Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.7 of 7)

As Where and When finished, What stood forth and called for any remaining viewpoints to be expressed. But the animals felt that all had been said. So What proceeded. “I can see that this is a set of issues that are not going to be resolved easily by the Forest Council, and most likely this cannot happen today.

“Therefore,” What continued, “I am going to appoint an ad hoc Council of Charities to study this matter and report back to the Forest Council. Their job is to study current patterns of service and see where there is duplication. They are to study the economics of all this charitable work and of the fundraising efforts involved. Then they will make recommendations to the Forest Council about what degree of consolidation, cooperation, or merger would be best for all the animals.

“There should be three alternative solutions prepared and the Forest Council will place these on a referendum so that all the animals can vote on their favorite solution to the problem. In the meantime, I’m going to ask all the animals of our forest community to pledge their support for the solution as determined in the referendum vote.”

At first, there was some resistance from the various animals who represented the separate charities of the forest. Fleur grumbled that she had done a lot without having others around. Big Red said nobody could do Research and Development the way bears can. Who was a little argumentative about What’s ability to care for needs better than anyone else.

But then some voices began to be heard on the other side of the issue as more resistance mounted in the community to the idea of having all these charities around. Gradually some of the animals began to speak in support of the idea of the referendum. Morgaine the Dog said that what What had proposed by way of process was a fair and just solution and she would back whatever came of that process. Gaston Bear, in his French accent, said that as long as everyone agreed to abide by the decision of the voters, it was a good way to proceed. His brother, Emile Bear, said he thought the idea of a referendum was better than just having the Forest Council make a decision. Not wanting to be absent from the developing “bear caucus,” Squeeze-me Bear chimed in that so long as he could play music at the election tally, he was content. And then one of the more silent creatures of the forest, Garfield the Cheshire Cat, smiled his big, broad smile and gave his symbolic blessing to the proceedings.

At that point What called for an end to the commentary and asked for a consensus. “Is there anyone who has a better, more fair, just or more workable solution to this problem of the proliferation of charities?”

When there were no speeches in disagreement, What then said, “I’d like to request a nod of approval from all the animals gathered in this fair clearing today,” and everyone proceeded to give their nod. Some nodded off to sleep in the corner, others couldn’t stop nodding. But everyone basically agreed that this was the best way to find a solution to the problem of too many charities.

And so it was that the Forest Council studied the situation thoroughly and created three possible alternative ways for the animal community to proceed. On the Fourth of Martense, the anniversary of the creation of the forest clearing for the community assemblies, there was an election in which ninety-three percent of the forest animals participated. Only those who were sick an unable to vote were unrepresented. When the results were announced, everyone was satisfied that they had made a community decision that would stand the test of time.

The next day, in the Forest Café, Dr. Greyson Bear, back in his usual corner, dunked his donut in his coffee and said to Greyson Bear Jr., “That’s the best decision we’ve ever made as a community. It may be the first and only one so far, but I would definitely have to say, it was our best, and it will no doubt stand the test of time.”

THE END

Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.6 of 7)

Erin antelope, emboldened by the speeches of others involved in setting up the many nonprofits said, “Well, I don’t want my ideas about service quashed by some committee that doesn’t know better. There has to be a place for personal initiative. There are a lot of creative ideas coming forth in the community these last few years, and I think it’s a bad idea to stifle this kind of initiative.”

Leaky the Canadian goose gave it his all when he said, “This charity we’ve formed has given me a sense of personal achievement. My charitable work is a way I can help out everyone else. It also has given me personal satisfaction, and everyone who gives to our nonprofit can have that same sense of achievement and satisfaction.”

Big Red the educated bear remained on all fours, so as not to scare some of the smaller creatures, ‘It’s true, you know. You can’t tramp all over personal initiative. It’s a right of all forest animals. And we don’t all have to give every time we’re asked. You give to what you want to, let the others go away. Eventually this will all sort itself out as the forces of the market take over and weed out the weaker, less desirable charities. The best ones will survive. We’ll all need to vote by simply restricting our contributions.”

But then Homer the Lovarabbit interjected yet another issue: “We’re doing on an informal basis what our Forest Administration can’t do – we help each other when we are in need. That’s not a bad thing. It’s very much needed. It’s a way of expressing our caring, but also an avenue through which we demonstrate our ability to make that caring happen for others.”

At that point, When and Where, the groundhogs from the Forest Café, who were also recently named to the Board of Directors of the Forrest Community Foundation stepped forward. Where said, “We want to encourage all the charities to start to work together and cooperate in what they do. There are precious few resources in the forest, and we need to use them efficiently.” and Where said, “It is not appropriate that some of our residents are now earning salaries and are getting to be better off than some of the others. That brings an unwelcome inequality to the forest. We’d be much better off with some mergers and acquisitions, and if we developed ways of giving service that didn’t enrich some at the expense of others.”

Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.5 of 7)

As the time for self-expression was at hand, the first to speak was Mrs. Greyson Bear, who said, “Frankly, I’m tired of giving. It’s one thing after another. Everybody needs help, and they all need it today. And I don’t see why there need to be so many of these helping groups anyhow. We’ve never needed this in the past, and I don’t see why it’s helpful now.”

Easter Rabbit, volunteered, “I must say that even though I’m one of the founders of Helping Paw I’m really tired of being asked to donate by all the other groups. It’s hard enough to make a living running a charity, but then to have to give most of what I make away to others doesn’t really allow me to come out ahead.”

But Fleur LeBruin was on the defensive and she rose on her back legs to say, in a rather petulant way, “But don’t you folks see that so much good has been done here in the community since this started? Just about everyone is better off in one way or another.”

To which Gully Seagull chimed in, “Yes, we’ve all benefited in one way or another. I, for one, wouldn’t be in such good financial shape if it hadn’t been for our Animals in Flight organization. It’s kept me off the streets and has given me a new lease on life.”

And Toby Platypus echoed that sentiment as he said, “Life in the forest is better these days and we’re going to make it even better in the years to come. Self-help goes just so far, and then the caring and concern of the community has to take over from that point.”

Elvira Bovine, who had been hanging back in the shadows of the woods, now stepped up to the edge of the clearing and said, in her soft, lowing voice, “I think they should all cooperate, and maybe form just one helping group. There are times in all our lives when we need some sort of helping hand. And in those times it’s really great to receive assistance. But those times don’t come often, thankfully, and we really don’t need quite as much assistance as we have available now. Not when having that assistance available means we have to shell out every time someone asks us for acorns.”

