Fiscal Year 2020/2021 Impact Report Narrative
We began this fiscal year by getting ourselves established under the fiscal sponsorship of Inquiring Systems, Inc. and working with Kathia Laszlo of Magenta Wisdom to clarify our goals and hone in on the organizational structure that would best serve our values and our community.
Although this was a year without much grant support our community-based revenue increased quite a bit as we journeyed through our first full year of the Webinar & Conversation Cafe program, offering 17 different events to over 3,000 participants. We also introduced the option to become a Community Member of the WTR Network in exchange for a free-choice monthly or annual donation. This turned out to be a great way for our community to pitch in together to support the Network with ongoing donations.
Devoted grant money given by Kallieopia in the previous FY to concentrated work on organizational development with the support of Kathia Laszlo of Magenta
Below are some highlights and explanations of key categories.
Donations
In FY20/21 we generated a total of $18,838 in donations (compared to $13,563 in FY19/20)
$2,920 of this came from recurring monthly and annual donations generated by our Community Membership that launched in Q4. These ongoing donations are a new revenue stream that we can expect to grow over the next year and continue to sustain us in years to come. In addition to these ongoing donations we received $15,918 one time donations (compared to $11,099 in FY19/20). The great majority of these donations were the result of Giving Tuesday and the End of the Year appeal. With good planning and delivery of these campaigns and the incorporation of a Spring campaign we hope to bring in even more in the coming fiscal year.
Grants
We didn’t receive any significant grants within this fiscal year. There was a $50 grant from Fidelity Charitable recommended by Levin-Bradshaw Family Gift Fund in honor of Kathleen Rude and her generous mentoring support.
The $20,000 Kalliopea grant was given just before the beginning of this fiscal year and the $50,000 grant from Christopher Hormel was approved just at the end of this fiscal year so it will be given in the next fiscal year.
Membership Fees
Revenue from Facilitator Membership fees stayed pretty consistent with the previous year. We brought in $12,635 in FY19/20 and $12,200 in FY20/21. We had a lot of issues with facilitator applications and payments this year. We gained some folks but also lost some folks. With the improved systems that the new website will bring we’re really hoping to resolve these issues and welcome new facilitator members. Still, the projected numbers for FY21/22 are conservative because this will not be a fast growing revenue stream as it requires significant qualifications.
Webinar Program
The webinar program has been a success and a great addition to our organization over the last year. Even with the extensive staff time it took to get the program up and running and some significant setbacks and down months we brought in almost $6,000 above our expenses. We were also able to pay out almost $11k to Facilitator Members who facilitated webinars for the program, recirculating resources while increasing exposure and uplifting their inspiring work.
Now that the program is established we’re looking forward to an even better year coming up as we grow the program to include some larger events and a more complete schedule for the year.
Staff Wages
We spent $45,594 on staff hours, payroll taxes and fees in this fiscal year. Our staff time has definitely increased over the past year as we’ve taken on new projects and organizational growth and staff hours have increased (in FY19/20 we spent $23,105 on staff wages). Also, transitioning two of our staff members to W-2 employees under ISI cost an additional $1,734 in taxes and fees above the regular amount of wages.
In the FY 21/22 budget we planned for $60,000 for staff time. This is based on a full year of 10-20 hours per week from each of us and includes payroll taxes and fees. $20,000 of this amount will be dedicated to the website and covered by the recent grant so the amount coming from the general operating fund will stay roughly the same.
Kalliopeia Grant and Reorganization Project
We were granted $20,000 right before the beginning of FY20/21. We paid out $2,000 in fiscal sponsor fees, spent $885 on our startup fee with ISI and paid Kathia $5,000 for phase I of our work together. This grant has also covered $4,366 in staff hours.
We have committed $3,000 to Kathia for phase II, which we are still working on and have not paid out yet. As the budget for this grant now stands we have set aside an additional $2,000 for Kathia, $2,000 for a supplemental consultant and a remaining $749 in staff hours.
Fiscal Year 2020/2021 – Total Revenue $59,706
Fiscal Year 2020/2021 – Total Expenditures $78,010
