The Michael Paul Wein Charitable Foundation

"Underpromise and Overdeliver"

some details
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As our grants to you and other organizations continue to increase in amount each year, we MUST have reliable financial statements (and since we believe you need them for your own boards, they must be the same ones you give to your board). They must include a statement of all receipts and all expenditures as well as a year end statement of assets (or cash). They must be reconciled to one another.  They must have useful comparative information (such as last year, this year, original budget for this year, next year budget, etc. as well as explanations for variations between years and from original projections). And, most importantly, they must meet normal rules for financial statement reporting, chiefly consistency and/or disclosure rules.   See more information at financial-examples.   We are very interested in observing that your financial statements clearly disclose: 

  1. We are, and your board should be, interested in what percentage of total receipts is actually given to your grantees (for your mission) and how this trend is changing from year to year?  Is this ascertainable easily on your financial statements?
  2. We are interested in any "net" fund-raising results.  Do you show the results of fund-raising AND its associated costs separately and then as a net?  Is this ascertainable easily on your financial statements?

And we are interested in being told the answers to the following:

  1. We want to know whether or not your financial statements are sent to any and all parties requesting them (whether or not they are part of your constituents)?    And are they the same ones that this Foundation receives and are your board members receiving at least as much information as that which we receive?
  2. Are your officers and principal executives lifelong inhabitants of their positions or do you turnover such positions so that new ideas can take hold?
  3. Are your meetings open to some sort of public scrutiny (or attendance)?

We suggest you read our web-pages on audit procedures and internal control and then comment on YOUR situation and YOUR adherence to these normal procedures

So that everyone saves time and understands what someone is referring to in an email, we suggest that you, as do we, use "reply" as a common email tool.  As a result, an email for any one year might look something like the following:

>>>Some one asks a question or makes a comment

>>The responder to the above states their response on the next line

>a later question of, or comment on, the above appears on the next line

A still later question or comment appears on the still next line

The email (if it went back and forth 4 times - (original, reply#1, reply#2, reply#3) might look like the above 4 lines.  Depending upon each party's software the caret (which looks like this: >) might not be present and instead, for example, each individual line might be preceded by a (|) or a (||) mark.   But, the important thing to remember is that nothing gets disturbed (or edited out or amended out) and remains for the next reader so that the next reader knows EXACTLY what the previous writer was referring to.   This makes for a lengthy, but complete, story of each entire year's communication AND saves time for both parties, something we MUST insist upon.

Send all e-mail to mpwinsma@gmail.com with any questions or comments about this web site. SPECIFY EXACTLY (using copy and paste) (and mentioning this page name) what your question or comment refers to.   Note: in the event that the above information is no longer accurate, see the newer web-page listing various subsequent changes to this web-site after the founder's death.
Copyright © 2000-2005 The Michael Paul Wein Charitable Foundation, Inc