The Montana Foundation Fiscal Analysis The “Defensive Interval” is a ratio that is designed to indicate the life of an organization if funding were to be cut. The ratio looks like this: (Cash + Securities + Receivables) ÷ Monthly Expenses. This is looking at what the organization has in liquid funds, assets, and money that it is owed and dividing it by monthly expenses. Note that the cash + securities + receivables equals the total assets. Regarding the Montana Foundation, this would appear as follows: ($375,544) ÷ (49,551) = roughly 7.56. This suggests that the Montana Foundation could operate for roughly 7 ½ months if it were to receive no more funding. This would be seen as a positive trait if an investor were to analyze the organization. The “Savings Indicator” is a ratio that shows how well the organization is adding to its savings (or worth). The ratio looks like this: (Revenue – Total Expense) ÷ Total Expense. Regarding the Montana Foundation, this would appear as follows: ($585,536 - $594,619) ÷ (594,619) = roughly -.015. This suggests that the Montana Foundation is used about 1.5% of its savings, suggesting that the Montana Foundation’s savings are not growing but are declining. This would be seen as a negative trait if an investor were to analyze the organization. The “Liquid Funds Indictor” is a ratio that shows how long an organization can function if it were to use only its liquid funds to operate. The ratio looks like this (Total Net Assets – Restricted Net Assets – Fixed Assets) ÷ Monthly Expenses. Regarding the Montana Foundation, this would appear as follows: ($292,949 - $230,319 - $0) ÷ (49,551) = roughly 1.26. This suggests that the Montana Foundation could operate for roughly 1 ¼ months by only using their current liquid funds. This would be seen as an okay-poor trait if an investor were to analyze the organization. The Montana Foundation has enough cash to operate, but only for about a month. Ideally, they should have enough cash to operate for 6+ months. The “Debt Ratio” is a ratio that shows the amount of debt of an organization compared to the value of the organization. This ratio would show the value of the organization if they were to pay off all of their debt. The ratio looks like this: (Average Total Debt) ÷ (Average Total Assets). Regarding the Montana Foundation, this would appear as follows: ($82,595) ÷ ($363,263) = roughly .23 (or 23%). This suggests that the Montana Foundation could pay off their debt by using only 23% of their assets (be them liquid or assets), resulting in the organization keeping about 77% of their value. This would be seen as a positive trait, in my opinion, because it shows the Montana Foundation as being stable. They would be able to pay off all of their debt and still retain the majority of the organizational value, something that could be seen as a positive if an investor were to analyze the organization. The “Revenue Ratio” is a ratio that shows how much revenue comes from any giv ...

1. The Montana Foundation Fiscal Analysis
The “Defensive Interval” is a ratio that is designed to indicate
the life of an organization if funding were to be cut. The ratio
looks like this: (Cash + Securities + Receivables) ÷ Monthly
Expenses. This is looking at what the organization has in liquid
funds, assets, and money that it is owed and dividing it by
monthly expenses. Note that the cash + securities + receivables
equals the total assets.
Regarding the Montana Foundation, this would appear as
follows: ($375,544) ÷ (49,551) = roughly 7.56.
This suggests that the Montana Foundation could operate for
roughly 7 ½ months if it were to receive no more funding. This
would be seen as a positive trait if an investor were to analyze
the organization.
The “Savings Indicator” is a ratio that shows how well the
organization is adding to its savings (or worth). The ratio looks
like this: (Revenue – Total Expense) ÷ Total Expense.
Regarding the Montana Foundation, this would appear as
follows: ($585,536 - $594,619) ÷ (594,619) = roughly -.015.
This suggests that the Montana Foundation is used about 1.5%
of its savings, suggesting that the Montana Foundation’s
savings are not growing but are declining. This would be seen
as a negative trait if an investor were to analyze the
organization.
The “Liquid Funds Indictor” is a ratio that shows how long an
organization can function if it were to use only its liquid funds
to operate. The ratio looks like this (Total Net Assets –
Restricted Net Assets – Fixed Assets) ÷ Monthly Expenses.
Regarding the Montana Foundation, this would appear as
follows: ($292,949 - $230,319 - $0) ÷ (49,551) = roughly 1.26.
This suggests that the Montana Foundation could operate for
roughly 1 ¼ months by only using their current liquid funds.
This would be seen as an okay-poor trait if an investor were to
analyze the organization. The Montana Foundation has enough

