Noteworthy Decisions from the July 2018 Board of Trustees Meeting
Noteworthy Decisions from the July 2018 Board of Trustees Meeting
Community Relations
Congratulations to Dana Bredemeyer for becoming the new president of the Urantia Book Fellowship. We look forward to forming a productive relationship with Dana and will do all we can to work peacefully and productively with the Fellowship. The board of Urantia Foundation is committed to working with Urantia Association International and the Fellowship wherever possible.
Virtual Tour of Urantia Foundation
Over the past several years, a few donors generously undertook a much-needed renovation of the building at 533 W. Diversey Parkway in Chicago. It is now complete, and we are all so thankful! In addition to restoring this historic landmark for future generations, we are now able to rent out the top floor and the coach house, which allows Urantia Foundation to live in the building for almost no cost.
We realize that many readers around the world are unable to visit the Foundation, so we produced a virtual tour. Please enjoy the video: www.urantia.org/urantia-book-video.
Book Sales
News for book sales so far this year is mixed. Sales are flat in units and down in dollars. The quick answer for the sluggish figures is that more inexpensive books are being sold in Latin America and fewer expensive books are being sold in Europe. The good news, however, is that English sales are up 14%, Spanish sales are up 28%, and Portuguese sales are up 19%. Last year we had robust sales in Germany, but this year sales have tapered, which accounts for our total numbers being down.
Selling a book in 2018 that was first published in 1955 is not an easy task! People are not beating a path to our door to buy the most important book in the history of the world. But we keep moving forward, spreading the revelation across the globe.
Translations and Revisions
Our process for translating and revising continues to ensure that we have the highest quality translations possible. As a result of our new policy, we are placing new translations, which are at the beginning of our quality review process, on our website. We are looking for readers in these languages who are interested in helping us make them the best possible. Teams are working hard on the Spanish and Portuguese revisions; and work on the Chinese translation also continues.
Donations
Unrestricted contributions YTD are up 37% because we received a large donation earlier than usual. Timing adjusted, unrestricted donations are about the same as last year. Restricted 2018 donations are $17,060 compared to $4,426 in 2017. Restricted estate donations were only $19,194 compared to $175,000 last year. That change is because of a single generous bequest in 2017. At this point, donations seem to be on target. As always, most of our donations come during the winter fundraiser. We have $525,000 to raise between now and the end of the year.
Operating Expenses
Operating expenses were $355,396 in 2018, down 5% from 2017 and 5% below budget. We have many big expenses coming in Q3, but we expect to stay within budget for the year. Tamara and Joanne keep a tight hand on donors’ hard earned contributions!
Operating Income and Cash Flow
Operating income YTD was better than 2017 and almost flat with the 2018 budget. Expenses were below budget, but revenue was below expectations resulting in being immaterially off plan.
Our cash flow was sufficient to carry us through the lean months of July, August, and September.
Investments
Our investment gains in 2018 have varied with the stock market performance. At this moment they are up and hopefully will stay that way.