Tag Archives: Guidestar

The Financial Health of Our Organizations: AMTA

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This is the fourth year that I have reported on the financial status of the non-profit organizations that represent the massage therapy profession. I am not an accountant or a financial expert. The information is taken from Guidestar, a clearinghouse where you can look up the financial filings of non-profits.

This blog has been revised–after I posted the original blog, Guidestar posted AMTA’s latest 990. Since non-profits have a different filing schedule that the rest of us, it is not unusual for the “latest” 990 appearing on the website to be a year old or more. This revision reflects the 2012 filing. It was signed in October of 2012 and just made it to the Guidestar site within the past week. Thank you to Rachel Mann, VP of AMTA Board of Directors, for bringing it to my attention.

The American Massage Therapy Association is showing a net revenue of over $419K, compared to their loss for the previous year of almost $110K. Glad to see they’re out of the hole.

The revenue increased over $600K from the previous year.

AMTA compensates the members of their elected Board of Directors, in amounts ranging from $5000 for members-at-large to almost $40K for the President (during this filing, that was Glenath Moyle.) Executive Director Shelly Johnson was paid almost $261K–a drastic cut from the $316K plus almost $10K in “other” compensation that was paid out on the 2011 filing to the immediate past ED, Elizabeth Sublewski (aka Liz Lucas).  Sublewski also received severance pay of over $82,000 on the 2011 return. On the 2012 return, she received almost $260K….apparently, it was quite expensive to the organization to get Sublewski off the job. My hope is that in the future, AMTA will negotiate executive contracts that are more favorable to the organization. Total salaries accounted for about 3.5 million; that is actually almost $500K less than they were the year before.

Over $11 million dollars worth of AMTA’s revenue came directly from membership dues. The remaining revenue is derived from sales of literature, convention sponsorships and booths, advertising, and investments.

AMTA has the same kind of expenses that any other business or organization does–office supplies, information technology, advertising, postage, banking and credit card processing fees, and so forth. None of it looks out of line, considering the size of the organization. AMTA represents over 57,000 members. They’ve seen recessions come and go and have survived them all. As a long-standing member myself, I have never seen service suffer in any way, whether it was a fat year or a lean year.

As an aside, I hear that Executive Director Shelly Johnson is stepping down later this spring to spend more time with family. She has done an excellent job during the 8 years she spent as Deputy Director, and since she stepped up into the ED position in 2010. She will be missed by the organization, and I wish her the best of luck.

Transparency

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Transparency, when defined in the context of non-profit organizations and public boards, implies that said organizations are accountable to those they represent, that meetings and communications are open, that full financial disclosures are made public, and that all business practices are an open book. It’s an ethical obligation.

I’ve recently posted on my blog my second annual series of reports on the financial health of the non-profit organizations representing the massage profession. As my disclosure states, I am neither an accountant nor a financial expert. All of the information I used to prepare my blogs was taken directly from www.guidestar.org

Guidestar was founded in 1994 as a clearinghouse of information on non-profit organizations. The IRS Form 990 and any other filings required of non-profit organizations, as well as other data collected by them, is published on the website. They have data on every entity registered with the IRS as a non-profit organization.

It is a rule of the IRS that information on non-profits is publicly disclosed, including the compensation of key personnel. The organizations listed with Guidestar have the opportunity to post their filings themselves, and if they choose not to do that, Guidestar gets it straight from the IRS. I want to make it clear that the information I blogged was not some big secret that I received from one of my anonymous sources. It is public information and anyone who goes to the trouble to look it up can find it. I just saved you the trouble by publishing it in my blog, for those who are interested.

I almost went into a state of shock when I received an e-mail from one of our leaders who was upset with me for publishing that compensation. The statement they made to me was that it was their personal and private information–sorry, but that ain’t so, when you work for a non-profit–and that I was doing more harm than good by publishing it, that it would be taken out of context and that while others who administrate non-profits would understand, that the average massage therapist would not understand why their pay is what it is. I actually did not imply in any way that the person was overpaid, because I don’t believe they are. I call it like I see it and if I thought that, I would certainly say so.

I conducted a little informal poll on Facebook, and out of 51 responses, 50 of them agreed that I was promoting transparency by printing the information. The one dissent actually wasn’t a dissent; it was more of a sympathy note of understanding why people don’t want their salary revealed.

