Financials
The La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation is committed to responsible fundraising, prudent stewardship and financial transparency.
The following breakdown summarizes the Foundation’s income and expenses.
Financial Performance:
Fiscal Year 2010 – 2011
| 2010-11 Revenue | 2010-11 Expenses | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Donation To Our Schools | ||||
| Cash Donations | $1,486,713 | Gift to the LCUSD | $2,000,000 | |
| Event Proceeds (Gala, Jog-A-Thon) | $672,320 | |||
| Endowment Gift | $162,750 | Fundraising/Program Expenses | ||
| Misc. Income | $10,563 | Fundraising/Event Expenses | $138,137 | |
| Interest Income | $4,401 | Summer School Expenses | $47,659 | |
| Summer School Tuition | $66,085 | |||
| Operating Expenses | ||||
| Salaries and Development | $139,954 | |||
| General Overhead | $77,082 | |||
| ————— | – | ————— | ||
| TOTAL | $2,402,832 | TOTAL | $2,402,832 | |
| Cash Balance | $0 |
Understanding Our Expenses
The summary above is designed to give you an accurate snapshot of how much money the Foundation takes in and disburses. However, if you read our independent 2009-2010 financial audit or examine our IRS Form 990, the numbers we report for both income and expenses will be greater. Why? The IRS requires that we account for all “in kind” donations as income we receive and then as expenses we disburse. What does this mean? If someone donates a gift basket worth $500 to the Gala Auction, and a patron at the Auction buys it, we are required by the federal government to show income of $500 and an expense of $500. Of course, there is no actual expense in this case. In fact, we collect the proceeds, which are then passed along to the District as part of our annual gift.
Similarly, our office space, which is donated by the School District and costs the Foundation nothing, is reported as both income and an expense.
Fundraising and Event Expenses – 2010/2011
Major fundraising events always require expenses. The Foundation strives to keep the costs of the events as low as possible, without negatively impacting the amount of money we raise. Annual Gala costs, for instance, have been dramatically reduced over the last few years in attempt to maximize its net value. It is also important to note that some of our fundraising costs do not translate directly to benefits for the Annual Fund, but instead accrue funds for the Endowment (e.g. our Wine And Gourmet Food event).
The following table summarizes the gross revenue, cash expenses and net revenue of the Foundation’s two largest events: the Annual Gala and Jog-A-Thon. Both the Annual Gala and Jog-A-Thon have very good net-to-gross ratios for non-profit fundraising.
| Gala Gross Revenue | $430.504 | Jog-A-Thon Gross Revenue | $241,816 | |
| Gala Cash Expenses | $107,706 | Jog-A-Thon Cash Expenses | $30,431 | |
| ———— | – | ———— | ||
| Gala Net Revenue | $322,798 | Jog-A-Thon Net Revenue | $211,385 |
Summer School – 2010/2011
The LCFEF created, funded and implemented a full-service summer school program for the first time in its history. We are extremely happy to report that the program was an unqualified success, not only for the students who participated, but for the school district as a whole. The Foundation’s goal was to run the program a net zero, as a service to the community. As you can see from the table below, after applying all of the summer school costs (adminstrative, salary, etc.) against the total tuition brought in, the summer school program actually earned a net benefit for the Foundation, which was gifted to the LCUSD as part of the community donation to our schools.
| Summer School Gross Revenue | $66,085 |
| Summer School Cash Expenses | $47,659 |
| ———- | |
| Summer School Net Revenue | $18,426 |
Salaries and Development
The Foundation employs two staff people to run the day to day activities of the organization, manage and process the data and funds we collect, help set our yearly budget, aid the directors in the planning and execution of our fundraising events, and help discover and develop new sources of funding for our schools.
Our Executive Director, Lindsay McGregor, has over ten years of non-profit fundraising experience, and divides her time between fundraising development, event management, board relations, database and donor data analysis and fiscal supervision and tax code compliance. She also works to engage parents, community members and local businesses in the mission of the Foundation.
Our Office Administrator, Kathy Morgan, assists our Executive Director, Officers and Board members in the day-to-day operations of the Foundation.
In an effort to be as transparent as possible, we have broken out our entire salary costs, including all payroll taxes and fees. Our staff costs are well in line with comparable educational foundations, or lower. Many foundations with seemingly lower staff costs are actually employing a number of staff who are paid directly by their local school district.
As is the case with fundraising costs, some of our salary costs go to support work that benefits the Endowment.
General Overhead
These costs include accounting and auditing fees, office supplies, postage and delivery, printing and copying, storage, and other general expenses necessary to run the organization. Our staff works very hard to keep these expenses to a minimum. We are ever-mindful that every dollar we spend is a dollar we cannot pass along to our schools and our community. Our ratio of expenses to money gifted is well within norms for educational foundations, and better still, it has been improving.
Thank you for your interest in our financial information. We appreciate your trust in us, and we are always seeking to improve our transparency and accountability to the community we serve. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email our Executive Director.
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