HOLLAND, Mich. — A nonprofit that has spent more than a decade advocating for water safety on the Great Lakes is facing a financial crisis that could end its operations by the end of the year.
WATCH: Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project fights to stay afloat amid funding crisis
The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, founded in 2010, has tracked nearly 1,500 drownings across the Great Lakes and educated communities, schools, and first responders on water safety. Now, its founder says the organization needs public support to survive.
"What happens in the next couple of weeks or months will determine if we can make it past the end of the year and another year of doing this," founder and Executive Director Dave Benjamin said.
Benjamin launched the nonprofit after surviving a drowning incident himself.
"Then I committed my life to water safety, and I've been drowning financially ever since," Benjamin said. "I've been self-employed, and I've given up contracts a ballpark [figure]. You know, I could give up anywhere from 10 to $50,000 every spring of self-employed painting contracts because I'm doing water safety."
The organization has delivered more than 1,300 presentations across seven of the eight Great Lakes states, reaching schools, the general public, and first responders.
"That includes, you know, school presentations, public presentations, as well as say first responder presentations or in-service training and lifeguard training," Benjamin said.
The group has also tracked alarming drowning trends across the region.
"We're almost to 1,500 drownings in the Great Lakes. The average is about 88 drownings per year," Benjamin said. "On average, almost half of all Great Lakes drownings will happen in Lake Michigan."
The nonprofit was also a driving force behind the return of lifeguards to South Haven this year — an effort Benjamin said took over a decade.
"That was 14 years of advocacy. That was a lot of residents getting involved over the years," Benjamin said. "Lifeguards would have never happened in South Haven without the family members, you know, of drowning victims getting involved."
Despite the organization's impact, Benjamin said fundraising has fallen behind as staff focused on the water safety mission.
"We've been so inundated with doing all the water safety work, for us to be doing the fundraising side of it, too, is just, unfortunately, something that has been neglected," Benjamin said.
Some supporters have already reached out to help.
"A few people have come forward and sent us private messages that they have some experience with nonprofit fundraising and event management fundraising that they would like to get involved, so we're starting to gather contact information to assemble a team. But that's a little bit on us," Benjamin said.
Benjamin said he and his colleague, Executive Director Bob Pratt, remain committed to the work, but need help to continue.
"It's been critical condition for a long time, but Bob and I have just been powering through it. Just, you know, the phone rings, we answer it. You know, we're being asked to go somewhere, we go. ... We want to do this for the rest of our lives, and we need some help," Benjamin said.
The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project is accepting donations through a fundraiser on Facebook.
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