“I think we don’t need so many of these groups,” said Tom Turkey. “There are too many critters going into the charity business. And it’s becoming a business. They’re all getting rich off it.”

Marvin Mouse edged closer to the Council circle so he could be heard more easily. “Why don’t they coordinate their fundraising efforts? It’s too much to have to respond to just everyone who comes by my burrow. Maybe if we could give just once a year, and if there could be some kind of central repository, then that administrative group could parcel out all our contributions to the nonprofits who qualify for assistance. Would something like that work?”

Reggie the deer, sporting a marvelous set of antlers, stepped fully into the clearing. He looked just too magnificent for words, as he said, “Why don’t’ we just go back to our old ways of doing things. Most of us have the skills, the families, the traditions of how to take care of ourselves in times of trouble. We don’t really need these charities around here. And maybe if we needed something, one group would be enough to help out in a pinch.”

Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.4 of 7)

The day of the Forest Council meeting dawned brightly with a sunny sky and a slight breeze out of the south that rustled the birch leaves just slightly, making all the animals tingle with a touch of fall and the anticipation of a great happening about to take place. Just as the sun was warming up the clearing the first animals arrived. They came in clusters, whispering excitedly to one another. Nearly everyone was dressed in their finest clothes and many carried picnic lunches, not wanting to miss even a moment of the proceedings.

The Forest Council, headed by the eagle, Governor What, formed in a circle in the center of the clearing so all the animals could gather around the Council and none would be left out. The Council was elected by a vote of all the animals, but most of the members tended to be representatives of smaller groups of animals who banded together to nominate someone like them. That way their point of view and special needs would be represented as input to the Council’s decisions.

There were seven council members in all. Seated beside Governor What was Lucille Seal in a new pink crocheted hat she had made just for the occasion. “Cille, as she was called, had been one of the first animals appointed to the Forest Council and had served with distinction for nearly 10 years. Next to her was Froggy DelaPond, who had on his traditional white vest. He harrumphed himself into place and was followed by the venerable Dr. Greyson Bear, who was thought to be among the wisest animals in all the forest – next to What , of course. On the other side of the circle was Freedie Fieldmouse representing many of the smaller animals of hill and dale. He had on his newest gray pinstripe suit and white shirt. Next to Freedie sat Roger Racoon, one of the newest members of the Council and a representative of the scavengers. He had been elected after the tragic death of Father Jeremy Badger the previous winter. Finally, there was Barry Bluejay representing all the birds of the forest.

When everyone was gathered and the Forest Council was in place, What gracefully glided into the clearing and settled firmly in his seat as a hush went over the assembled animals. “Today, we are gathered here to decide what to do about the proliferation of nonprofit organizations that have come into being in the last five years,” he said. “This is a subject for this Council not because charities are bad institutions, but because the swelling number of charitable groups has caused concern, embarrassment, discontent and consternation among many of our forest brothers and sisters.

“I, for one, am very glad to see that in the hearts of so many of our brothers and sisters there is a generous desire to be of help to our community, and so many creative ideas of how this can be done. It is a credit to all of you who are assembled here that we not only live in peace and harmony with one another, but that we have the inclination, the ideas and the ability to provide for each other in times of special needs or opportunities.”

He continued, “As you know, my heart is with the new nonprofits, hoping for their success, since I was the one who first got Helping Paw off to a good start.” And here he nodded to Fleur LeBruin, as a measure of recognition for her work. “I’m satisfied that we have gotten things off to a good start with Fleur’s excellent relief work among our animal neighbors.

“But the fact that so many of our community have not only seen the benefits of having nonprofits, but have availed themselves of the opportunity of a better life through setting up such institutions has brought us here to resolve the problems created by having such a crowded philanthropic marketplace. This is an unusual, but nevertheless troublesome, situation. And we are gathered here this morning, first, to ascertain just how bothersome this phenomenon is. In that respect, we will now hear formal opinions and testimony from all in the community who wish to speak their minds on this issue. Following the testimony, the Forest Council will deliberate together over lunch, and into the afternoon, if that becomes necessary, then we will re-assemble the community to hear the Council’s decision, which will be final. Are we all agreed on the manner of proceeding?” At this, all the animals smiled or nodded in agreement, because What’s ability to command respect and his penchant for justice and fairness among the community residents was, indeed, legendary.

Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.3 of 7)

Now, the problem wasn’t the numbers, so much as the fact that the leaders of every nonprofit were looking to the members of the forest community to support their helpful intentions. Everyone had seen how Fleur had benefited by being the executive director for Helping Paw, which got its support for her salary and all her programs for the animals from the contributions of all the community members. So now everyone wanted to get on the gravy train.

The community, however, was getting a little restive with this concept. Around the edges one could hear candid and sometimes even snide remarks to the effect that they were tired of shelling out acorns every month to one group after another. There were only just so many animals in the forest, and even if everyone gave their utmost to help everyone else, there just weren’t enough resources to make it possible for every animal who wanted a better life to start up a nonprofit and get what he or she wanted in that better life from the generosity of others.

Not that anyone would have begrudged anybody’s getting ahead in life. Throughout time all the animals had felt kindly towards one another and the idea of mutual assistance, banding together to accomplish more of a community feeling had grown in popularity. But the question remained, where were the resources going to come from to make everyone’s personal dreams of a better life come true?

The situation wasn’t yet dire, and there had been some noticeable advantages and improvements in the forest. First, the results of all the good that the various charities had done really did contribute to better lives for many of the forest animals. But, second, there had been a noticeable increase in certain kinds of benefits emanating from the fundraising efforts of the various nonprofits.

For example, the badgers, opossums, foxes, ferrets and field mice had never had so much fun! They had a Schmooseball tournament going on nearly every month – one of those fundraiser ideas someone had thought up to make fundraising more fun. The deer, elk, horses and moose were regularly involved in rutting contests that paid off handsomely in rewards for the winners and the executives of the charities that put those on. And the flying crowd got involved in swooping and divebombing contests that were really fun and provided everyone with a spectacle on Saturday afternoons.

Additionally, a local community foundation had been set up with assets from the sale of the forest to a preservation group so that all the animals could apply for funds to help them out, and these new charities had been very timely in their applications for those resources, which filtered down to individuals within the forest as their needs developed.

So everyone was, for the most part, better off. But where was the limit? How long could this state of affairs continue? The resources of the animals and of the forest foundation were limited. That was why Governor What had called the Forest Council meeting to discuss the situation and find a creative solution.

Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.2 of 7)

One of the most attractive things about this was that when What, the bald eagle who looked after all the forest animals and was their elected Governor, had first set up the Helping Paw charity, all the animals contributed what they could to help it start up, and then had made annual contributions to keep it going. In the meantime, What hired Fleur LeBruin to manage this little nonprofit, and two things had happened. First, Fleur started drawing a regular paycheck, and that had meant that she was sporting a new wardrobe and a new attitude of self-esteem that was very noticeable compared to her normally dour appearance and antagonistic effrontery. That change had been a relief for all, and had demonstrated how animal lives could be changed by regular income and something concrete to accomplish.

At the same time, Fleur had accomplished some remarkable objectives in helping the various forest animals with their problems. She provided counseling, helped fix them up after accidents and assisted them in locating new shelters and homes after storms. She had even set up a first-aid station where Preston Penguin was often very helpful in relieving the pains and headaches of the animals. So everyone was so much better off physically than before.

Apparently the lesson What had set out to teach had been well learned. Starting up a nonprofit for the benefit of the animal community brought the animals together with a welcome expression of mutual caring that strengthened community bonds. It had achieved a lot of good for many individual animals, and had produced some larger public goods like better health and animal well-being, along with a sense of unity and group capability that had never existed before. The result had been that all the forest animals were feeling pretty good about themselves and their animal community.

But, as sometimes happens with forest animals, the lesson had been learned too well. Within six months of What’s initial effort with Helping Paw, Gerry the camel had set up a nonprofit for relief of desert itch, just in case any of the other animals came down with that. Another couple months went by and Toby the platypus started a group called “Underground Underwater Well-Being” so all the moles, badgers, seals and similar folks could have special aid packages of their own. Then another group had been formed called “Four-Leggeds On the Run” to aid in the spiritual and physical development of some of the deer, horses, goats and unicorns. They now had regular weekly meetings that made them feel so much faster and more deeply in tune with the universe.

And that still was not the end of it. A mutual self-help agency was set up by Who, a distant owl cousin of Howie’s, that he called "We Help Our Neighbors." Then Big Red, the bear, and the only other resident besides Dr. Greyson Bear to have a college education, set up a research nonprofit called "Animal R & D." This group specialized in gathering information about forest animal life and published periodical papers on living conditions in the forest. Then there was the retirement benefits and aid society that had been set up by Mrs. Greyson Bear and Big Bird called "Why Work When the Weather’s Nice."

It wasn’t long before Gully the seagull, along with Loonie the loon and Leaky the Canadian goose had combined to start up "Animals in Flight," the mission of which was to help their feathered friends get more out of their flying abilities by using them to help transport the more earthbound species from one location to another. That brought immeasurable thrills and chills and allowed many residents to move around the forest more quickly. So that was seven new nonprofits within the span of five years in a forest where there had never been anything other than a local poker or bridge group organized before. The place was growing wild with nonprofits.

Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.1 of 7)

Deep in the forest it was a cold autumn day with the sun peeking through ice-crystal clouds, as What and When were serving pasties in their Forest Café The two groundhogs served up lots of tender loving care, and the pasties were a fall favorite of most forest animals. It certainly looked like most of the neighborhood residents were taking advantage of the warmth and camaraderie of the little café that afternoon.

Just as Beave let go with a loud Chinese cheer in his napkin and Homer the Lovarabbit reached for a third pastie, Howey the horned owl burst in the front door with a gust of wind and a flurry of golden leaves. Breathless, he said to the whole café, as heads began to come up from their eating bowls, “Hey, guys, guess what?! Number eight just hatched! And guess who the new co-executive directors are. That’s right, you guessed it: Atlas and Arilla Gorilla have just initiated the A2 Animal Relief and Rescue Team, and that makes the eighth nonprofit to be started here in the forest this year.! When is it going to end?!”

“Simmer down, old boy,” said When, as he put a steaming cup of birch tea in front of the wild-looking owl. ”Where’d you hear that news? And anyway, it’s been five years not one year.”

“Well, what I heard was that Governor What has called an animal council in the Hollow for tomorrow at daybreak to discuss the whole situation. And when I asked what the situation was, What’s secretary, Easter, told me that Arilla and Atlas had just received their certification from the Forest Administration to set up another charity. Isn’t that wild? Two gorillas, now, on top of everything else we’ve got going, trying to set up another animal charity. It’s too much!” And he huffed and chuffed into his tea mug shaking his head so that the loose feathers flew in all directions and his eyebrows swayed back and forth in the breeze he created.

As When joined Where at Howie’s table, she said, “Well, we all benefit from these charities. I know I have and, Howie, I believe you have received quite a bit of assistance now and again from one or another of our little nonprofits. What’s the beef here? Too many? I mean, can there really be too many groups who help others? Isn’t that what animal life is all about – helping others?”

Over in the corner, Dr. Greyson Bear, sitting with his son and newly minted forest Doctor Greyson Bear, Jr., shrugged in disapproval. “Just what we need around here, another animal charity. Who do they think they’re going to take care of? Where do they think they’re going to get enough funding to keep them going? It just doesn’t make sense.”

What the aging physician and long-time resident of the forest was referring to was the seeming glut of nonprofits that had been initiated in the past several years. It had all started with what the good doctor still thought was an absolutely brilliant idea: that the forest animals all get together to start an animal helping nonprofit that would give aid and support to any forest animal who needed it. That had been Governor What’s idea about five years before, and it had been very successful. But it had started a trend.

The Reluctant Finance Officer (cont'd)

“Well, OK, but let me ask you a question now. What makes you think that just automatically we can project any kind of revenue forward? What am I supposed to do, be the magician around here and make the dollars magically appear? There’s too much uncertainty.”

“Ok, Terry, let me spell it out for you and be crystal clear. Here’s your last year’s financial final and your budget for this year. There are certain things in this budget, on the expense side, that are going to remain fairly stable for the foreseeable future, right? We’ve got our essential operating and administrative basics, right? Rent, utilities, those kinds of things. If we stay here in this building, there’s not going to be much change, right? OK, so project that section out with the cost of inflation considered.” She was wondering why it was so necessary to go into this much detail with a guy who had been a financial wizard at Gimmicks and Gismos Corporation for fifteen years before coming to the nonprofit sector. She was really getting irritated that she had to practically do his job for him and then stick his nose in it.