2. cash to operate, but only for about a month. Ideally, they should
have enough cash to operate for 6+ months.
The “Debt Ratio” is a ratio that shows the amount of debt of an
organization compared to the value of the organization. This
ratio would show the value of the organization if they were to
pay off all of their debt. The ratio looks like this: (Average
Total Debt) ÷ (Average Total Assets).
Regarding the Montana Foundation, this would appear as
follows: ($82,595) ÷ ($363,263) = roughly .23 (or 23%).
This suggests that the Montana Foundation could pay off their
debt by using only 23% of their assets (be them liquid or
assets), resulting in the organization keeping about 77% of their
value. This would be seen as a positive trait, in my opinion,
because it shows the Montana Foundation as being stable. They
would be able to pay off all of their debt and still retain the
majority of the organizational value, something that could be
seen as a positive if an investor were to analyze the
organization.
The “Revenue Ratio” is a ratio that shows how much revenue
comes from any given source. As a result, there are many
different revenue ratios. The ratio, at its basic level, looks like
this: (Revenue Source) ÷ (Total Revenue).
· Regarding the membership dues (between both members and
affiliate members), this would appear as follows: ($115,481) ÷
($516,530) = roughly 22%.
· Regarding the sponsorships, this would appear as follows:
($51,225) ÷ ($516,530) = roughly 10%.
· Regarding the discount product fees, this would appear as
follows: ($76,930) ÷ ($516,530) = roughly 15%.
· Regarding the conference and training fees, this would appear
as follows: ($86,448) ÷ ($516,530) = roughly 17%.
· Regarding the project fees, this would appear as follows:
($25,313) ÷ ($516,530) = roughly 5%.
This data suggests that the Montana Foundation receives their
income from numerous different sources, which would be seen
as a positive trait if an investor were to analyze the

3. organization. Having income from diversified sources is
considered to be “safe” because the organization is not
depending entirely on any one source of income.
Summary:
These are some of the ratios that I would run if I were to
perform a fiscal analysis of the Montana Foundation, or any
other organization. There are a few more that could be
performed, but I see these as the most integral of those listed. I
believe that this data shows that the Montana Foundation is a
suitable organization with which to invest or donate. The only
major weak point is that of the “Savings Indicator,” which is so
nominal that I believe it could be simply fixed.
4
How to Fund a Non-Profit Book Festival
Amy Mullenix
Chauncy Stewart
Yolanda Staples
La Tasha Edwards
Juan Rivera
COMM/215
November 9, 2014
Lorin Loverde

4. How to Fund a Non-Profit Book Festival
When it comes to putting together a non-profit community event
a lot of planning goes into it. One of the elements to planning
the event is people. You have to make sure you have enough
people on board to get things done and to brainstorm ideas.
After you have all the people you need and everyone knows
what part they are to play during the planning process, you then
have to find a location. Once the basics are done the last and
most important step comes into play, how to fund your non-
profit event. After researching, our team has found many ways
to fund our non-profit community book festival we are planning
to have in New York City. Now that we have the plan, people,
and location, it is time to start researching the Big Apple for
funding opportunities. Something we have to keep in mind when
searching and asking for funding are the recent changes in the
economy. We all know that the economy has changed quite a bit
over the years and in some places it has gotten worse than
better. Although there have been many changes in the economy,
if we research the community and find sponsors to support our
event, finding the funding we need should not be difficult.
Using Crowd-fundingTraditional methods for funding an event
include things such as bake sales, car washes, garage sales,
selling something, etc. While these methods are still very
effective, they are a bit dated the current times have birthed a
much, much better way of getting funding for an event or idea.
The source in question is a crowd-funding website called
Kickstarter. While features differ from site to site, at their most
basic crowd-funding sites are websites that allow non-profits to
set up an online fundraising campaign based around a
fundraising page, and accept money directly from that page
using the website’s own credit card processor (Garecht, 2013).

5. People can visit the page, read what the cause or idea is all
about, and decide how much money they want to donate.
The best way to get new donors to support your cause through
crowd-funding sites is by creating an emotional, compelling
fundraising page. Use pictures and videos where possible, tell
an amazing story, and explain to people exactly how much you
need and what the money will be used for. (Garecht, 2013). To
encourage even more donating, perks can be added that
correspond to the different amounts that can be donated. For
example, if someone were to donate $100 to the book festival
fund, they could receive an autographed book from an author. If
someone gave $500, they could get several free books of their
choice. $1000 could get them all of the previously mention
perks, plus some free swag items like T-shirts, pencils,
bookmarks, stickers, and other stuff of the like.
Do not expect to slap up a fundraising campaign, go away for
three weeks, then come back to find that you have raised $1
million. It does not work that way. You’ll need to get the word
our first by publicizing your crowd-funding campaign as much
as possible. Put it on the front page of your website, link to it
on your Facebook page, through Twitter, etc. Try to get your
local media involved by suggesting story angles. Take every
opportunity to spread the word and get people talking about
your project. (Garecht, 2013). By using Kickstarter and other
crowd-funding sites, getting funding for a non-profit book
festival will not be that difficult.
Sponsors
When looking for a sponsor to provide funds for your event, you
want to make sure that they are willing to give you what you are
needing for your event to be successful. The sponsors you
choose to help fund your event should be reliable and should be
very detailed with organizing and managing small to large
groups of people. If they are a good sponsor they will introduce
and support a proposal in any aspect. They should be able to
supply the funding needed to put on a successful event and

