Notes to proposed budget 2017 – 2020

The following comments and notes are intended to explain assumptions made within the preparation of the proposed budget for 2017 – 2020 for consideration and approval by the 9th General Assembly.

  1. The budget document includes our Actual results for 2015,
    the annual approved budget for 2016 and the pro forma budgets proposed for each of the four years of the next quadrennial.
  2. The proposed budget does not include any significant increases or decreases in revenues or expenses but rather reflects a continuation of our present activities.
  3. We have reflected a cost of living increase to both membership fee revenues as well as most of our expenditures.
    The increase is calculated at approximately 2.5% per year which is the average rate of inflation in Canada, where the WBU office is located.
  4. The budget has been carefully developed to ensure that we maintain a minimum of $100,000 in unrestricted net assets in order to ensure our financial solvency. This $100,000 as
    the minimum threshold in unrestricted net assets was agreed to at the 7th General Assembly in 2008. Most years reflect a modest surplus in order to help build up our unrestricted reserves to a more secure level; however, after the end of
    the FOSI funded Marrakesh project, we do incur modest deficits in 2018 and 2019. Over the course of the four-year period, however, we do anticipate an increase in our unrestricted funds balance.
  5. Our revenues assume that members will pay their membership fees on an annual basis, that we continue to receive sponsorship from our key supporting members, and that we generate funds through external sources. As noted above,
    we have reflected a modest 2.5% per year annual increase in membership fees; we will also be reviewing the fee category status of our national members as a result of examining
    the four international social and economic indices that are used to categorize the income levels of our members. It is expected that any adjustments required will be implemented gradually over the quadrennium.
  6. In the calculation of the membership fees that are presented in this budget, we will have already deducted $40,000 per year to put aside for the 2020 General Assembly. As has been explained at other times, these funds are placed into a GA deferred revenue account and are then recognized as revenues during the year of the General Assembly.
    In the budget document then you will see both the revenues and expenditures for the General Assembly reflected in 2016 and 2020.
  7. We have included approved project funds in both our revenues and expenditures. The two current projects are the Marrakesh Project that is funded by the Open Society Institute Foundation for a total of $300,000 over 2016 and 2017 and $75,000 from CBM to support our Human rights and Advocacy efforts.
    Any other projects that might be undertaken during the quadrennial are expected to reflect full cost recovery as well as a small contribution towards our administrative costs.
  8. Membership fee revenues reflect our experience during the this past quadrennium; most members are submitting their fees at the new fee level unless fee relief has been requested and agreed to.However, we still do have members who have not submitted fees at all during this past quadrennial period and some have not from even the prior quadrennial. We have been incurring an expenditure of over $20,000 each year to write down these unpaid fees which we have to recognize as receivables until they are paid (or written off if we feel there is no chance of collection). We have reflected a continuation of these write down expenditures in the contingency column of our expenses, but have reduced the amount each year, hoping that these non-paying members will begin to meet their financial obligations to the WBU.
  9. Expenditures assume Officers and Executive meetings occurring at the same frequency as during this past quadrennium.
  10. Funds have been allocated to support the work of project/ working group expenses. No specific committee or working groups have been identified: rather these will be determined by the Officers following the development of the Strategic Plan and the groups needed to carry out the strategies and initiatives identified within the plan.
  11. Office expenses reflect a modest year over year increase with our present staffing complement of three staff (CEO, Communications Officer and Administrative Assistant).
    It should be noted that the WBU office now incorporates all financial management, administrative and communications functions of the WBU including maintenance of
    the membership list, translations, website, production and distribution of materials on behalf of the membership.
  12. It is recognized that we are still heavily reliant on our members for the payment of fees and, in the case of a few members, for additional sponsorship of our work.
    And while it had been our hope that the dependency on certain members for sponsorship would have been eliminated by now, this has unfortunately not been the case as we have been unable to generate sufficient external revenues to replace these sponsorship funds.While we have been successful with obtaining some project funds, most project funders will not fund administration expenses or will only fund at less than 10% so this is not a viable source of revenue for us.
    We will therefore need to ask our current sponsors to continue their support in order to ensure the sustainability of our operations. And we will request other members who have
    the capability and who are not currently sponsors, to consider providing sponsorship support.
  13. This budget does not reflect any potential impact of assuming the assets and obligations of the World Braille Foundation when these are transferred over to the WBU. Because these assets will be held in designated deferred revenue funds and any WBF scholarship expenditures will be paid from these same designated deferred revenue funds,
    we do not anticipate any significant impact to WBU’s financial position.
  14. All revenue and expenditure assumptions are based on there being no significant variation between the Canadian and US$.
  15. It is understood that this proposed budget reflects
    the assumptions noted above based on our best ability to project revenues and expenditures at this time. It is also
    a balance of utilizing the revenues that we can generate from membership fees, member sponsorships and fundraising efforts to provide the best service possible to our members and for the benefit of blind and partially sighted persons throughout the world who we represent. It will also be critically important to monitor the budget and these assumptions rigorously throughout the term in order to make adjustments as circumstances require.This quadrennial budget will form
    the basis of annual detailed budgets for approval by the Officers, which will more closely reflect the revenue opportunities and expenditure expectations during those specific timeframes.

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