“Then take programs,” she continued, trying to soften the edge of her voice a bit. “What do we have to do by way of new projects, programs and added staff to make our goal of 40% market share over there? If you work with me on this I can probably tell you some pretty accurate numbers after I get with Sally and Herb in the program department. Or you could take that step yourself. Why do I need to get involved?” Immediately the words were out of her mouth she knew she shouldn’t have said that, but she went on, hoping that her morning coffee wasn’t going to let her betray her total irritation too badly.

“Then take fundraising. Our cost to raise $1 has been about 25 cents over the past five years as we’ve raised about $1 million each year. If we continue that, and we’re raising ten times as much money, what’s the projection for the total costs of fundraising? As we raise more money we should be getting more efficient, so we should probably project something more like 15 cents on the dollar and see what happens. How much more staff, how much more time, effort and dollars will it take to raise $10 million. If you talk with Jared, he’ll likely be able to tell you. Come on, Terry, I know you can do this. Will you work with me on this?”

“But what about the state portion of the revenue side? We don’t’ know from year to year how much they’ll give us.” It was one last hold out, he’d try it and see if it worked. He didn’t like the direction this was going. It was too risky, it didn’t have any solidity at all. He would be flying by the seat of his pants. What if someone looked back on his projections later and saw that he was wrong, that what he had projected really didn’t turn out to be true, they could hold him up to ridicule, and some on the Board were all too ready to do that anyway.

Terry knew that things changed so much within each year that every annual budget had to be adjusted, then re-adjusted all during the year. And at the end sometimes one would not recognize the budget they’d started with. The one thing he would give Mary is that she had the ability to roll with the punches and had brought every year out ahead of budget so far. Maybe she was right, but it was a scary place to be from a finance officer’s point of view.

But Mary persisted. “The state is the state. Nothing we can do there. Get a trend line and project it out as it is. They’ve declined about 5-8% over the past two years. If you don’t think they’re going to actually fix the problem, all we can reasonably do is project that trend to continue. If that does continue, what will the state’s share of our revenue picture look like? It’s simple, really, Terry.” She was ready to make one last try.

“Tell me, Terry,” she said, with more equanimity that she felt. “What’s the problem here. You seem to be determined to resist this, and I need you to know that I see projected budgets as essential to our meeting the strategic targets set by the Board, and I’m determined to see that we get there, and I believe this organization can do what they’re asking. So, tell me, what’s with it with you? What are you afraid of?”

“Very simple,” said Terry, taken briefly off guard by her suddenly conciliatory tone of voice. “If I project income or expenses at a certain level, then, quite frankly, I expose myself to criticism if whatever I project out there doesn’t actually happen. There are people on the staff and people on the Board who are all too ready to use my own tentative figures against me to try to make it seem like I’m the bad guy. I’m not going to put myself in that kind of position. You want projections? I suggest that you take the responsibility for those figures and leave me out of it. I’m content to work on what’s really coming in the door and going out on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis. I can tell you where it’s at now, and where it went. But don’t ask me to project what’s going to happen in the future around here. It’s too volatile, too uncertain. And the Board has a tendency to forget that when they’re looking for someone to blame it on.”

There, he’d said it, at last! That sharp tang of the tannin came back to him as he realized it couldn’t really be a good day until he’d sacrificed to the gods, and that now he’d done that by ripping open his inner thoughts for his CEO to see, maybe he could get on with the day.

Mary was relieved, too. The solution was simple. “OK, she said. Let’s do it this way. You make the budget projections as if you were me – whatever you think I’d do. Then give the file to me and I’ll take a crack at it. Then we’ll get back together and you can give me your opinion of what I’ve done to your figures. We can discuss the issues together. But ultimately, I’ll say to the Board that this is my projection and I’ll take full responsibility for it. Does that suit you?”

Terry nodded his ascent. “I’ll have it for you tomorrow morning.” And at that moment Stella came in to remind Mary that her next appointment was waiting already 10 minutes and she was late.

“Thanks, Terry,” she said. “I’ll look forward to your projections tomorrow,” and she left the room as airly as she had come in.

The Reluctant Finance Officer (cont'd)

“Just that Marvelous Works has some financial quirks,” Terry replied. “Among them are its sources of income. We’re not selling products here, to people who want to buy and have to buy them to survive and thrive in our society. We’re selling the concept of helping the ‘less fortunate’ whoever they are at any given time and by someone’s latest definition. So there’s no certainty in anything we do. How is a financial officer supposed to project ahead when the service keeps changing according to the grants we receive, the state government handouts vary with the moods of the legislature and the governor, and the donations coming in are as fickle as the changes in attitudes of our donors and the public. Things come and go around here with greater rapidity and uncertainty than at any established corporation. What do you expect me to do, make it all up? I’m not inclined to do that”

“What you’re saying is certainly true, from your point of view, at least. But I have to tell you that I take a different view of this. We’re going to get to a 40% market share of the human services business in this area by ten years from now.” Terry could see she was determined, and heard it in her voice. She was on a roll. It would be while yet.

“In order to do that,” Mary continued, “one of the things we need is solid, cogent, knowledgeable, creative financial planning from the finance department. I need to see the scenario even as it changes. Sure it changes, day to day sometimes. But that’s no reason not to at least try to keep the financial picture in front of us. Besides, I’m not the only one involved here. Other departments, like program AND development, need to know what they’re supposed to be doing to make the goal happen. Specifically, Jared needs to know revenue targets each year so he and his staff can work up enough prospects and start cultivating increased numbers of donors to make those targets happen. Cynthia, our special events person, and Gayle, our grant writer have similar assignments. They need to think ahead to what kinds of events they need to plan, how many people, how much anticipated revenue is needed. They need to think ahead about grant possibilities and start relationships with new foundation people. They can’t just wait until the last minute to quick dig this up and make it happen overnight just so you’ll have enough money for operations in any given month. It doesn’t work that way, and you know it.”

Terry thought this was one of her better tirades of recent weeks. She was at least sticking to the point, and it was beginning to look like she was going to stick the point right in him.

“So,” Mary concluded with emphasis, “I want you to put your thinking cap on, get with your staff, and make those projections. And I want them by Friday, OK?”

The Reluctant Finance Officer (cont'd)

Before Terry could think up a good answer, she continued. “Why don’t you do this with an attempt at keeping revenues about ten to twelve percent ahead of expenses, so we’ll have some cushion in the budget. We’re supposed to grab another 20 points of market share in this human services market, so I anticipate that, just in general terms, we’ll be moving from a $1 million budget that we had last year up to about a $10 million budget ten years from now. Is that about right by your calculations?”