6. should be willing to give feedback on locations to host your
event. Great sponsors will gladly give pointers on how to target
the audience you want to attend your event. You want to make
sure you get a sponsor who will promote your event by getting
people excited about it through advertising. Your sponsor
should help by inviting people to come to your book festival.
Your sponsor has the means of doing this by providing funds
and getting permission to make announcements over the radio
and by putting articles in the local newspaper. Sponsors should
want to advertise what your event is about by placing
billboards, making and posting flyers, and through social media.
All of these will contribute to a successful event. “When
choosing a sponsor, it's a good idea to have a wide range of
levels so that smaller businesses as well as larger companies
can find a level that suits their needs and budget”
(Mojica, 2014).
Now that we know what kind of sponsor we are needing and
wanting, how do we go about finding one? Finding a great
sponsor can sometimes be hard and frustrating, especially if
they have a large amount of people asking for their support.
There are nine steps to finding and soliciting a big sponsor.
First we will need to determine who our audience is, set a
sponsorship level, make lots of phone calls, send proposal
letters, follow up, of course; build relationships with
established and non-established sponsors, give our sponsors
plenty of publicity, and keep building relationships. With these
nine steps our team should be able to get the funds we need for
our non-profit book festival through sponsorship.
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/kids-teachers/hostyourown/
I picked this sponsor because they have dealt with children and
adults. It shows you how to create your own book festival. It
gives many ideas from children to adults. It has information on
how to get people involved. There is a guide you can follow if
you want to do a festival at school with your classmates and
teachers. This was a really good site for our team.
Merchandise

7. Depending on what type of event you are putting on, you
want to have merchandise to either give away or to sell to the
people who attend the event. Merchandise helps to promote
events and to get the name of the organization putting on the
event out into the public. At our non-profit book festival we
will be giving away books, t-shirts and sweatshirts. The books
of course, are to make our book festival a successful event, and
the shirts are to help promote the organization, businesses, and
people who donated either money or books for our event. When
it comes to getting the merchandise, for example, the books; the
best way is to find local libraries, schools, or even book stores
that would possibly donate books or even magazines for our
event. When it comes to the shirts we will want to make sure we
choose a design that is not going to be offensive to anyone and
that is going to help support our event. The back of the shirt is
the ideal place to list any businesses or people who helped fund
the event. We will have to make sure that it is ok to list the
name of all the business and people who helped with the
funding before putting their name on our shirts. Depending on
how big of an event you are going to be putting on and how
much funding receive, you could have more than one or two
items of merchandise to give away or sell.
Changes in the Economy
When a group or organization is trying to get the funding
they need in order to put on an event, the economy somehow
finds a way to cause struggle and frustration. The changes
within the economy is something that should always be
considered when planning for an event. Our event is being held
in New York City, we researched and studied the changes in the
economy to help us better plan for our event. Since we will be
searching for sponsors to help support our event, we want to
know what businesses will be better sponsors and could
possibly donate the largest amount of money so we are able to
put our event plan into action. In the research that was
conducted we found that New York City’s economy has not

8. really grown, but has gotten increasingly better. More people
have jobs and those jobs are paying a better wage than they
have in the past. Most businesses have flourished over the past
year and have either expanded or are planning on it, while some
have not had such good luck. “Private employment in New York
City rose by 8,000 between July and August 2014” ("Economic
Snapshots", 2014). The rise in private employment is a good
thing for non-profit organizations. Private employers are the
number one people when it comes to sponsors. Private
employers will more than likely put their name on something to
help sponsor it and most definitely donate money for the cause.
Attaching their name with an amount to any non-profit event
will help get the privately owned business’s name out into the
public even more. Knowing that the economy in New York City
has improved and that there are multiple privately owned
businesses within the area; our team should have plenty of
options for funding our non-profit book festival.
Conclusion
When determining what type of non- profit organization you
want to create, one must choose an issue that is important to
you or something that is matter to the public interest. Such
issues may include arts, charities, education, politics and
research. Having all your research done is very important
because you’ll gain knowledge of knowing where to find all of
your resources for assisting with your non- profit organization.
Knowing your audience is very important when coming up
with your idea for a non-profit organization, you want to make
sure that you’re attracting the correct audience. Fundraising is a
competitive and clever way of raising money. It’s important that
you’re asking the right questions to make sure you have the
right investors in your corner funding your organization.
REFERENCES/RESOURCES

9. http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/kids-teachers/hostyourown/
Economic Snapshots. (2014). Retrieved from
http://www.nycedc.com
1.
http://www.thefundraisingauthority.com/internet-
fundraising/crowd-funding-your-non-profit/
Mojica, R. (2014). How can I find sponsors for an
event?. Retrieved from
http://www.idealist.org/info/Nonprofits/Dev2