"We know it needs help. We've hired web masters and design artists and spent far too much money on this than it's worth presently."
When you are building a new site, you will always spend more that it's worth. Also, if you feel that your site "is not worth it" (whatever amount of money), then... you shouldn't have it at all.

Your site:
-doesn't have personality
-doesn't invite me to continue browsing/reading
-is filled with empty pages and testing content
-is outdated
-the flash intro is NOT GOOD, not needed, not in combination with the site... in summery: should go!
-you have a lot of stuff, not needed (at least not for a starting site)
-have spelling errors
-the content is written in a complex way or maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand much of what is said there

Just some thoughts there that can even help you to make it better yourself without investing a penny.