Understanding the Ewam Montana FY 2010 Administrative Budget:
How does this all fit together?
Background. Ewam is a small organization about to take on bigger challenges. It is important to understand the background on the Ewam budget, the challenges ahead, and the importance of our fundraising efforts – everyone needs to understand the situation so that each of us can ask how we can pitch in.
What are the outlines of the FY 2010 budget? The Ewam administrative budget for this year is $60,000. This does not include the support given to Rinpoche and his household – these are covered through a separate activity and other donors. Nor does this figure include activities in Nepal, Santa Fe, nor special projects like the Buddha Garden. This budget largely supports only our Ewam Montana administrative activities, which includes caretaker, administrative support and a substantial level of non-salary expenses tied to the Arlee properties.
Some budget spending specifics. In the FY 2010 budget plan there are two salaried positions – the caretaker and the administrative support. Both work in Montana. In this budget year, they are budgeted at about $1000 per month each. With a small stipend for Tsering Wangmo, all of these personnel cost totals $27,600 annually. Right now, Charlie Pearl is the caretaker living in the Sangha House. As you probably know the full-range of Ewam administrative activities are being examined and assessed. We are looking at what volunteers can do, and what will still need to be done by an accountant or an administrative position?
But there are other non-salary administrative expenditures as well. These include:
- Payroll taxes $1,800
- Physical plant maintenance and repairs $8,000
- Vehicle costs including insurance $2,300
- Utilities (All properties in Arlee) $3,000
- Telephones and office related $7,200
- Taxes and association fees $1,700
Together, these non-salary administrative expenditure total $24,000 – a figure nearly as big as the personnel activities. In short, the Arlee properties – not including the Buddha Garden – are a significant budget item. This is also why the Ewam board has had to examine all options in balancing the budget.
Where does the money come from? There are several sources of income in the FY 2010 budget. These include but are not limited to:
- Carry-over funds from FY 2009 $20,200
- Core grant from donor $24,800
- Membership contributions $9,000
- Rental income from cropland $3,500
- Retreat profits $1,000
There are a couple of important points to be made about these income figures:
- The budget balances in FY 2010 because of the one-time carry-over of $20,200. This carryover reflects tight expenditure controls by Devi this past year. More importantly, it also means that in the adopted FY 2010 budget we are spending more than we are taking in. With the one-time carry-over monies gone, FY 2011 will present a major fiscal challenge.
- The core support grant from a donor has given the Montana administrative mandala significant stability.
- Our membership contributions have eroded significantly over the past two years. In FY 2007 the contributions approached $20,000 – in this budget we expect $9,000. This change is certainly tied to the recession. However, one of the Board goals is to recover this earlier figure and raise membership contributions.
- Our retreat profits are very low. By contrast most dharma centers use retreat and event profits to sustain about fifty to sixty-percent of their administrative budgets. This points to a future challenge: retreats are an important source of income for the organization. We need to work on this.
What are the next steps? Both Rinpoche and the Board are committed to careful management of all of our Ewam resources. The Board has been working closely with Montana Sangha leadership to review priorities, identify activities that can be restructured or eliminated, or must be continued in a streamlined fashion. At the same time, we have recognized the importance of bringing on a caretaker to attend to the matters of the physical plant. We are also grateful for all the work Devi has done over the past several years.
At the same time, we are confronting two huge challenges. First, further development of the Buddha Garden and preparation for the visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in September 2011. Again and again, Rinpoche has expressed his gratitude for all the progress that is underway to prepare for the visit.
The second challenge is the need to make up a structural shortfall in the budget in the years ahead. We have balanced in FY 2010, but there will be no carryover funds in FY 2011. So we need to act now to stabilize our administrative and membership funding into the future. This budget has with it attendant risks – especially in FY 2011. So we are counting on an increase in membership revenue going forward.
Finally, the Ewam Board acknowledges that as Rinpoche has reminded us, service is simple hard-work, sustained effort and economic support. We hope this review has made it easier to understand the structure of the Ewam budget plan and the importance of your membership support to the administrative effort to support our teacher and the Buddhadharma in our sangha and our community.
Kevin Keskeny (Treasurer) and David Doth
On Behalf of the Ewam Board of Directors |