“Yeah, probably it could be. I must confess I haven’t really plumbed the depths of the strategic plan since it’s been finally approved by the Board, but given the direction it was going in draft form, that’s probably about as good an estimate as any at this point. But I don’t know about projecting out ten years’ worth of budgets. That’s a pretty impossible task.”

“Well, I certainly understand the complexities here, Terry, and, sure, it would be difficult to know where every penny is coming from, but my question to you is… can you do it? Will you do it? I need to have this to see how the road looks ahead.”

“But what about the state’s problems? We never know what we’re going to get from them until their check is in the bank and doesn’t bounce. And then there’s the grant situation – always a new possibility, but not always new money. How do we know how much to project? That’s an impossible situation in which to make any reasonable kind of projection, you know that.”

“Yes, I do, but we’ve got to try. Let me ask you a question, then. How do you expect Marvelous Works to arrive at the strategic targets the Board has set in ten years, if you don’t project budgets out that far? Do you have another solution to that little problem?”

“Well,” said Terry, getting a little irritated at this point. Maybe the rain and leaves had been wrong about this being a good day. “They didn’t ask me about it when the projected that advanced share of market they want, and they didn’t ask for any projected budgets. Apparently they know what’s going to happen. Why don’t you ask them?”

“Oh, come on now,” said Mary. She, too, was seeing a block that would need to be removed before they could move ahead. “You had plenty of room and many opportunities to give input to the Board. But every meeting you sat there with that little smirk on your face and said nothing. Probably nobody asked you because they’re a little afraid of you, Terry, and because you’re more knowledgeable than they are about financial matters. At least the committee members feel that way. And I think the Board members just assumed all those kinds of questions had been asked before they got to the first draft of the plan. So if you had something to offer, I have two questions: why didn’t you offer it, and what was it you had to offer?”

“Well, I think it’s crazy in this human services circus we run around here to project anything further than the next month in advance. I’ve seen money come and go around here for longer than you’ve been on board and you know just as well as I do that what’s promised today, what really is sure and virtually ‘in the bank’ turns out tomorrow to be nothing. What I had to say runs counter to the whole strategic planning exercise.”

“Is that how you see it, then, Terry, as an ‘exercise?’ I would have thought that an old corporate finance officer like yourself would have been long used to projecting budgets. What’s the problem here?”

We'll see the answer to this question tomorrow.

The Reluctant Finance Officer

Terry was optimistic as he sat with his CEO one fall morning. His first hint that today would go well was that it had rained in the early morning and the leaves smelled of tannin as he walked from his car across the parking lot to the staff entrance at Marvelous Works charity. His next hint was that Stella, the CEO’s assistant had actually made fresh coffee and had delivered it to him with 3 sugars; she’d even been rather pleasant about it – for Stella.

As the CFO of Marvelous Works, Terry sat in the conference room waiting for Mary Kasichevski, his CEO, wondering what was on her mind. She had called him the day before to ask for this early morning conference and he was at once curious and uncaring. Whatever it was probably could have waited. She was like that – waiting till the last minute, then rushing around getting people to early meetings, always with a sort of crisis mentality. He figured that she needed the crisis feeling to get herself up in the morning. Probably better than coffee, he thought, but not necessarily easy on the ulcers most of her staff were developing from having worked under her these last 14 years.

Just at that moment, Mary came in with a rush, a quick smile, a slam of the conference room door and sat down, placing her papers on the table in front of them.

“Glad you could make it,” she said. “Sorry for the late notice. What I want to discuss with you is that I had this conversation with our Development Director, Jared Simpson last week, and he’s insisting that with our new strategic plan in place now that he needs to be able to project the number of prospects and donors he needs out about seven years. He says that his fundraising crew needs time to build the database and the prospect pool to the levels we need in order to ramp up to our anticipated revenue levels in ten years.”

Terry recognized the name, of course. That guy was all over everywhere! And an insistent fellow he was, too. Terry didn’t like him – too brash, too much in a hurry, too much trying to please the CEO, and definitely to demanding so far as financial information was concerned. He didn’t like the way Jared went about asking his staff for information, and he certainly didn’t like the phone calls to his office just made to hype things up.

“Yeah, he called me yesterday, too,” said Terry. “Wanted to set up a similar meeting with me to see if I could project budgets out to, what was it, ten years!? That’s ridiculous! We can’t even get a totally accurate budget for one year around here until after the money’s in and spent. What the heck does this guy want ten years for?”

“Well, I was coming to that,” said Mary, “but since you beat me to the punch, yes, that’s why were here. I want to ask you to see if you and your staff could get together a ten-year projection of the kinds of revenues we’ll need for each of the next ten years, and the kind of expenses we’re projecting as we head down the road our strategic plan calls for. Can you do that?”

We'll continue the story tomorrow....

Immigrant Relief

Ramada Qatar struggled mightily when she first came to this country from Iraq. She and her family had been able to get out of Baghdad as things really started coming apart between the Sunnis and the Shiites. She had lots of friends on both sides of that line and she could see it coming. Within a matter of days she marshaled her sister, three brothers, husband and two children to the airport with barely anything but the clothes on their backs, got them through security and emigration with the help of a cousin and onto the plane bound for Frankfurt. They arrived in Tampa, Florida in the middle of winter with no place to go and knowing no one.

But Ramada was determined, and she made friends easily. She found a way to get the family placed, get them food, shelter, clothes and English lessons. And then she went to work to pay for all that people had generously contributed to their plight.

When she had become established, Ramada started a charity called Immigrant Assistance, the main function of which was to provide a place of sanctuary and help for people like her and her family. As hundreds of Iraqi immigrants fled their native country for the U.S., Immigrant Assistance provided just about everything they needed for the first few years of their new life in America. Food, clothes, English lessons, social conditioning, job interviews, shopping hints, shelter and apartments, religious services and much more were provided on a regular basis. Ramada was a busy and persistent woman!

QUESTION: Does the service Ramada Qatar and Immigrant Assistance provide to fleeing Iraqis save the government money? Is it a service that would be provided if she weren’t doing it? Is she making life better for the larger society as well as for her immigrant friends from back home? The rationale for giving nonprofits tax-exempt status has traditionally been that they provide public goods that would otherwise fall to government to provide for the society. Is this the case with this type of nonprofit?

Monday, October 25th, we'll begin a story about a CFO's hesitation. See you then!

Horsing Around

Not long ago there was a nonprofit called Light-In-The-Dark Charity whose primary mission was to care for animals. Serving as a local shelter, it provided sanctuary, veterinary services and adoption procedures for all types of animals. Located in Kentucky’s “horse country,” however, it tended to have a disproportionate share of it's business caring for and either adopting out or disposing of horses. In addition to horses, Light-In-The-Dark Charity also handled pigs, rabbits, foxes, cats of all kinds and domestic and wild dogs.

