Kia ora! It is this time of the year when we should talk about finance. I want to focus on two pieces of information: the approved financial statements for the year ended 31 Dec 2020 and the approved budget for 2022. To provide you with some background for the 2022 budget, I would like to share with you a brief assessment of 2021 as well.
2020 Financial statements
Income statement for the year ended 31 Dec 2020 shows a healthy surplus of 255,621 GBP, with revenue sitting at 493,947 GBP and costs at 238,326 GBP. The component income increased by 0.67% in comparison to the previous year. The administrative expenses decreased by 40.93% in comparison to the previous year, mostly due to the cancellation of the IBD meeting in Montenegro. The highest cost was running the Mensa International Office (47%), followed by the name protection (15%) and the website expenses (10%). Additionally, we spent 15,197 GBP (6%) on exploring licensing deals. As of 31 December 2020, Mensa International had 838,265 GBP in bank accounts.
2021 – year in progress
Due to the cancellation of the IBD meeting in Houston, we saved around 120,000 GBP. Additionally, as the planned expenses for Adaptive Testing did not occur, we saved 65,000 GBP this year. Some other savings were 10,000 GBP on Marketing/PR budget 75th Anniversary, 7,000 GBP on Development travel due to COVID-19, and 5,000 GBP on GLAM. Our revenue for the year is forecast to be 8.5% lower than in 2020.
2022 budget
The budget assumes that the component income will be similar to 2019-2020, which considers the impact of COVID-19. In my opinion, the cautious approach is the best under the circumstances. The 2022 budget assumes a loss due to a variety of factors. Firstly, we assumed safely the turnover (potentially underestimated) and assumed higher costs (especially travel to the IBD in Montenegro). Therefore, the costs are potentially overestimated due to the uncertainty caused by COVID-19 – the cost of international travel might be potentially higher rather than lower. Secondly, we have a number of expensive initiatives such as IT overhaul and adaptive testing. Moreover, we are planning to make an international scholarship contribution to the Mensa Foundation. We are planning to cover the loss from the previous year savings. Therefore, we should go through 2022 pretty smoothly.
Thank you so much for sticking around and helping to grow our organisation in these extraordinary times. Every bit of volunteering means quite a lot, and our financials’ data show that you have been actively growing the organisation regardless of the difficult circumstances. Thank you so much for doing that! I am hoping that it will be possible to see you at one of the international events in 2022.
Thank you for reading my update. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me.
Mā te wā.
Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, February 2022, issue 109.