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FINANCIAL OVERVIEW OF 2022
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW OF 2022
Last year was a financially difficult year, no matter how you slice it. We viewed it as a year of rebuilding for our programming. However, regrowth in the areas of corporate sponsorship and donations fell well below our hopes.
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We were ready and willing to return to a full schedule of events and performances, demanding our time and money. But, financial support to go along with those live events still has not caught up to our expectations. In some cases, weather and unforeseen circumstances reduced attendance. For example, summer storms and flooding kept audiences away from Downtown Charleston the night of Some Kind of Funny's premiere. Or, that moving Creative Misfits LIVE! to a Saturday night seemed to detract from people's availability to attend - contrary to our predictions for making such a change.
In some cases, the only remedy is luck. In other cases, its learning from those pitfalls and adjusting for the future. In any case, increased visibility and awareness encourages support.
With a return to a full year of regular programming, we're now better able to track, predict, and refine our plans, because our information is now more robust We continue pushing to do better creatively and encourage support commensurate to our HEARTist's excellent work.
REVENUE: MEMBERSHIPS, FUNDRAISING, AND GRANTS
Our total revenue for 2022 was just over $155,000, a significant downturn from 2021, and even more so compared to 2019 (our last “normal” year). Some key areas to highlight include:
Total Contributions (sponsors and donations) came in at approximately $41,000 for 2022 Again, this falls short of the previous year's actual contributions and well below our needs or expectations We continue to depend on contributions from individuals and for-profit companies to support programming at a reasonable cost to our members.
Program Services (Membership Fees) revenue was just under $70,000, 6% below projections for the year
Grants were sparse for the year, with only one award of $1,000 from the Henry and Sylvia Yaschik Foundation in support of Disability Pride.
A full year of Fundraising Events occurred for the first time since the shutdown While HEART's original musical productions were once HEART's largest fundraising efforts, 2022 fell dismally short of expectations and needs, just breaking even for the cost and labor needed to pull it off All told, about 25% of the expense budget drew from existing funds rather than new revenue
On a positive note, total expenditures came in below budget, using just under 95% of the expected expenses budget
SCHOLARSHIPS
HEART Program Services revenue consists primarily of membership fees from HEARTists, their families, and caregivers. But we only report “net revenue” in Program Services, which means that financial aid is not included in either our revenue or expense disclosure Yet we believe that financial aid is an important metric and is deserving of some additional color HEART has continued its goal of providing scholarship support to those HEARTists who have a desire to participate but not the financial resources. In 2022, we were able to support 9 HEARTists with scholarships of varying sizes totaling almost $28,000 awarded for membership fee assistance HEART is proud to have a core group of about 10 patrons whose monthly contributions support nearly 13% of our financial aid offerings.
OPERATING EXPENSES
A full year of events for HEART now consists of three major events: a full scale original musical production, Disability Pride, and Creative Misfits. On top of these public events, HEART takes an out-of-state vacation with members, providing an opportunity for us all to enjoy time together away from family and caregivers amongst friends and peers. These events are labor and cost intensive, to say the least, but offer multitudes of benefits to every member who participates with us throughout the year. Despite the scale of these events, we were able to contain expenditures and stay within the year's expected expense budget.
Our largest unexpected costs in 2022 were associated with the maintenance of our transit vans On two unrelated occasions, a side mirror on each of our vans was stolen or damaged Also, repairs were needed to a rear panel and window of one van, the entire air conditioning needed replacing on the other van, and both were due for manufacturer recommended maintenance this year Lastly, we saw an increase in our vehicle insurance this year. Altogether, these costs blew our transportation budget out of the water We depend on our trusty vans to keep us active and involved in the community all year They are an expense we simply cannot do without, so their care and repairs are essential We are grateful to those donors who contributed to help cover those unexpected costs and keep our vans rolling
Program expenses like supplies, equipment, and activities came in approximately 42% below our budget This is thanks, in large part, to massive in-kind donations of art supplies and materials from donors like Rough House Pictures, the late artist Linda Churchill and her husband, Ted Churchill, as well as interior design supply scavenger Lucy Chastain.
In terms of expense efficiency, we continue to believe we are at the top of performance for nonprofit organizations Crucially, donors and funding bodies are beginning to recognize the importance of supporting operational expenses as a foundation to program support In short, an organization cannot function without labor, and quality consistent labor requires operational expenses
Still, we work hard to keep our G&A expense low, and at 5 4% of total spending, we believe we met that objective Our continued objective is to focus our spending where we can have the biggest impact –growing our HEART community and the programming to support HEARTists in realizing their own growth potential.