As the founder of Light-In-The-Dark, Sam Whinney was a thoroughbred horse lover through and through. He didn’t care so much about the more traditional dogs and cats that went to families with small children. He was much more interested in having a major influence on the horse population of the county and the state.

Due to Sam’s influence and tenacity in pursuing support from his friends and business associates, Light-In-The-Dark charity received about 75% of its support from a combination of horse training firms, local veterinarian practices and pet food and supply vendors around the state. These gifts enabled Sam Whinney to set up a pretty impressive array of barns, a first rate clinic, and a large riding stable with a suite of plush offices on twenty acres of land among the beautiful rolling hills of Kentucky.

Several of Sam’s “customers” were the racing stables in the tri-county area. They sent Sam all their old, tired horses to be put out to pasture; they sent horses that were lame to be fixed and returned. They also sent fillies that would never have made it on the racing circuit over to Sam so they could be adopted by the sons and daughters of wealthy local businessmen. Oh, Sam had it sweet in this symbiotic relationship, and so did the racetrack and racing stable owners.

QUESTION: Does Light-In-The-Dark animal charity really provide a service to the public and is it one that deserves tax-exempt status because it saves the government money? This is the traditional argument for the tax exempt status of the nonprofit sector in our society. But does it always hold water?

Sam Whinney would have argued, of course, that it does. He would have said that if it weren’t for organizations like his, fewer kids could have experienced the responsibility and challenges of owning a horse. And if government had had the responsibility to dispose of all those old horses, it would have cost them a mint.

Sam also insisted that his work with other kinds of animals was a service to the public as well. The stray hogs, the proliferating rabbits and raccoons, the feral cats, the dogs running in packs – all these were taken in by his shelter and either disposed of or given out to the locals (for a small fee, of course). He also provided some road-kill pickup to local public safety units. So he felt he was doing the public a service. Apparently the local units of government thought so, too, because Sam’s project received regular grants of support from the three counties for animal pick-up and disposal.

But what do you think, dear reader? Is this a case where we have a unique and multi-faceted kind of personal enrichment at the taxpayer’s expense, or is a real service being provided that would otherwise fall to government? How many of the 40,000+ nonprofits that come on line each year are really set up to do what government can’t do and business won’t do?

Election Skulduggery in Nonprofitdom

There once was a charity named “Helping Hand Charity” whose mission was to help teenage boys and girls through adolescence, teaching them skills, mentoring them, providing sports and recreation, and role model images.

This charity received substantial funds from government programs, one of which was the “No Child Left Behind” program of one of the more conservative administrations who really didn’t like children but wanted to appear to be “doing good” in order to satisfy its critics.

The Board of directors of “Helping Hand” learned that the “No Child Left Behind” program was about to be abruptly ended by the Republicans in Congress, as it was thought to be too expensive for what it had produced, and the Republicans were looking forward to enacting a sweeping tax cut for the wealthy. Thus they were out cutting expenses and downsizing government as best they could under the watchful but useless eye of a Democratic Congress.

In an effort to save the NCLB program, the Board of Directors at “Helping Hand” voted $100,000 of its cash reserves to give to an organization of like-minded charities that, in turn, would employ a lobbyist to generate support among the few left-leaning Republicans still in Washington who would admit to being such.

All this happened during a state senate election campaign where “Helping Hand” was located. Among those running was Senator Hugh Jossey, the Republican incumbent, and he wanted to go to Washington as the next U.S. Senator from this area. So he was looking to be re-elected, then in a year or so he planned to resign and run for the U.S. Senate.

Now it happened that the Democratic challenger in this state senate race was Marian Brown, who had stepped away from a seat in the state House of Representatives to run for the state Senate.

Marian was a strong candidate, much favored by, among other constituencies, nonprofit human welfare and services agencies, because she had often served as a staunch advocate particularly for indigent, neglected and abused children.

During the summer campaigning, Senator Jossey came to feel that the polls are right when they said that Marian Brown had a strong lead and was very likely to win the election. He therefore needed something that would turn public opinion in his favor.

As it happened, Senator Jossey’s old college roommate, Jerry Hastings, was a member
of the Board of Directors for the “Helping Hand Charity.” And Jerry very nicely took it upon himself to mention that “Helping Hand’s” Board had just voted to join in hiring a lobbyist to help their cause against Republican programmatic cutbacks.

Well, Hugh Jossey immediately sensed that he might have a good issue here: “Helping Hand” might just have overstepped its bounds and gotten into lobbying, and thus could be held to account and forfeit its tax-exempt status. Wonderful! he thought.

In the hurly-burly that would attend that announcement, the good Senator could
interject a public message that the types of human service agencies supported by his opponent Marian Brown typically liked to walk the thin line and “often” overstepped their boundaries. He could use this, then, as the reason why members of the voting public should re-elect him, so he could be in Washington to keep a watchful eye on those nonprofits and prevent them from lobbying without the sanction of loosing their IRS tax-exempt status.

Our questions for the day are: “Does Hugh Jossey have something here, or is he blowing smoke? Will he be right, or will he embarrass himself in public by taking this tidbit of information seriously?”

Too Many Times to the Well

As the Director of Development for local community’s New Arts charity, Jerry sat in the board meeting with a sense of embarrassment. Over the last several years he had successfully gathered significant gifts from community leaders for the little arts group. In fact he had been surprised at the willingness of many business owners to provide the nonprofit with many essentials, including auction items and small grants for local artists’ exhibitions.

But as he thought over his experience in recent weeks, he began to wonder what was wrong. He had been out pounding the pavement, going to see all his donor friends in businesses, and in offices and homes, because he had a goal of $500,000 to raise. That money would be used for the development of a new exhibition space and the acquisition of new donor software plus the use of a consultant to help the board do strategic planning. He was experiencing a singular lack of attentiveness on the part of those he was visiting. They weren’t as sanguine about New Arts as they had been just two years before. Not only that, his latest direct mail appeal apparently fell on deaf ears. Very few people responded as they had in previous years. Yet the need for this project was greater than for any project they had yet undertaken.

As Jerry finished is dismal report to the board about current fundraising efforts, Howard, the board’s treasurer said, “Well, I guess this just proves the old adage that you can’t go to the well too many times. Looks like we’ve gotten to that point, doesn’t it? We’ve tapped out generous people, asked them too many times. We’ve got to find some fresh blood in this community!”