If you work for a for-profit company, then it’s certainly your prerogative to keep your income a secret–to a point–because even large corporations have to disclose the salary of their top brass. And if you work for a non-profit, especially one that claims to promote transparency, then disclosure is a given–as well it should be.

The Financial Health of Our Organizations: FSMTB

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This is my second year of doing an annual report on the financial status of the major non-profit organizations of the massage therapy profession. I am not an accountant or a financial expert. This information was taken directly from FORM 990, the Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, which is published on Guidestar.

If there’s such a thing as a poster child for good finances in these economic times, it’s the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards.

It was reported at last month’s annual meeting that the Federation had paid off their $700,000 start-up loan 27 months early.

The 990 shows an increase in total revenues of over $1.2 million from the previous year, a decrease in liabilities, and an increase in assets. Of course expenses increased, but when revenues take that big a jump, so do the expenses related to generating those revenues, particularly the money paid to the exam administration company. That amount increased about $600K, due to the rapid increase in the number of students taking the exam. The Federation’s revenues come from the MBLEx and from the annual dues paid by the member boards, currently numbering 40.

Executive Director Debra Persinger received an annual raise of $38,500. The FSMTB also moved into more spacious offices in Overland Park, KS this year and as announced at the 2009 meeting, added another staff member. Persinger had previously been the sole employee since the inception of the Federation.

One noteworthy point is that the Board members of the FSMTB are not compensated at all, other than their travel expenses to and from meetings and expenses directly related to Board business. According to the filing, Board members spend 10-15 hours per week on FSMTB business. As a state Board member myself, I can relate to that.  Serving on any Board is time-consuming. The FSMTB Board members deserve recognition for serving without any per diem.

Congratulations to the FSMTB for doing such an impressive job in the middle of a recession.

The Financial Health of Our Organizations: AMTA

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This marks the second year I have reported on the financial health of the non-profit organizations that represent the massage profession. I am not an accountant or a financial expert. The information reported here comes directly from Form 990 as filed with the IRS; non-profits are obligated to make their tax reports public knowledge, and these can be easily accessed on Guidestar.

Last year I reported that the American Massage Therapy Association had taken a hard hit from the recession. The AMTA has gone through some major changes this year, not the least of which was the sudden departure of Elizabeth Lucas, the former Executive Director. Lucas’ compensation accounts for a big chunk of change on the filing, $279,438 to be exact, almost $6000 less than last year. Shelly Johnson, the former Assistant Executive Director who is currently Interim Executive Director, actually received $14,000 more in 2009 than she did the previous year. I personally support Shelly for moving permanently into Lucas’ vacated position; I do have to say, however, that I thought Lucas was overcompensated and I hope that the next ED, whomever it is, will not be getting more money than the governor of most states, which was formerly the situation. Compensation overall increased by $144,004. Since the membership dues collected went down by over $150,000, and the total revenues have declined by $459,000 since the previous year, I have to wonder why we’re paying out more money to provide services for less people.

The balance sheet shows accounts payable of almost $3.5 million and accounts receivable of only $241K.

AMTA spent $40K less on lobbyists during the 2009 fiscal year than 2008. I’m not sure that’s a good move, unless the organization is sending out board members in place of the lobbyists. When it comes to protecting the legal rights of massage therapists and putting a stop to detrimental legislation, I think that’s one of the obligations of this organization to the stakeholders. I’d rather see the lobbyists paid and that money cut somewhere else.

Travel expenses were cut again this year by about 15K, but office expenses rose by more than twice that amount. In fairness, total functional expenses decreased by $568K, so they’re saving money somewhere. Total net assets declined; total liabilities increased, which is still a move in the wrong direction.  Grants and assistance to organizations declined by over $265,000. The main beneficiary of that money has in the past been the Massage Therapy Foundation; hence Ruth Werner’s presentation at the open BOD meeting in Minneapolis about the necessity of seeking other partners to support the Foundation sounds all the more like a good plan to me.

AMTA is certainly not alone in being fiscally challenged by the economy. In the coming weeks I will be reporting on financial status of the other non-profit organizations. I need to say that I am a card-carrying member of AMTA, and reporting on their finances is obligatory to me as one who tries to keep up with what’s going on in the world of massage and keep my readers informed. I report the news, whether it’s good or bad, and that doesn’t always suit everybody all of the time. I don’t apologize for it.