[Foundation-l] Building up the reserves

[Andrew Gray]

On 3 March 2010 13:35, effe iets anders <effeietsanders at gmail.com> wrote:
> I assume you do realize that this 12.5M is /after/ the fundraiser, hence
> including the huge amount of donations that has been raised?

...as, indeed, was last December's glut.

Looking at both mid-year and end-year reports, the cashflow status
becomes clearer:

Assets (cash) versus monthly running costs (estimated)

mid-2007 - - - - - $1m
end-2007 - - - - - $2.3m - - - - - $0.21m - - - - - 11 mos.
mid-2008 - - - - - $3m - - - - - ($0.32m) - - - - - 9 mos.
end-2008 - - - - - $6.7m - - - - - $0.43m - - - - - 15 mos.
mid-2009 - - - - - $6.2m - - - - - ($0.54m) - - - - - 11 mos.
end-2009 - - - - - $12.5m - - - - - $0.65m - - - - - 19 mos.

Reserves jump dramatically each year-end report, but then idle until
the next fundraiser - as running costs increase roughly linearly,
though, the average number of months funding in reserve seesaws.

I don't know what's considered a normal margin to have - I'd presume
around a year or so is considered quite good - but hopefully someone
more au fait with standard practice in the field could enlighten us.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk