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You should receive a printed budget in the mail in the next few days.
Each year at the annual meeting, the membership approves an annual budget. The budget reflects the events and activities the board plans to support in the coming year, in this case, 2019-2020. Special expenditures can be made with a vote of the board if needed, but otherwise we stick to what is in the budget.
Revenue - where the money comes from
Dues (sect. H.) are $60 per member (household, $90; student, $5 - LWVMI and LWVUS do not charge for full time students). Of that, $31 goes to the LWVUS and $23.90 goes to the LWVMI to support their services and program. We keep $5.01 per person.
Fundraising (sect. K.1.)
Sponsors of ads give us $100 per year to have their ad on our newsletter and on our website. This raises about $2300.
Contributions (sect. I.) We receive unrestricted contributions from members and non-members. We also solicit contributions for the Voters Guide and for the Education Fund. The Education Fund contributions are tax deductible, and should be made out to the LWV-EF.
The other revenues, K.2, Great Decisions, K.3. Annual Meeting and K.5. Holiday Gathering are "pass through" accounts. The league pays for the Great Decisions books and for the meals for the Annual Meeting and Holiday dinner ahead of time and collects the revenues from the participating members.
This year, we have a special line (K.6) for the 100th Anniversary Fundraising under revenue and under expenditures (B.6.c.) 100th Anniversary Celebrations.
Expenditures - Where does the money go?
Funds are used to support operations and programs of the League.
Expenditures are represented in budget lines A-G and should be self explanatory. There is a page describing the budget categories available.
A. Operations are annual expenses and only change when prices go up. The Insurance (A.2.) is liability insurance for the board, officers, meetings, etc. carried by the LWV of Michigan.
B. Board & Administration - includes supplies for performance of the officers, room rental for meetings, and non-program events.
C. Delegates & Affiliations - we pay for registration and expenses for delegates to the State convention and the National convention. These occur in alternate years. The Annual Meeting expenses are also in this category.
E. Newsletters - the subscription for the Constant Contact email newsletter The Voter.
F. Educational Activities -
This important section of the budget reports expenses our League incurs providing Educational Activities. These expenses include costs for broadcasting on MCTV, putting on programs related to national, state, and local issues (rent, speakers, handouts, etc.), and for activities related to services for voters. F.3. Voter service experiences most of its expenses in even years, when we have general elections. We do solicit donations to help cover the Voters Guide expenses.
G. Position Support - M
oney spent to support a local, national, or state position is recorded on this line. For example, dues to the Lake Michigan Region League and costs shared with Zonta for a billboard supporting equal pay are two expenses that have been accounted for on this line.
AND FINALLY:
Category L. RESERVES
If, during the process of budget planning, the EXPENDITURES are greater than REVENUE, there are three possibilities to balance the budget:
1. Cut Expenditures
2. Increase Revenue
3. Use Reserves
This year we are anticipating once-in-a-hundred-years expenditures for a 100th year celebration. Therefore, this budget proposes direction #3 - use reserves to balance the difference between budgeted expenditures and budgeted revenue.
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