Finance & Stewardship Commitee
Our Finances
The Finance & Stewardship Committee supports the Meeting through fund raising, accounts management, budgeting, and longer-term planning. It attempts to translate into dollars and cents the spirit of the Meeting’s temporal activities and to mobilize the needed funding.
The Committee identifies the general operating costs, committee expenses, and support for organizations and projects beyond the Meeting that are in keeping with Meeting policies and leadings. Annually, the Committee recommends to Meeting for Business an operating budget to meet these needs. The Committee also develops, with the Property Committee and staff, a capital budget for expenditures, other than routine maintenance, to preserve Meeting property and provide longer-lived equipment; most of the financing of the capital budget comes from the Capital Reserve Fund.
The Committee develops plans for annual giving and other fund raising, encouragement of bequests and other planned giving, and, with Trustees, a capital campaign as needed. The Committee is also responsible for communicating the financial needs of the Meeting to members and attenders, so that those who are part of the various Meeting communities may provide financial and other material support to the Meeting.
The Committee exercises broad oversight of the Meeting’s financial management; this oversight is in consultation with Trustees, where the budget involves disbursement from bequests, endowment funds as permissible, or the Building Campaign Fund. Day-to-day financial matters are conducted by the staff. The Committee is responsible for the oversight of the Bookkeeper.
The Treasurer, Administrative Secretary and Financial Coordinator are ex officio members of this Committee. The Clerk of this Committee or a designee is a corresponding member of the BYM Stewardship and Finance Committee.
FMW’s fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30. At every year’s May Meeting for Business, the F&S Committee makes a first presentation of the budget for the coming fiscal year. This draft lies over for one month to provide Friends time to consider the budget in detail and to forward questions and concerns to the F&S Committee. The final budget is presented for approval at the June Meeting.
The following table shows two budget items for each fiscal year. The "Summary Budget" shows the overall FMW budget. The "Detail Budget" shows the budget broken down by category. For instance, each FMW committee has a separate page in the detail budget. Each of the budgets shows the actual results for the prior fiscal year. For example, the FY2017 summary budget shows the FY2016 results as well as the FY2016 budget.
Every year, the Trustees of FMW authorize an audit. Every three years this is a full audit and the other two years are auditors' reviews.
FMW funds are invested through Friends Fiduciary which delivers socially responsible, cost-effective returns, and specialized accounting for Quaker organizations.
Our goal is to ensure the confidentiality of donations to Friends Meeting of Washington. Our Donor Bill of Rights explains how we assure that confidentiality.
The following FAQ answers some of the most frequently asked questions about the apportionment, the apportionment and how it is communicated to FMW.
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Apportionment is the process by which Monthly Meetings within Baltimore Yearly Meeting sustain the operation of their Yearly Meeting. The share of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s annual budget that is contributed by each of its member Monthly Meetings is commonly called “the apportionment”.
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The total apportionment collected from Monthly Meetings is used to cover expenses associated with the daily operation of the organization, but amounts are not allocated to specific line items in the BYM budget. Typical categories of operating expenses include program costs, office equipment and supplies, utilities, and staff salaries. Apportionment monies are not directed to endowment or held in reserve; that is, the full amount is applied to operating expenses each year.
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BYM’s Stewardship and Finance Committee (S&F) recommends an apportionment amount for each Monthly Meeting using a formula that takes into account such factors as the Monthly Meeting’s number of contributing households and its general financial condition. The formula was published by the Committee in 1998 as a means of applying an equitable basis for apportioning the operating needs of our Yearly Meeting among its member Monthly Meetings. The formula is applied to data collected from each Monthly Meeting once a year by the BYM office via a letter to the appropriate clerk.
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Each spring, BYM’s Stewardship and Finance Committee holds an open meeting on the topic of apportionment to which members of Monthly Meetings' respective Finance Committees are invited. This is a time for the representatives of Monthly Meetings to raise questions and concerns. At this meeting, the preliminary apportionment figures may be modified if there are special circumstances that the Committee is asked to take into consideration. The amounts agreed upon are brought to Annual Session in August, where they are adopted as part of the BYM budget for the following year. The final figures are published in the BYM Yearbook (page 146 in 2008).
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Smaller Meetings often pay their apportionment in one lump sum. Many larger Monthly Meetings opt to make their payments quarterly (January, April, July, October), which helps both these Monthly Meetings and the Yearly Meeting maintain a predictable cash flow. Beginning in 2009, the BYM office plans to send a mid-year statement/reminder to each Monthly Meeting.
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Historically, nearly all of the BYM operating budget was comprised of apportionment contributions from member Meetings. As costs have risen, apportionment levels have not kept pace with the operating costs of the YM. Many individuals and households who affirm the value of BYM programs and projects now also choose to contribute to their Yearly Meeting.