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Be it band boosters the gridiron club or prom committees, some of America’s most enduring small businesses have been the informal groups dedicated to supporting the activities of student programs in our schools. Yet despite the significant amount of money handled by these small but active groups, many organizations do not think of themselves as a business and do not operate as one and several struggle for this reason. Only the very most organized make the effort to incorporate themselves as a 501c3 or keep financial records in a computer based system. Far more common are tin lock boxes under teacher’s desks, tally papers and unanticipated expenses. The idea of keeping real financial records may intimidate some booster organizations but you do not need a CPA within your ranks to start organizing your resources and expenses, paving the way for greater efficiently and responsible decision making. Here’s a story about The Hometown High School Marching Band and how a single, simple , financial report helped to keep them on the right track. The HHSMB is a small group who has long had a rotating group of dedicated parents. Every year they make arrangements with fundraising companies and then prod the students to go door to door and sell their Florida Oranges and candy. They brainstorm other fundraisers to cover most of the band's expenses. There is also money from the school but the parents don’t bother with the details of that; the director mostly uses the fund to buy the music rights and hire someone to design the field drill and teach during band camp. The parents keep the fundraised cash in a safe in the back of the music closet and use it to bring hot chocolate to the games and pay for the bus and truck to bring the band and their instruments to the 3 local competitions they do every year. Any money left over is used to throw a banquet. Unfortunately this year it looks like the banquet will be called off because the sousaphone finally fell apart after 5 years of being held together with duct tape and the bari-sax player needs to learn a tenor part because he left his instrument out in the rain and all the pads need to be replaced. The seniors are devastated at the loss of the banquet tradition. Worse yet, the principal just announced that the school needs to cut back its funding to the band because the state has been reducing the funding to the school. The director had been hoping to replace the 12 year old uniforms but now it seems they need to last another 15 years before they can be replaced. Luckily the Hometown Marching Band’s new treasurer used to work for a small business and she outlines a plan for the band to be better prepared for expenses. First she takes all of the expenses of the band and organizes them into categories: -Travel -Competition Fees -Music -Staff -Game Day Food -Banquet -Repairs Next she identifies the bands’ money sources: -Money from School Fund -Cash from Fund Raising She creates a balance sheet for the year; Hometown Marching Band School Funding: $12,000. Fundraising: Oranges Sale: $23,000. Cost of Oranges Sale: $19,000. Car Washes: $3,000. Cost of Car Washes $ 50. Candy Sale: $8,000. Cost of Candy Sale $4,000. Fundraising Total: $10,950. Total Cash Available: $22,950. Expenditures Bus & Truck $3,000. Competition Fees $300 Music & Drill $3,000 Staff $5,000 Game Day Food $1,000 Banquet $-- Repairs $600 New Instruments $8,000 Total Expenditures $20,900 After a quick look she sees that even after splitting the cost of the new instrument with the fundraised cash the band director has not used all of his allocated funds from the school yet and that there is money for a banquet! But she pauses before immediately planning on a $2,000 banquet. Instead she sets up a new expense account, “Replacements and future Repairs” and splits the left over money between that account and the banquet. So now her sheet looks like this: Hometown Marching Band School Funding: $12,000. Fundraising: Oranges Sale: $23,000. Cost of Oranges Sale: $19,000. Car Washes: $3,000. Cost of Car Washes $ 50. Candy Sale: $8,000. Cost of Candy Sale $4,000. Fundraising Total: $10,950. Total Cash Available: $22,950. Expenditures Bus & Truck $3,000. Competition Fees $300 Music & Drill $3,000 Staff $5,000 Game Day Food $1,000 Banquet $1,025 Repairs $600 New Instruments $8,000 Replacements & F. Repairs $1,025 Total Expenditures $22,950 Now when the year starts over that $1,025 will still be there, available for when the marimba player drops the entire bag of yarn mallets into the mud. Even better they could continue to add to the account and shorten the time they need to wait to replace the uniforms. She shows the other band boosters what she did and they agree to write into the bylaws that such a report should be made every month so they can see if they are on track. They continue to look start to see trends over time and begin to be able budget closer to what exact costs end up looking like. And when time comes to decide what fundraisers to do they decide to drop the oranges in favor of something new (cookies this year, promises a %35 return!) and double down on the effort they give the car wash. In a few years they have become really efficient with their fundraising and allocating of funds so they decide to try something big: a trip to participate in a parade at Disney they add a line on the top half “Student Dues Paid In” and a line on the bottom half “Disney Trip Cost”. Unfortunately there are a few kids whose families can’t afford the dues so a new line is added to the bottom “Trip Scholarships” with an agreed amount set aside. They take a little out of the game day and banquets budget in order for it to balance out. Just by putting all of the organizations money and expenses on one sheet of paper a band (or a team or a committee) can greatly improve their ability to not only operate efficiently now but also be prepared for the long term. $20,000 worth of uniforms is a lot less expensive if they are paid for over the cost of 20 years! The other thing an organization can really to help secure itself is to become incorporated. In many states it is not terribly difficult for an educational program with an executive board to become a non-profit organization. Here in Pennsylvania a great resource to get started is www.pano.org. Not only does this mean you save on taxes on all that hot chocolate you buy every October but it means it is easier to consider opening a line of credit with a bank. Again, credit may be intimidating to some but it can be incredibly helpful to have for those big ticket instrument replacements or big trips. And it is just as easily kept track of in a budget as long as you reflect the payments (including interest!) under expenses. Running a whole program can be a lot of work which is why coaches and directors turn to parents to help support the program but don’t think you need to be a lawyer or an accountant to keep the group right track. A little organization goes a long way. So next time the treasurer position is open on the E-Board don’t hesitate to raise your hand and fill the void; it’s not hard to do a good job and provide excellent support for some deserving students!
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Band, Accounting, Boosters, Gridiron, money, organize,
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