For a mission-driven organization like ActionAIDS, a strong financial base is essential. Given the currently volatile political environment, nonprofit social services organizations like ActionAIDS can face unreliable funding levels because of reductions in governmental funding.

In the case of ActionAIDS, our five-member Finance Department team is dedicated to maintaining a strong financial base. The Finance team members include Accountant, Brenda Trapp; Senior Accounting Manager, Yelena Anatolenko; Finance Coordinator, Kris Kershner; Billing Associate,Jessica Schmidt; and Director of Finance, Zachary Weiss. The functions they carry out include managing accounts payable, accounts receivable, budgeting, invoicing and reporting for all public and private grants, billing for our medical case management services, financial results reporting and audit support, payroll and employee benefits, and managing our pharmacy program. Each member of our Finance team is incredibly hard working and dedicated.  We are all fortunate to have their skill and expertise. They work hard every day to keep our financial house in order so that we can provide services to clients.

We are proud to report that we concluded fiscal year 2013 (year ending June 30, 2013) with revenues exceeding expenses. This was our third consecutive fiscal year where we have had these positive results. Furthermore, our auditors expressed a clean, unqualified opinion on the financial statements of ActionAIDS. This means that there were no audit findings that we needed to address, and our financial results were presented accurately and completely. Public and private agencies, as well as individual donors, entrust ActionAIDS with grants and contributions. It is critical that we manage that money efficiently, honestly, and effectively.

We constantly strive to be good stewards of ActionAIDS’ financial resources. The definition ofstewardship is the activity of protecting and managing a resource. This requires maximizing our revenues and spending our money wisely by keeping within pre-determined budgets and implementing cost-effective strategies. We have maximized our revenue by diversifying our revenue sources, so that we are not dependent on any one source of income. This also allows us to grow our revenue by taking advantage of a wide range of revenue opportunities. Our primary sources of revenue are government grants, private foundation grants, individual fundraising activities, fee for service billing of insurance companies for medical case management services, and savings from our 340B Pharmacy Program. ActionAIDS aggressively pursued participation in the 340B Pharmacy Program because it allows us to supply medication to our clients and to obtain that medication at government-regulated 340B wholesale pricing; the result is increased access for our clients and significant savings to ActionAIDS.

Over the past fiscal year, our revenue has grown by 11 percent. This is also good news for our clients. We maximize the percentage of each dollar we raise that directly goes to programs for our clients. The amount of our budget spent on administration and fundraising is very low (12.6 percent), which means that 87.4 cents of every dollar spent goes straight to services that help our clients.

It is our belief that clients deserve an organization that provides high quality services and that also is a well-run business. We want to be accountable, financially stable, and transparent.  I am very proud of our finance team.  Brenda, Yelena, Kris, Jessica, and Zach all work very hard while keeping our clients the focus of their work.

– Kevin J. Burns, Executive Director, ActionAIDS