FIRST has $8 Million?!? What did I miss?

[GaryVoshol]

Please look at the FIRST financial statement for Fiscal 2007: http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles...Financials.pdf

Yes, FIRST did have $8.1M on hand as of June 30, 2007 (end of the fiscal year). But you need to look deeper.

Income from program fees was $12.8M. Direct costs of running FRC, FTC and FLL total $19.8M. The difference is made up in contributions: $9.8M in 2007. The total budget was over $24M.

So what did you miss? The fact that FIRST is planning for the future. Mary's team folded for lack of funds - they lost contributors. FIRST is banking some money now due to the uncertainty of future contributions. Being a non-profit doesn't mean they have to spend every cent every year. Prudent fiscal management of funds means there will be a carryover from one year to the next. If the surplus gets to $30M or $50M, clearly higher than the entire budget, that is troublesome. Any operation absolutely must have a cushion of at least 10% of budget. Since so much of the FIRST budget is based on contributions, a 30-35% cushion is not excessive.