Where your money goes

It is not difficult to work out what 1.2 million admissions a year is worth and quite rightly people want to know where all the money goes and why the project needs more money to achieve its aims. Surely it can stand on its own two feet?

We built facilities based on an original business plan of a maximum of 750,000 visitors but are managing almost double that. Our payroll, originally predicted at 165 staff, now stands at over 400 with an annual wage bill of £8 million. Vehicle costs, equipment purchase and hire and temporary building costs have all increased as a result of our growth, as has our expenditure on IT equipment, staffing and training costs. Our commercial debt costs us some £3 million per annum in interest and loan repayments.

Eden is a not-for-profit charitable trust. We are commercially well run and can generate small surpluses after covering the costs mentioned above to allow us to maintain the asset base. The journey we set out on was not to build a theme park but to create something here in Cornwall that would be of lasting global importance as a statement of our commitement to a brighter future. To continue to expand our education programmes, exhibits, on-and-off site interpretation and performances and further our wider charitable aims we are reliant on your donations. Thank you for your continuing support in helping us make it happen.