Where Does All the Money Go?
In an effort to make our organization more transparent to our members and friends, we are starting a regular column on HEA finances. This month, we will offer an overview of our finances since 2000, when HEA was founded.
Expenses
Here’s a spreadsheet showing the expenses by category for each fiscal year (FY). (Click here to open the expenses spreadsheet in another browser tab.)
What does this mean? Basically, our expenses started small when HEA was a Yahoo Internet group. We started to grow and reached a maximum of spending about $63,000 in fiscal year 2004–2005. (The HEA fiscal year runs from June 1 of each year to May 30 of the next year.) Since 2005 our expenses have decreased each year to $21,337.82 for the past fiscal year. On average, some of our biggest expenses have been the conferences, special events, Executive Director expenses, and phone bills. A major expense in 2008–2009 that continues into the present year is the legal fees to straighten out our nonprofit status, as HEA was originally established in the state of Colorado but later moved to the state of New York.
Income
Now let’s look at HEA’s income. (Click here to open the income spreadsheet in another browser tab.)
Our income follows the same pattern: it started small, grew to a maximum of almost $100,000 in fiscal year 2005–2006, and then dropped to about $15,000 for the last fiscal year. Much of our income has come from individual contributions (donations). The figures for the 2009-2010 fiscal year will show that donations have fallen precipitously due to the global recession. We hope to make up some of the reduced income from major donors through donations to the 2010 HEA Walks. We raised a large amount of money in fiscal year 2005–2006, partly due to sales of Broadway theater tickets. We bought the tickets in bulk and then sold them at higher prices to donors willing to pay these prices to see very popular Broadway shows such as Odd Couple and The Producers. After 2006, income dropped due to reduced membership, the poor economy, and lower popularity of Broadway shows.
So what? What’s the bottom line?
Well, although our expenses have exceeded our income in some years (2000-2001, 2006-2007, 2008-2009, and the current year), we’ve been able to keep a positive bank balance since the beginning, which is pretty good for a small non-profit organization. Lots of non-profits have wealthy folks on their boards of directors, ready to step in when their bank balance falls into the negative numbers. Unfortunately, our board members haven’t been from the wealthy end of the population, so HEA has had to be careful with its spending. The Board can be congratulated for reigning in the spending when things get tight.
Individual contributions
One thing we can consider is our own individual contributions to HEA. As the following graph shows, donations are down this year. We hope that contributions to our HEA May 1st Fund Raising Walks will improve these figures.
The next chart shows our membership income. Memberships were started in Fiscal Year 2003-2004. You can see that this income source has been low during the past few years.
Looking at the graphs may encourage you to donate, become a member, or renew your membership. We hope so.
You may still be thinking, so what?
Well, you tell us. Look over the figures, and tell us what you see and what you think. Send your comments and insights here.