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Finances

Photo: Jan Stürmann

Women at the monthly meeting of their Self-Help Group.

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Reviewing IDEX’s Financials

A few things we think every donor should consider when reading any organization’s audits or tax filings:

Many years we receive grants that are meant to be spent over a two-year period or longer. In that case, we might show a big “surplus.” Or, sometimes you’ll see what looks like a deficit, but the funds might have arrived in a prior year.

That’s why we think you should look at long-term trends. If you look at assets (sort of like a savings account) over the span of a few years, you will see if the piggy bank is growing or shrinking.

Effective and Efficient

Overhead is a popular subject for a lot of donors. Who doesn’t want her gift to help the end beneficiary?

Consider this: you as a donor should also want us to pay the rent, salaries, and lights that make our good work possible, right?

There is nothing “wasted” in paying talented staff who find, monitor, and help grow the incredible work that is meaningful to you. And while paying for board insurance, audits or filing fees is about as much fun as paying for car repairs, as upstanding citizens we consistently do this.

IDEX’s overhead is around 18 to 19%. This is healthy and well within the norms for human services, especially for a modest-size organization.

At the end of the day, effectiveness is the point of the work. It’s good to be efficient. It’s crucial that we be effective (otherwise what is the point, right?). It’s best to be both and that’s our goal.

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Note that IDEX’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.