From: Kenneth Fair Date: April 22, 2005 8:21:33 AM CDT To: Wesley Elsberry , John Wilkins Subject: Treasurer's Report -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 THE TALKORIGINS FOUNDATION, INC. A Texas Nonprofit Corporation TREASURER'S REPORT April 22, 2005 This report outlines the Foundation's financial situation and dealings since its organization on April 26, 2004. As the directors are aware, the Foundation was dormant for much of this period while awaiting a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service on the Foundation's tax-exempt status. That notice was finally received in March 2005. On April 2, 2005, the Foundation was opened to donations from the public. As authorized in the organizing resolution, the Treasurer established a checking account with Hibernia Bank. Hibernia was selected because (1) it has a branch near the Treasurer, (2) it offered a no-fee checking account for small businesses, and (3) it allows for online banking. The Treasurer also established an account with Paypal. Paypal was selected because (1) it is the most popular online financial service, and can receive donations directly from other Paypal account holders, (2) it can process credit card donations from those who do not hold Paypal accounts, and (3) it offers a money market return on funds deposited. The Paypal money market return is currently 2.41% annually. Donations via Paypal are subject to a 2.9% + $0.30 USD fee. A small additional fee is charged for international donations. As of this writing, the Foundation has $2099.40. Of this amount, $670.00 is from donations sent by check to the Treasurer, while the remainder is from donations to the Paypal account, less transaction fees. Over the three-week period since the Foundation started receiving donations, the Foundation has received two donations for $500, four donations of $100, and eighteen donations of under $100. The pattern of donations is a bit difficult to assess, given the short period of time since their receipt, but there seems to have been two spikes correlating with the initial announcement of the Foundation's accepting donations and the announcement to NCSE members. The Foundation has incurred one expense during this period: $23.46 for the checkbook for the Hibernia account. This expense remains outstanding and will be paid shortly. Thus the Foundation's net worth is currently $2075.94. The Treasurer will post a complete accounting report on the web site (http://www.talkorigins.org/foundation) shortly. In summary, the fiscal health of the Foundation appears to be strong and sufficient to cover the basic expenses for hosting the Talk.Origins Archive. If the Foundation so desires, the funds should also be available to help defray hosting costs for the Archive's associated sites (TalkDesign and Panda's Thumb) for this year. The Treasurer recommends reexamining the Foundation's fiscal status at the end of May to get a better sense of the level of donations over a longer time period, once any initial excitement may have waned. /s/ Kenneth J. Fair Treasurer, TalkOrigins Foundation -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.0.2 - not licensed for commercial use: www.pgp.com iQA/AwUBQmjsLjz5KF0EZhfWEQLeAwCgidNdqhpZZ9I8BoxDxq19Zis6qSUAoLb2 W5sC+GkiLXhK1kqW062/UsSW =5Yiz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----