SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2018
Boys & Girls from 1A
The solution was to put the
older teens in QCCF and keep the
junior high kids in the main
building.
But QCCF has its issues. It’s
located next to Siuslaw Middle
School, a few miles away from
the main building. And the interi-
or is specifically designed for
preschool.
BGC will have to spend
money both on redesigning the
building and physically moving
the building next to the current
BGC headquarters.
By doing that, the club ulti-
mately hopes to save money.
Instead of hiring additional staff
to work in its current location,
existing staff can easily walk
back and forth between the two
buildings when they are on the
same property.
However, the move is not fully
funded. While the majority of
funds have been set aside, there is
still a “significant” shortfall,
according to Davis. The board
declined to give exact figures.
BGC is currently applying for
grants to cover the remainder of
the cost, but the grants are not
guaranteed.
While exact figures on how
many grants end up getting fund-
ed are scarce, a 2004 report pro-
vided by the Foundation Growth
and Giving Estimates found that
of organizations that receive 50
proposals or less a year, only 38
percent awarded at least half of
their proposals.
If the club is not awarded the
grants it has applied for, the over-
all budgetary shortfall the club is
experiencing could balloon even
further.
Whether or not it can raise the
funds, the club is locked into the
move. The foundation has
already been set, concrete
poured. The move was supposed
to occur in September, but an
issue with the availability of the
planned moving company forced
the club to change companies,
rescheduling the move to later
this winter or early spring.
The Siuslaw News was unable
to confirm why the move was
unable to be funded before work
began.
Planning for and funding the
future isn’t the only cost inflation
that the club is facing. With the
elementary program taking off,
staffing costs have risen sharply
in the past year.
Beyond babysitting
A review of the club’s 2016
financial report showed that
salaries, payroll taxes and work-
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ers’ compensation equaled
$123,359. Since then, the club
has hired additional paid staff,
including Davis, Teen Center per-
sonnel including a cook and addi-
tional aides in the elementary
program.
While the club was still tally-
ing its 2017 financials (due for
public disclosure in May), pay-
roll more than doubled to approx-
imately $270,000, Davis said.
That amount does include
planned additional staffing later
in the year.
The board defends the extra
staffing as a way to provide better
childcare.
In 2014, the club was severely
understaffed. The elementary
program only had a few paid
positions. While a single day in
the program could see up to 90
children attending the program,
there could be as little as three
paid staff to look over them, leav-
ing a 30:1 ratio of children to
instructors. This made it difficult
for staff to properly look after the
children, let alone provide oppor-
tunities like tutoring or additional
education that would supplement
public school programs.
Now, the program looks to
ensure a 15:1 ratio of children to
staff, a goal set by the Boys and
Girls Club of America.
“One of the reasons for that is
we’re trying to make sure we
actually know what the kids are
doing,” Nivilinszky said. “We
had some parents in the past who
were upset because there was
some bullying going on. That’s
not to say that if you have a large
ratio of kids to aides, you can’t
keep an eye on every one of
them, but it’s about ensuring safe-
ty among the kids and making
sure we’re able to help them.”
By upping the ratio, BGC
believes it will increase youth
safety and allow the program to
focus on learning.
“I would say the club has made
a major shift in focus over the last
few years,” Davis said, “by liter-
ally transitioning from a glorified
babysitter program to a profes-
sional program that has a purpose
— and that has a goal in mind to
see these kids and help them be
all that they can be.”
But to become that, the club
feels, they need a dedicated staff.
For example, while the ele-
mentary program’s hours are pri-
marily after school lets out,
Gauderman works full time,
working on programming during
the day, teaching her aides pro-
gramming before the children
arrive and then working with the
children.
This is during the school year.
In the summer months,
Gauderman and her aides work
all day with the children. This
creates a larger staffing increase
(and greater costs) during the
summer months, meaning longer
hours for Gauderman and her
aides.
While volunteers help offset
the staff’s workload, and the
board believes it needs more vol-
unteers to help, the board does
not think that volunteers can fully
staff the program.
“It’s just as feasible as having
volunteers run the school district
or running the hospital. You need
paid professionals,” Davis said.
The past executive director,
Trent, was essentially a volunteer,
earning just $1 a year. But he was
working fulltime hours in a time
in his life when he had already
reached retirement. Last year,
Trent stepped down from the
position and rejoined the board.
Davis has stepped into the
executive director position,
accompanied with a full salary.
Pearson said, “That’s what
people are generally against, say-
ing, ‘I don’t want to pay for oper-
ations and all your salaries.’
Without the salaries, there would-
n’t be any programs to give to
these kids. We have to have pro-
fessionals that are dealing with
the children to make sure they
know their stuff. That’s really a
big misunderstanding that a lot of
people have about our organiza-
tion. The majority of our costs are
base salaries.”
