 5 of 6 grants that we applied for! This year, many of those projects were wrapped up or made huge progress. Here is an update on the active grants of 2023:

Grants from 2021

Rotary Charities--Assets for Thriving Communities Grant of $50,000 to add infrastructure and exhibit stations to our outdoor areas, as well as create several unique exhibits indoors. (completed)
Impact 100 TC--$110,000 for an Earth and Space Lab, consisting of 4 Virtual Reality stations, an inflatable planetarium, and a Mobile Lab to take both experiences off site! The Earth and Space Lab is fully launched in February 2023. We are happy to announce we have now had over 1,700 guests experience our Planetarium! (completed)
2022
NorthShore Tools Fund for Benzie County— $3,000. We utilized this grant for our Member Scholarship program, offering families in need an annual membership at half price. So far 40 families have been able to utilize this scholarship! Also, 8 kids were able to attend day camp with these funds. (97% complete)
Benzie Sunrise Rotary— $4,000 for our new Special Program Scholarships for workshops and fieldtrips, to make special programs more accessible for all! So far this has helped 7 school groups attend a field trip at Cognition and two kids come to a special program! It has also covered the cost of taking our Mobile Lab to a low income school, and provided free Planetarium experiences to guests of the Smithsonian “Spark in the Dark” exhibit presented by the Benzonia Public Library. (72% complete)
New in 2023
Seabury Foundation--$10,000 awarded to generally support all we do at Cognition! This helped the center stay active and functional when everything slowed down this fall.