Financial Update

FINANCIAL STATUS OF THE COALITION

The major expense of the Coalition is the monthly retainer we pay our lobbyist. We’d like to pay her more but our yearly income won’t stretch that far.

Three questions you may ask:

(1) Why does the Coalition need a lobbyist?

Our charter says our purpose is “to foster and encourage awareness of the educational needs of highly capable/gifted students through communication and education of legislative bodies within Washington State.” In other words, we lobby the legislature.

To do this, members of the Coalition monitor the legislature’s web site and subscribe to RSS feeds to keep current on pending bills, hearings, etc. We maintain personal relationships with our own legislators. We follow political reporters for newspapers, and newsletters and web postings from other education and policy groups to keep track of what they are saying. The daily updates provided by WSSDA add much information.

But we need more than this. We need a lobbyist with experience and deep connections in Olympia to keep an eye on legislation beyond what can be gleaned from the internet; to cultivate personal relationships with supportive legislators in order to learn what they are thinking; to work with lobbyists from other education groups; to be “on the scene” for us in Olympia. Perhaps most important, she provides guidance to the Coalition in our work with legislators.

We use all this information to prepare and present testimony to legislative hearings and committee work sessions and to know when to call on advocates state wide to contact their legislators.

(2) Do we or our lobbyist treat legislators to meals or other “goodies”?

We do not spend your contributions to treat legislators to meals or other goodies. The Public Disclosure Commission and the Legislative Ethics Board will not be investigating us as they are other groups and legislators for questionable gratuities.

(3) Why do we bring this up?

Our fiscal year begins September 1 of each year. We open 2013-2014 with a balance of $1657. Our anticipated expenses for next year are $850 per month for our lobbyist; approximately $150 for rental of the Columbia Room and other expenses for Gifted Education Day; fees for filing required reports; printing and postage costs; and a membership in NEWS (the McCleary Decision people). A Treasurer’s Report is at the end of this email message. As it shows, we need income in excess of $10,500 per year in order to meet obligations and have a small carry-over balance.

While we do receive a large portion of our revenues from gifted organizations, we also rely on individual contributions from supporters around the state. Our goal continues to be to get the legislature to implement a new ample funding formula for Highly Capable Programs. Quite frankly, we struck out during the 2013 session(s). But we will be back, more energized than last year and with stronger arguments, for the 2014 session. To continue our work we need your financial support. We recommend that you make an annual contribution of at least $40.00 ~ and are happy to accept more.

Three options:

1. You can make a contribution to the Coalition with a check – use the membership form linked here.

2. We now accept donations online by credit card and PayPal. Please CLICK HERE TO DONATE on PayPal. You don’t need a PayPal account to use a credit card with them.

3. In conjunction with WAETAG and NWGCA, we continue to offer the Joint Membership. The form can be found on our membership page, on the Northwest Coalition for Gifted Education’s website at http://www.nwgca.org/donate.html, or you can go to the Washington Association of Educators of the Talented ang Gifted’s website at http://www.waetag.net/. Select Joining WAETAG.

We are often asked about employer matching funds. We are a political advocacy group, not a 501(c)(3) organization, so not all employers match contributions. Check to see if your employer will do so.

Contributions to the Coalition are not tax deductible to the contributor. The Coalition is chartered as a non-profit organization in the State of Washington and is the equivalent of a federal 501(c)(4) organization, though we have never sought federal tax status. If we show a “profit” at the end of our fiscal year, we pay tax on it as we last did in October 2011. We file a yearly tax return and do not anticipate owing taxes for 2012-2013.

We also need your cooperation when we call on you to contact your legislators on behalf of highly capable program funding and to participate in Gifted Education Day in Olympia. Our 2014 Day is February 28th. Mark your calendar now and plan to join us.

Thank you all for your generous support in previous years. We have come a long way but still have a long way to go to full implementation of Highly Capable Programs as an integral part of basic education. Our work, and yours, is not yet completed.

Here’s looking forward to a successful 2014 legislative session!