Another problem facing BGC
is board burnout.
“We have very passionate indi-
viduals
on
the
board,”
Nivilinszky said. “Our board is
working full hours. And those
who aren’t working full time
have families and jobs to support.
A large part of this is we want to
do more fundraisers, but I just
don’t think it’s possible.”
Pearson, who has been helping
to run the annual summer Fore
Kids Golf Tournament for eight
years, wouldn’t call his current
state “burnout,” but he is seeing a
toll.
“I actually have a job,” he
said. “And I’ve been kind of
ignoring that. I’m doing two
things not very well. I’m not
doing that job very well and I’m
not doing this job very well. And
I’m frustrated. That’s my biggest
thing. I wish I could spend all my
time working on Boys and Girls
stuff. There’s enough work to jus-
tify doing that, but I just can’t.
I’ve got too much other work to
do.”
Extra staff and more volun-
teers leads to additional costs.
Every volunteer and employee
has to go through a screening
process and background check
that adds to the bottom line.
“And we have to run those for
every volunteer, every employee,
every board member, every
year,” Davis said.
This is to ensure the safety of
the children.
“I would want all volunteers to
be screened,” Nivilinszky said. “I
wouldn’t let my kids come here if
it was 100 percent volunteer
based.”
Despite all of the extra costs,
Davis states the result of not
funding salaries would lead to a
reduction in children served.
“The only way we can trim our
costs is by letting staff go,” Davis
said. “And if we let staff go, we
have to cut back on the number of
kids we serve. So which child
would you like to say, ‘I’m sorry,
we can’t let you into the Boys and
Girls Club because we don’t have
the money?’”
Restricted funds
Paying for the staff has pre-
sented challenges to the club.
The staff, as well as other oper-
ational costs like utilities, are paid
through unrestricted funds. That
is, the money is not set aside for
specific projects.
Specialized projects, like reno-
vations to a building, are often
funded through restricted funds.
These funds can only be used for
their specific purpose.
Generally, restricted funds
come from a variety of sources:
grants, endowments, donations,
etc. Charitable organizations who
award grants like to see their
funds going to a specific, finished
goal that they can closely keep
track of. And the duration of the
grant can be limited so the fun-
ders can move on to different
nonprofits to spread their wealth.
Operational costs are funded
primarily through donations and
interest off investments that come
from sources like endowments.
However, it can be difficult to
rely on these types of funding
sources. And national trends
point to a particularly difficult
year for BGC, as well as non-
profits across the nation.
Currently, on paper, the club is
not insolvent. As of right now, it
projects a $13,000 surplus at the
end of the year. But that amount
is not guaranteed.
“That’s assuming that some
7 A
big fundraising events happen
and are successful,” Davis said.
“But the problem with most
organizations is cash flow. I heard
one time that 80 percent of pri-
vate businesses that go bankrupt
are showing a profit on paper. But
cash flow kills them. We’re in
that situation because the summer
is the most expensive time of the
year, and it’s the time we bring in
the least amount of money.”
The $13,000 is essentially an
estimate — it can only be
achieved through reaching the
donated income sources for the
year.
This type of accounting is not
unique to BGC. Most nonprofits
create budgets on projects, basing
their financials on last year’s
donation receipts.
For example, $50,000 of that
total is expected to be raised
through a November/December
push for donations, according to
Davis. The period is traditionally
a boon for nonprofit giving.
Those amounts are not guaran-
teed, particularly when newly
developing national economic
factors come into play. One of
these is the Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act, passed by Congress in 2017,
is expected to discourage charita-
ble donations. A Dec. 29 report
by Market Watch explained the
change:
“The new law nearly doubles
the standard deduction — the
amount everyone is allowed to
subtract from their taxable
income — to $12,000 for singles
(up from $6,350 for 2017) and
$24,000 for married couples who
file jointly (up from $12,700).
That’s seen as bad news for char-
ities because taxpayers will have
less of an incentive to itemize
their deductions to reduce their
taxable income. And that means
people who have donated to char-
ity — whether in part or entirely
— as a way to get a tax deduction
may be less likely to do so.”
Complicating the matter is the
stock market volatility seen in the
past few weeks, where the Dow
Jones dropped 1,600 points, the
biggest point decline in history
during a trading day, according to
a Feb. 5 report by CNN.
Volatility in the stock market is
normal. In fact, the upward gains
of the market in recent years was
decidedly abnormal, and the
economy is healthy, according to
the CNN report.
However, CNN also reported
that the “mysteriously low infla-
tion may be ending.” It’s possible
that interest rates will increase,
along with inflation, which could
eat into the record-high corporate
profits seen over the last few
years.
See
BOYS & GIRLS 8A
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