Asha Operational Expenses Baseline Document

"Administrative expenses tends to give the impression that we actually have paid administrators. But, 'operational expenses' will mean that it is used for the operations of the organization." - P. Kasaragod, Asha-Silicon Valley

I. CURRENT POLICIES
	A. Operational (admin) expenses can be paid from interest
	B. Project monitoring and evaluation expenses are part of projects
	C. Donations made by volunteers towards operational expenses are tax deductable
	D. Fundraising/Event expenses are deducted from proceeds
	E. Ashawide operational expenses
	F. Chapter level operational expenses
		

I. CURRENT POLICIES

Policies currently in place are the following as per discussion on 
asha-adwg (Asha Admin Expense Working Group) between November 1999 and November 2002.

Overall we encourage all chapters to keep all operational(admin) expenses a low as possible.  
Whenever it can be done, have overheads covered by university/corporate funding.  
We have ongoing operational expenses at both the Ashawide and chapter level.  We aim 
to cover all overheads outside of funds received from donors.  



A. Operational expenses can be paid from interest

At the Ashawide level, interest off the general account will be used to pay for
Ashawide operational expenses.  Chapters can use interest from their accounts 
to cover operational costs.

For example, if a chapter averages $10,000 in the bank account and receives a 5% interest
back for the year, the chapter can use this interest to pay for chapter operational/admin 
costs like a PO Box, stamps, printing newsletters, etc.

References:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/106 (Part 2)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/107
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/108



B. Project administration expenses are part of the project

Site visits, phone calls to the project, mailing, 
etc. can be paid for from the funding for the project.  Often the cost of site 
visits to projects in India by Asha-India volunteers can be significant.

All projects funding should include a small additional amount for site 
visits by an Asha-India volunteer (often the initial visit to a new project) 
and for other projects related communication between US and India.  
Members of the adwg were in favor of this and there was an agreement on this
at the conference call in Nov. 2001.

For example, if an Asha Volunteer from Mumbai is going to visit a project 
in Valsad, Gujarat - then the costs of the train and local auto-riksha can 
be coved by part of the costs for the project.

References:
Messages 10 through 17
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/



C. Donations made by volunteers towards operational expenses are tax deductable

Tax deductability is only from an IRS point of view and all donations made to 
Asha for Education, except where a benefit is received by the donor, are indeed 
tax deductible irrespective of whether we use it for operational(admin) costs or not.

We highly recommend that donations to cover operational expenses are made by volunteers
only, rather than from the general donor.  If in the case it comes from the general donor,
like to cover an Asha-Film, that a volunteer personally speaks with the donor about how 
her donation is going to developing the film and not a project.

An example of a tax-deductable donation by a volunteer is to cover the cost of printing 
the chapter newsletter.  Another example is to cover the cost producing an Asha-Film.

References:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/22
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/84 (also 83)



D. Fundraising/Event expenses are deducted from proceeds

Fundraising costs are deducted from fundraiser proceeds.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/24
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/22

A typical example is an Asha concert by a famous artist.  The costs of renting a 
hall/auditorium, advertising, ticket printing, security, insurance, decorations, 
and the stipend to the artist all will be deducted from the proceeds of the 
concert.  

Advertising and post event follow up includes quarterly newsletters sent 
out to donors.  Costs of printing and mailing newsletters is linked as an advertising 
expense of a fundraising event.  Usually a chapter will have two fundraisers a year, 
which can cover the costs for the quarterly newsletters as advertising for the event 
and a follow up article after the event.

The remaining amount from the fundraiser/event should be sent to the projects in India.


E. Ashawide operational expenses

The following expenses have been agreed to be paid for using interest from the general account.

Website Hosting = $100-119/month - includes large amount of diskspace of 3 GB, multiple logins,
	unlimitted pop/smtp email accounts, php, mysql database, perl/cgi, java/jsp, ftp and shell 
	access, log reports, customized errors, etc.  
										
Domain reg for ashanet.org, workanhour.com, others $15-35/year
										
Novus CC Processing = max $20/month or ~1.9% of transactions billed that month
				
Iongate CC Gateway = $0.05/transaction
					
PO Box
Toll free number
WAH operational expenses - envelopes, stamps, etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/110
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/52
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-adwg/message/56



F. Chapter level operational expenses

If a volunteer pays for something and gets a receipt for it, this is considered a hard 
expense.  For example, if some copies are made on a photocopy machine at work/lab, this is 
not a hard expense.

The following expenses have been agreed to be paid for using interest or funds raises 
specifically for operational expenses.

Stamps
Evelopes
Printing costs
Photocopies
P.O. Box

LINKS

Operational expense list annual
To be filled in by chapters once a year in March for the previous year.

Operational expense list monthly
This can be used to keep track of chapter operational expenses every month.

UNDER DISCUSSION - this document covers what is currently under discussion on the asha-adwg@yahoogroup.com. To join, please send a blank email to asha-adwg-subscribe@yahoogroups.com