Meet Keith Clark | CEO, Flamingo Gardens

We had the good fortune of connecting with Keith Clark and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Keith, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The ability to assemble a great team. Great leaders surround themselves with great people that compliment them, make up for their weaknesses, and ultimately make them look good.

A good team is fundamental to every business, whether a for-profit or a not-for-profit public charity. For Flamingo Gardens, team includes staff, but also includes volunteers, Board of Directors and Donor partnerships like Members and Funders. From my very first day at Flamingo Gardens it has been about team building- finding the best people, creating relationships with them, and influencing them to work together to achieve common goals.

That, and authenticity. I truly believe in our mission, so my actions have purpose with a passion that comes from deep in my heart. That makes for compelling business messaging, and also helps to build a great team!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Flamingo Gardens was founded in 1927 as a citrus grove by Floyd and Jane Wray.

The Wrays also planted a botanical garden to test potential fruit and spice trees and provided tours to the public of the gardens and citrus groves. Floyd Wray was a prominent businessman that helped grow the citrus industry in Florida, build Port Everglades, and bring the cruise industry to Broward County. Upon Mr. Wray’s death, Mrs. Wray created a non-profit in 1969, the Wray Memorial Foundation, to preserve the property for future generations to enjoy.

Today, Flamingo Gardens consist of about 60 acres of gardens and contains 15 Champion Trees, the largest of their species in the state. The Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary provides a home to over 450 permanently injured and non-releasable Florida native birds and animals representing over 90 species including flamingos, bobcats, panthers, otters, eagles, and even a black bear. The Wray Home, built in 1933, is now a museum representing life in South Florida during the 30s.

Flamingo Gardens is not a zoo. It is a non-profit botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary which provides a home to permanently injured or non-releasable Florida native animals and rare and endangered sub-tropical and tropical plants. Our mission is to provide environmental educate about South Florida plants and animals, and specifically about the Everglades.

Flamingo Gardens is part of the Long Key chain of islands once surrounded by Everglades. Long Key is important to migratory birds and is archaeologically and historically significant as it was inhabited by the Tequesta people as far back as 1000 BC. Long Key was also known as Sam Jones’ Seven Islands in the 1800s, named after the chief of a loose confederation of Florida tribes including Miccosukee and Seminole who fled persecution after the First Seminole War and are thought to have given refuge to freed and runaway slaves.

After the economic downturn of 2008, the Gardens found themselves in a severe financial situation, and the Wray Memorial Foundation hired me in 2012 to raise money and manage the Gardens.

I have over 30 years of non-profit fundraising experience, so I immediately set about finding efficiencies in operations to reduce expenses and creating new revenue streams to diversify income. I established Flamingo Gardens, Inc as a public charity so that we would be eligible for more grants and corporate funding.

Since 2012, visitorship has more than tripled to 235,000 and income has increased 5-fold to over $6 million in 2022. We just completed a $1.6 million Capital Campaign for the new Mary N. Porter Learning Center that opened this past summer and we’re starting a new $5 million Capital Campaign for a new Welcome Center.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would take them to Viscaya Museum and Gardens and the Rubell Museum in Miami, the Bonnet House and Flamingo Gardens in Broward, and Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray. For dinner I’d take them to Kaluz on the water and then Canyon for Prickly Pear Margaritas.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The staff and volunteers are the true heroes at Flamingo Gardens. The staff is so dedicated to Flamingo Gardens mission of environmental education and rescuing Everglades plants and animals and almost 500 individuals donated over 25,000 hours to the organization in 2022. Flamingo Gardens could not exist without such great staff and volunteers!

Website: https://flamingogardens.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flamingogardens/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FlamingoGardens

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlamingoGardensOrg

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHHGcmzaPpby4VA7I4repA