June 28, 2021 · Written By Andy Kegley
Many non-profits operate on a fiscal year which ends on June 30th. HOPE and Open Door Café are among those scrambling now to close out the year, tighten up spending, prepare for end-of-the-year inventory counts, all while trying to build and approve a budget for the coming twelve months.
It feels both like yesterday and an eon ago that we were early in the pandemic last June while scratching our heads about what a FY 20-21 budget might look like. It was an honest roll of the dice, and for HOPE, a budget which the staff took to the Board of Directors more than once for amending. I think our original budget was projecting us to spend something like $1.8 million; a few months later, it had mushroomed to $3.7 million thanks to massive state, federal and private grants.
We were able to serve triple the number of households in need of financial assistance for both housing and food related crises. By the beneficence of a private, unrestricted gift, we retired some operating debt, cutting our interest payments down to a third of what it was the prior year! We made some much needed repairs to our infrastructure, with a new roof and HVAC system which halved our energy costs.
To say FY 20-21 was our most consequential year ever is an understatement. While none of us were preparing for a tragedy on the scale which unfolded, for over a generation now HOPE has been building capacity to be part of the safety net in our community. I am extremely proud of the effort our staff made over these last 15 months, carrying on with the work of assisting families with their housing and food needs. These folks demonstrated resilience and empathy on a daily basis, which serves as a good springboard for our new strategic plan, coming on the eve of HOPE’s 30th anniversary.
In the coming weeks, we will be telling more about our plans for further extending our mission, and building an even stronger safety net to break the generational cycle of poverty. Thank you for your response to our appeals over the last year, and for opening your hearts and minds to future asks. You help us make this a better community for everyone.
