Annual Report 2020

Thoughts

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Friends,

It has been said the adversity doesn’t build character; it reveals it. The past year, and more specifically the past eight months, has brought a share of adversity to most of us. It also taught us some new skills like Zoom calls, wearing a mask and not feeling strange, greeting people without shaking hands, and the all-important handwashing while singing happy birthday!

We faced adversity, and yet we are still here fighting the good fight. In 2020, our mission of helping kids has never been more important. In bad times, those in our community that are vulnerable are most at risk. The organizations we support are on the front lines of our community trying to find housing, food, medical care, and protection for children. DCWAF is committed to being there for them, and your generous support has turned that promise into a reality.

This annual report highlights our successes in a year like no other. Traditionally, our fiscal year runs from August 1 to July 31. For purposes of this report, we have included August 2020 as that was the month of the fiscal year’s auction.

Prior to the pandemic, we held our fall fund raiser, Harvest Wine & Food Festival, which boasted our strongest line-up of celebrity talent to date. Our friends the Fox Brothers returned with their famous barbecue and were joined by Chefs Hugh Acheson, David Bancroft, Rusty Bowers, Sam Jones, Kristen Hall, and many others to produce an incredible culinary landscape that took our event to a whole new level. Representatives from Purlieu, Catena Zapata, PRIME Cellars, Gamble Family Vineyards, and ROY Estate all headlined the festival, providing our guests exceptional wine to compliment the weekend. This year’s festivities continued our strategy of building Harvest Wine & Food Festival into the fall event on the Emerald Coast while enhancing our brand and relationships with our wine and culinary partners. Harvest Wine & Food Festival allows us to build our database, create highly relevant social media and press content, and is a cornerstone in our bidder recruitment efforts. We netted just under $50,000 for the weekend and succeeded in all of our targeted areas. The pandemic has forced us to forgo the Grand Tasting events moving forward, but we have increased the wine dinners and will continue the silent auction element of Harvest Wine & Food Festival for 2020.

As with most plans made in the spring of 2020, our auction plan had to change in ways we could never have imagined. We were well into detailed planning of the auction by March 1 with every expectation of hosting the 15th anniversary auction with our strongest lineup of vintners, chefs, and auction lots. Wine was arriving almost daily, and the catalog was in the final edit phase when it became clear there was going to be no April auction. As in so many times in our past, the DCWAF board was decisive, supportive, and aligned and made the decision to postpone the auction and close the office until we all better understood how to live and work in a pandemic environment.

We returned in May, created several plans based on potential scenarios, and ultimately produced and executed the auction August 22. We had hoped to generate $800,000 in revenue from bidding activity and exceeded that by generating $1,365,951. Total revenue, including sponsorships, donations, patron package revenue (that so many allowed us to keep even though we did not have patron dinners) was $2,074,580. Given the circumstances, this compares favorably to our pervious fiscal year total auction revenue of $3,296,010 (with the generous $1,000,000 donation from the Jumonville family subtracted from the year-end total). As a result, we were able to distribute a total of $1.2 million to our 16 partner charities.

As always, our supported charities continue to inspire us. Those that could shut down did so, but most stayed open, because our community needed them more than ever. Finding food, shelter, and safety from violence were all made more challenging by the pandemic. When the rest of us were sheltering in place and working from home, these agencies found a way to work safely while meeting the needs of so many. Mental and physical health issues increased during the pandemic as did the challenges of education and working with children with autism. Our organizations performed magnificently and reaffirmed our faith in our selected charity partners.

We all joke about the year 2020 and how we look forward to returning to normal in 2021. The reality is that January 1, 2021 is going to look a lot like December 1, 2020. The challenges of the pandemic will not disappear so easily. We, and more importantly our charity partners, will need your help in 2021. Collectively, we are capable of doing an enormous amount of good for the children of our community. Thank you for all you have done in this challenging period. We have made a very positive difference because of your support.

Sincerely,

John Russell
President
Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation

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FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Dear Friends,

It has been an honor to continue the legacy of the Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation, and serve as this year’s Chairman of the Board. 2020 marked our 15th annual wine auction, and if you told me one year and five months ago that we would be giving away $1.2 million to our charities, I would have been very disappointed. Fast forward to June of this year, and I would have been ecstatic if we were able to give away $500,000.

15 years ago when our founders first came together, they invited their friends to enjoy an evening of good wine and food as they auctioned off a small handful of items that raised $80,000 for children in Northwest Florida. From these humble beginnings, we’ve grown into one of the largest, most successful charity wine auctions in the entire country. That accomplishment has not come without a great deal of hard work from so many stakeholders while overcoming a great deal of adversity throughout the years.

This year’s auction cycle began like most others. We were in the process of handing out the largest payout in the history of our event and were gearing up to plan what we hoped would be another record breaker. Then 2020 happened. Needless to say, our plans were turned upside down. Travel restrictions, social distancing, and the pandemic left many of our charities, partners, and supporters scrambling to make ends meet. Despite the adversity, I have never been more proud of DCWAF’s staff and board. Throughout this whole year, everyone stayed positive and continued to work. We were determined, no matter what, to put on an auction and raise as much money for our charities as possible. Not only did our team continue to press on, but everyone from our wineries and chef partners to our patron hosts and bidders continued to be flexible and stay all in.

Last year we received a generous donation from the Jumonville family that not only allowed us to give more than ever before, but also gave us a much-needed cushion to ensure that we will be here to serve the children of the Emerald Coast long into the future. I am proud to say that even in this Armageddon-type year, we were able to pull off an amazing auction without pulling from our reserves. This auction, with your help and support, generated $1.2 million for our charities. On behalf of our staff and board, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity to be a steward of this amazing foundation.

Cheers,

Jeff Garrard
Chairman of the Board
Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation

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BENEFICIARY Charities Of 2020

changing the lives of children

Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation donated $1.2 million to 16 Northwest Florida children’s charities on September 23 in a small check presentation ceremony at the Henderson Beach Resort. Celebrating its 15 year anniversary, DCWAF has now donated $23 million to non-profit organizations serving children in need in Northwest Florida.

“In a year when we were not even sure we would be able to host our auction, all of us associated with DCWAF are profoundly grateful to present $1.2 million in needed funds to our charity partners. It is their collective mission to help children in need that motivated all of us to find a pathway to success.” – John Russell, DCWAF President

AMIKids Emerald Coast

AMIkids Emerald Coast received $80,000 to fund a GED program for at-risk students between the ages of 16-24.

$80,000