Have a board-approved annual budget for its current fiscal year, outlining projected expenses for major program activities, fund raising, and administration.
Information Needed from Charity to Determine Compliance:
The charity provides a copy of its budget for the current fiscal year and indicates that this budget has been approved by its board of directors.
Application:
The Alliance reviews the information provided using the following criteria:
- The budget must clearly identify the charity's expected total expenses for the current fiscal year.
- A budget that identifies only the charity's natural expenses (for examples, salaries, postage, travel, etc.) but does not provide a functional expense breakdown as described below, does not meet this standard.
- At a minimum, the budget should include a functional expense breakdown that shows the total expected expenses for each major program service (for example, Program A, Program B, etc.), fund raising and administration. Example: If the charity has more than one major program service activity (e.g., both medical research and health education), then, correspondingly, the budget should include more than one program service expense category.
- The Alliance does not need to receive a detailed budget with dozens of pages. A one-page summary budget is sufficient as long as it includes the information specified above.
- Board approval of the budget is necessary to meet the standard.