Listing to this as she sat across the board table from Jerry, Martha, the owner of a local car dealership reflected that neither Howard nor Jerry really knew anything about motivating donors. She guessed that probably came from their inability to put themselves squarely in the donors’ shoes and see New Arts and its fundraising efforts from the donors’ point of view.

Martha also served on the boards of other charities in town, and she was particularly interested to see that one of those nonprofits, Helping Hand, seemed to have the ability to gather support for whatever they needed, whenever they asked donors. And she knew why. As a car dealership owner and a former top regional salesperson for her manufacturer, she understood that buyers always needed something fresh to respond to. She knew that unless there was another unusual offer on the table, people would go elsewhere. Everyone loves a deal or a new car, new features, new benefits from buying a car. And she suspected the case for support for New Arts was simply getting to be “old hat” for community donors.

Whereas Helping Hand was always adding a new twist or a new feature to their case for support, New Arts hadn’t revamped their case for support in several years. They were talking about the same values, the same services, the same types of exhibits over and over again. It was probably true what Howard had said about not being able to go to the well too many times. Especially if every time you went to the well you had a lazily constructed case for support.
After the board meeting, Martha went to Jerry’s office and knocked on his doorpost.

“Hi, Jerry,” she crooned. “I was really feeling for you this afternoon at the board meeting. Sorry your solicitations haven’t been going well. I know we really need that money to keep ourselves afloat.”

“Oh, come in, Martha. Yes, things are in a bit of a muddle these days,” said Jerry. “I just don’t understand why some of our long time supporters are backing down in their commitments now that we have a really substantial project that could give New Arts a real facelift and keep us chugging along.”

“Well, Jerry, I want to share something with you. I think New Arts’ case for support needs a little shining up. I think we’ve been saying the same things too many times to the same people and it’s not that they’re not supportive of the organization and what it’s trying to do. I think it’s just that we’ve not really expressed our need to them in terms that grab their attention and motivate them to give. There’s no “pizzazz” and nothing to get them excited. You have to have excited donors. You have to give them something to get excited about in order to motivate them to give. They want to see success; they want to be part of the latest happening; they want to have a sense that they’re giving to something new and exciting.”

“Well, I guess that would mean we have to re-vamp our case for support in mid-campaign, then?” He was irritated. “That’s a lot of work right in the midst of things. We’d have to start involving the board members and work our way down. We did that several years ago and it took forever. So I’ve been hanging onto that case for support, not wanting to have to go through that process until it’s absolutely necessary.

“Well, don’t’ you think your current returns show that it’s probably time to do that again?” asked Martha. “Maybe you should consider being open to the possibility that you need to go through it because otherwise your donors aren’t going to respond. Come on, I’ll give you a hand. I know that Development Committee of ours has good intentions, but quite frankly there’s no one on there who really understands customers (and donors) the way I do. Let’s work on it together, shall we? I can show you some good shortcuts with the board that will help get the job done in a third of the time. It will be a lot less painful that you experiences before.”

“Thanks, Martha! I’ll take you up on that offer. Let’s have lunch together next week and we’ll discuss your ideas and see what kinds of next steps we need to take.”

”You’re on, Jerry! I know New Arts can do better than it’s doing right now.”

The Donor Who Helped Himself (cont'd)

“Hi, Brad,” chirped Sam, as he opened the stout oak double doors to his cottage. “What’s happening with you on this gorgeous fall day?”

“Hi, Sam, glad we could get together today.” And after the chit-chat had proceeded for a while, Brad got to the point.

“Sam, can you tell me the history of this parcel of land you want to place in the unitrust?”

“Sure, this piece has a history that only the oldest people around here know about. You wouldn’t believe it by the way things look today, but there used to be a car dealership on that land. That’s how I happened to get hold of it. It was the first car dealership in these parts, and it sold the old Model T’s to lots of folks around here prior to 1930 when it closed. Actually the town’s center was located more over here to the west than it is today. The way it developed through the last fifty years has brought it more to the east where the Interstate runs, but over here was where the town began back in 1855, just before the Civil War.

“Later, when the dealership was long out of existence, it became an eyesore and the property was in a very undesirable condition. That’s when my father bought the whole parcel and later had the place bulldozed and converted back into farmland. Everybody thanked him for removing the old place and thought his idea to farm it was great. I inherited it from him ten years ago when he died and it’s been sitting there every since. It’s not much to look at, because I haven’t rented it out to farmers, just let it lie fallow. But now nature’s taken it over and it looks much like it probably did back when the town was founded.”

Now Brad’s temples began to throb. He knew what was likely to happen; he would have to insist that Sam do both level one and level two testing sequences. That old dealership had probably resulted in considerable oil and gas being drained into the soil and that was going to be a headache. All of a sudden, Brad could see why Sam had structured the gift in this way – he wanted to get the tax deduction for the land and he wanted to charge ahead and put the land in the trust where nobody could touch it for cleanup. Donative intent was only a partial motive; self protection was the other half of the reason Sam was so eager to make this gift.

Brad’s experience with many gifts over the years suggested that donative intent was inversely proportional to the trouble he would have getting the gift completed. He could see that in this situation there would probably be a great deal of trouble. Well, there goes the quarter’s gift report figures, he thought. Right down the drain!

The Donor Who Helped Himself

It was too warm for September, Brad thought, as he drove down the long dirt lane through the pine trees to Sam’s house. He was glad for the coolness of the shade, and he knew that Sam would have the air conditioner going in his cottage. “Cottage” wasn’t exactly the word Brad would use for it. A year-round residence with all the amenities of a castle, Sam’s place was neatly camouflaged as a rustic summer residence most often found in the Upper Peninsula. Sam was one of the wealthier Buick dealers in this mid-Michigan urban complex, and he liked his comforts and gadgets right along with his rustic qualities.

This was Brad’s third visit to Sam’s domain and he was in pursuit of what appeared to be a fairly large planned gift to Torchlight for Children charity for which he was the major and planned gifts officer. He was anxious to wind up this negotiation and secure the gift, because he had worries in the back of his head that all was not as Sam was portraying it, yet he had nothing else to go on except Sam’s word and his enthusiasm for Torchlight.

What Sam wanted to do was set up a charitable remainder unitrust that would be funded now with a parcel of 50 acres of land Sam owned just inside the town’s geographic boundary, and at his death with the proceeds from an insurance policy on which his dealership was currently paying the premiums under its “key man insurance” benefit to him as its general manager. The unitrust, then, would continue for the life of his developmentally disabled son, Roger, to assist with his continued care and supervision. Brad had met Roger on his last visit with Sam and was impressed with the fact that despite his disability, his seven-year-old mind could produce some very insightful comments from time to time, and he had an engaging manner and dry sense of humor.

