2008 CAP Financial Statement

[RiverAux]

CAP's 2008 Financial Statement has been posted and is available here:
http://members.gocivilairpatrol.com/media/cms/Financial_Report_May_2009_lo_65556A701B1EB.pdf

Some thoughts: 
How much time and money was spent to turn this into a mini annual report complete with tons of photos and basic background information on CAP?  What is wrong with a traditional financial statement?  See the others at http://members.gocivilairpatrol.com/cap_national_hq/cap_reports/

I scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled and didn't actually find the financial statement until PAGE 40

This statement is more detailed on exactly what the money was spent on.  For example, I'd be interested in seeing how they decided to split the costs for "facility maintenance" amongst all the major programs (Why is it a third of the AE budget, almost a third of the cadet programs budget, and only about 10% of the ES budget. 

Its also interesting to see that there were no AE-related cadet activity spending but a quarter million on AE-related senior member activities. 

How did CD spend 22K on vehicle maintenance when we don't do any ground work in the CD program?

The whopping $2K in the Historical Fund isn't terribly encouraging. 

The weird new symbol that NHQ has come up with is all over the report.  I guess we should expect that the command patch is going to change to that at some point. 

[BrandonKea]

I'm still looking for the 20k Toilet Seat for NHQ...

[Cecil DP]

The Senior AE expenditures was probably NCASE which is sponsered by CAP. The National Conferences are also considered PD activities.  The Finance Report looks more like the Annual report to congress with the Finanace report incorporated into it.

[Spike]

First.....I saw myself.  Woo-Hoo!!!

Second.......what the crap was this. A simple 10 page report with no pictures, just numbers is generally accepted.....everywhere.

This was propaganda at it's finest.

Did we need the resumes on the first 3 pages??  I think not.

What a waste in time, money and resources this was to produce.  For shame NHQ 

[jimmydeanno]

First.....I saw myself.  Woo-Hoo!!!

Second.......what the crap was this. A simple 10 page report with no pictures, just numbers is generally accepted.....everywhere.

This was propaganda at it's finest.

Did we need the resumes on the first 3 pages??  I think not.

What a waste in time, money and resources this was to produce.  For shame NHQ

The difference being that Congress Critters really know nothing about what the money they give us is being spent on.  The pictures, stories, lead-ins, etc are exactly that - propaganda to show what we do and justify the money we spent in the back.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with the report.

[Short Field]

^^^ It helps sell CAP when you go looking for the big donations and grants and they ask for your finanical statement.

[Pylon]

This is exactly how most major non-profits produce their annual reports.

This isn't an extravagance nor waste of resources.  As mentioned above, the annual report/financial statements are almost always asked for when applying for grants or other funding, in addition to their primary purpose.  The marketing materials included with the annual report substantiate CAP as a legitimate and worthwhile organization worthy of consideration for such grants, funding, partnerships, etc.

[RiverAux]

The waste involved is that there is absolutley no reason to produce TWO glossy, time-intensive to design publications when one would do.  Incorporate the financial statement into the annual report.  If it takes a bit longer to get the statement ready, just delay releasing the annual report.  We aren't required to turn in the annual report to Congress on any specific date. 

[RiverAux]

You know, I wouldn't have said anything if they had just had a small amount of explanatory pages about CAP.  Heck, they could have had maybe 10 pages of photos of bright-eyed cadets and steely-eyed seniors and I wouldn't really have a problem with it.

But, when only 27% of your FINANCIAL statement has the actual financial information you'd expect to find what it says to me is that you're trying to blow smoke at people by making them plow through 40 pages of stuff about how great CAP is so that by the time they get to the financials, they don't really care what those numbers are. 

[jimmydeanno]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but when I got a copy of this, the first thing I did is flip to the back and read the financial report.  I found no inconvenience and rather enjoyed reading the other pages afterwards.

But then again, no matter how good or right something is done in our organization there will always be those who will consistently argue about how much better they could have done it themselves.

[RiverAux]

But then again, no matter how good or right something is done in our organization there will always be those who will consistently argue about how much better they could have done it themselves.

Actually, I probably couldn't, but they certainly could have.

[RADIOMAN015]

So these financial statement include expenditures down to the squadron unit level also in the statements?

IF so than the footnote should be expanded with a showing the % of operating expenses that are generally funded via the unit's membership, rather than lumping that in with other funds received.  There is a difference!!!   This financial statement doesn't indicate that at the local level it is the members of that unit that are funding the administration etc.    Perhaps this statement doesn't include those funds at all, than of course that wouldn't be necessary. 

Also Fund raising expense is almost 29% of the funds raised.  That is very high

RADIOMAN 

[bosshawk]

River Aux: you raised an issue about spending 22K on vehicle maintenance in CD.  I run an operation that uses CAP vehicles to support a flying CD operation about 42 weekends a year-three days per weekend.  We use the vehicles extensively and couldn't do the job without them.  How much we spend on vehicle maintenance is beyond me, since I don't keep track of it, but it is a lot.  Given that we have two of the oldest and most decrepit vehicles in the CAP fleet, I wouldn't doubt that a lot of that 22K goes into keeping them running.

[RiverAux]

Seems reasonable.  Thanks bosshawk. 

Radioman does raise a good question

[FW]

The waste involved is that there is absolutley no reason to produce TWO glossy, time-intensive to design publications when one would do.  Incorporate the financial statement into the annual report.  If it takes a bit longer to get the statement ready, just delay releasing the annual report.  We aren't required to turn in the annual report to Congress on any specific date.

The new Annual Financial Report is a publication to be sent to other non profits and the donor community.  Now that we have achieved our "unqualified audit", it has been decided to publish our financial report and, blow our horn a little about how we act as a non profit corporation.  I think the report speaks for itself quite well. 
For those who wish to become major donors, you can be asssured all the numbers are gone over very closely before any amount will be given. 
The ARC is published to coinscide with the annual CAP Legislative Day events held during the winter NB meeting.  IF the Board of Governors decides to have a combined publication, it will happen however, the financials are not finished untill May.  If the ARC is held up until then, Legislative Day may not be as effective. Of course, this is just an opinion.

So these financial statement include expenditures down to the squadron unit level also in the statements?

IF so than the footnote should be expanded with a showing the % of operating expenses that are generally funded via the unit's membership, rather than lumping that in with other funds received.  There is a difference!!!   This financial statement doesn't indicate that at the local level it is the members of that unit that are funding the administration etc.    Perhaps this statement doesn't include those funds at all, than of course that wouldn't be necessary. 

RADIOMAN 

The Financial report does include all income and expenses down to the unit level however, it is not broken down to each individual unit.  The percentage of membership contributions are not that difficult to calculate.  Figure all of the corporate budget is funded by the members less contributed facilities, state appropriations and, donations.  The resulting figure when divided by the total is the percentage you seek. 
BTW, I hope you realize all of the NHQ corporate budget is funded by our membership dues.

[SJFedor]

It not only shows the money we spent/have, but how we've spent that money, and the good things we've done.

If I were someone thinking about making a major contribution, I'd definitely wanna see all the good that's been done and where my money would be going, not just line items on a "here's where our money is".