Case Scenario

You have just been hired as the Executive Director of the Tomorrow Organization. The Tomorrow Organization is a newly established nonprofit organization with the following mission:

To educate today's juveniles in Michigan in ways that ensure they become tomorrow's civic leaders

To implement this mission, the Tomorrow Organization has four key objectives:

1. To increase donations to the Tomorrow Organization which will be used for educating juveniles in Michigan
2. To purchase instruments of learning for Michigan juveniles that will help instruct them on the tenets of public service and civics
3. To conduct public outreach on the value of civics education and public service
4. To establish an annual two week 'Summer Civics Camp' for approximately 500 Michigan juveniles

Currently, the organization is being supported by Edmund and Charlotte Seaver. Mr. and Ms. Seaver have provided a $3 million unrestricted donation to establish the Tomorrow Organization and achieve these four objectives. Currently, Mr. and Ms. Seaver as well as three other individuals comprise the board of the Tomorrow Organization (the other board members are Rebecca Gray, Frank Chang, and Sandra Johnson).

Instructions

Develop a budget for the Tomorrow Organization for the upcoming 2024 fiscal year. The budget should ensure that the mission and corresponding objectives are achieved. The Board has given you total discretion in how you design the budget. However, they do want expenditures to be effectively controlled. Additionally, they want expenditures to be effectively communicated to stakeholders, the public, and the Board.

Based on your experiences working as an Executive Director and your analysis of the external conditions surrounding the Tomorrow Organization, you develop a draft budget (see Exhibit #1 on the following page).

Your assigned tasks for this case will be to answer the following:

1. What additional information should be contained in this budget? Why should that information be included?
2. Is this budget effective at achieving the ideals desired by the Board? Explain.
3. Given this budget, what would be your estimate for expenditures in future years, such as 2025? What assumptions influence your estimate for 2025?
4. Could you use other data to help communicate this budget to the Board, the public, and stakeholders? What data would help you achieve that?

Based on your answers to those questions, revise the budget contained in Exhibit #1.

Thus, you are turning in two distinct items for this Case. A narrative overview that answers the Case questions and an Excel spreadsheet that showcases your new 2024 revised budget.

Exhibit #1: 2024 Budgetary Line Items (Draft)

Estimated Personnel Expenses

Executive Director Salary & Benefits $110,000.00

Assistant to the Executive Director Salary & Benefits $50,000.00

Total $160,000.00

Estimated Office Expenses

Office Space Rent $20,000.00

Office Utilities $5,000.00

Office Supplies $5,000.00

Two Computers $3,000.00

Organizational Logo for Building $1,000.00

Total $34,000.00

Mission Driven Expenses

New Fundraising Events $50,000.00

Civic Learning Supplies $100,000.00

Civics Camp $500,000.00

Marketing $75,000.00

Total $725,000.00

Overall 2024 Total $919,000.00