Sights for Hope Closes its Program Year and Highlights Several Achievements

By Sights for Hope Team |
A joyful woman wearing sunglasses and a bright yellow shirt while holding a white cane and raising a fist in celebration against a sunny blue sky with fluffy clouds. Generated with artificial intelligence.

Sights for Hope closed its 2024-2025 program year Monday – one in which it made notable gains in the pursuit of its mission, bolstered its financial strength, and took its place as one of Pennsylvania’s leading providers of services to overcome and prevent vision loss.

Sights for Hope’s mission-driven outcomes included projected increases in total people served, increased participation in several programs, resumed individual orientation and mobility lessons, important equipment upgrades, and efforts to strengthen its C. Well Bunny community education program.

Sights for Hope was also recognized during the year as one of the most prolific and effective members of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind (PAB). Despite being one of 25 PAB members and in only three of the 66 PAB-funded counties, Sights for Hope was responsible for about 10% of PAB-funded services during its 2024 program year.

Sights for Hope’s financial highlights included a projected net revenue of more than $30,000, not including asset depreciation; a projected decrease of more than $166,000 in expenses; a nearly 30% increase in its number of private major donors; a standard contribution increase of more than 36%; a new single-year record in gross private grant revenue; and a 66% donor retention rate, one that is 23% greater than the national average.

Sights for Hope has issued a report to its stakeholders with more details of its 2024-2025 achievements. The report was made available for download in multiple formats to promote accessibility.

“What the Sights for Hope team has been able to accomplish this year has been most impressive,” said Dennis Zehner, Executive Director and CEO of Sights for Hope. “It is a testament to each person’s talents, commitment, and drive to conquer challenges and find new ways to succeed. It is this energy that inspires confidence in Sights for Hope’s future in a rapidly shifting world.”

Sights for Hope empowers people to overcome the challenges of vision loss and promotes healthy eyesight throughout Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and Monroe County. Sights for Hope educates people with limited or no vision about adaptive skills, improves their access to essential services, boosts their confidence and emotional well-being, and helps them obtain assistive devices. Sights for Hope also connects pre-kindergarten children to eye care and teaches people how to keep their eyes strong and safe. Founded in 1928, Sights for Hope is a member of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind (PAB) and the national VisionServe Alliance.

Image: A joyful woman wearing sunglasses and a bright yellow shirt while holding a white cane and raising a fist in celebration against a sunny blue sky with fluffy clouds. Generated with artificial intelligence.