Brad knew it was a long shot to begin with, but Sam was a long-time board member of Torchlight for Children and an enthusiastic promoter and glad-hander of the charity throughout the community. Brad needed to respect Sam’s wishes and interest in making such a gift, but he also knew that Sam’s interest stemmed in part from his desire to lead the board in making long-term gifts and in part from his need to make sure that Roger was cared for. Sam also needed the tax deduction he would receive when he put the real estate into the trust.

One of the aspects of this gift negotiation that bothered Brad was that Sam was trying to make sure that he would have no outlay of money in setting up this gift. He had asked Brad to draw up the trust document himself, and didn’t want to engage an attorney. Brad, had, of course, declined that offer and insisted that it was Torchlight’s policy never to draft documents for donors. Sam would have to pony up for the lawyer if he wanted to make the gift.

But then there was the matter of the due diligence on the land parcel. Brad had suggested to Sam that he would need to have a level one EPA survey of the land’s content – a search for any contamination that might be present in the soil. But Sam was adamant that Torchlight should provide that $1000 service if they wanted to have this work done. And Brad knew that Torchlight’s policy forbade this – it was the donor’s responsibility to make sure that the gifted real estate was free of contamination of any sort. More than that, he knew that if the level one search turned up even the slightest touch of taint, then Sam would have to stand for a full level two review and Brad knew those were expensive and time-consuming propositions.

So that’s where the negotiation stood at the moment. Brad’s temples began to feel a little touchy as he rang the doorbell.

We'll return to Brad's donor visit tomorrow to see what happens next....

Gerty The Micro-Managing Board Member

We continue our story from yesterday as we continue the Board room discussion about office furniture purchased by the CEO's office.

“What’s wrong with file cabinets?” interjected Mary Spencer, the local beautician and a new board member. “If we need them to function, why not have them?” She was also irritated with Gerty, because she thought that if they could ever stop haggling about these pesky financial issues the board could get on with doing the strategic planning they badly needed to do. It was partly because the organization had no such plan that they were floundering financially. And the word had gotten out to the community just before the financial support from a local foundation and a few area businesses began to drop off. So it was clear that Turn Around was in trouble in a way that only strong direction and a strategic plan would help.

Her thoughts were voiced by Dan Schmidt, who was also a member of the board of the Fenn Charitable Trust, a local foundation that had helped Turn Around with significant grants on more than one occasion.

“What we really need to concentrate on,” said Dan, “is getting to our strategic planning process. Can we just approve this budget and then get on with the task we really must accomplish? It’s important that we concentrate on getting out of this financial morass by raising funds to meet the need, and we can’t do that until we have a case for support, and we can’t do that until we create our strategic plan and know where we’re going.”

“Well fine, then,” said Gerty. “I was just trying to help. But if you don’t want that help, why don’t you just fire me off the board. Obviously I have failed in doing my duty to the Turn Around organization by pointing out that our CEO has not brought to us the need and gotten our approval for that expenditure. She also hasn’t done very well in raising the funds we need to function in this organization. We’re $100,000 off the mark for our fundraising effort, and here we are spending money like crazy! So if you don’t care about that, I’ll just quit.”

“No, there’s no need for that, Gerty,” said Bob. “We want you to be with us and we want your input. We want everyone’s input. Everyone here has important strengths they bring to our board. But perhaps we could move on to other matters, if you have no objection? We do need to get through out agenda today. We have a lot on our plate.”

“I defer to your judgment,” Gerty said as she sat back in her chair. “But I say we need more communication from the CEO in advance for these expenses, and I’m not sure that things are being run as we’d like to have them."

And with that she sulked her way through the rest of the board meeting.

Gerty The Micro-Managing Board Member

Gerty, that was her nickname, looked at the financial report and saw that Cynthia Dickson, the CEO of the Turn Around human services charity, had spent yet another $1000 on office furniture for the fledgling charity. Now in its seventh year, Turn Around was finding money hard to come by and here was another useless expense for something they didn’t need. And why was it, Gerty wondered, that Cynthia hadn’t brought this to the board’s attention before she went out and bought those file cabinets? Honestly, what was this charity coming to anyway?

She had, in this flagrant violation of the unspoken behavior code, just one more proof, as if she needed any, that Cynthia was just not capable of running Turn Around. From the very beginning, Gertrude Steinman knew that her former high school rival on the cheerleading squad couldn’t run that charity. Even in the interviews, as a member of the search committee, Gerty had told herself that Cynthia should be stopped in her tracks. But the other board members had fallen for Cynthia’s line and were so enthusiastic about her education, experience and ability, that Gerty didn’t dare speak against her no matter how she felt.

Then, during one of the first board meetings after she had become Turn Around’s new CEO, Cynthia had made the mistake of allowing the board to review her financial plan for the year. Gerty saw her chance, dived in, and never let go. Over the past three years, she had repeatedly questioned all the major expenses and many of the minor ones every time a financial report was given to the board. Slowly, she hoped, she was building the case against Cynthia that would one day see her thrown out of that position and dumped unceremoniously on the streets of the community without a flashy CEO’s job, and that would be all to the good.

“Bob,” she addressed the board president, “I just don’t see why we have to be spending $1000 on file cabinets when we have much more need in creating programs for these children. How can we go to the public and ask for funds when we have these kinds of priorities? It makes us look bad and our cost for administration is now up to at least 11 cents on the dollar. Isn’t that too high? We really should conserve all our revenue for use in our programs. These kinds of expenses are, well, rather frivolous, if you ask me.”

“But we had to have those file cabinets,” Cynthia chimed in. “Otherwise where would we put all the records and files? We can’t run the programs without adequate storage. It’s not an exorbitant expense in a budget of a half million dollars, and we recently received federal guidelines that indicated we’re well within their parameters for administrative expenses. I don’t’ see what the problem is here.”

“Besides,” said Arthur Means, the treasurer, and a community leader who ran the village’s long-established accounting firm, “what’s a few bucks for office furniture when you need the stuff to function?” He was tired of Gerty’s continually raising problematic issues he saw as unimportant for the board’s consideration. He was much more interested in trying to raise the funds they needed to put the budget ahead.

We'll let the Board continue to stew over this little problem, and rejoin them tomorrow morning.