With about 60 days to go before the 26th annual Jazz in June, but just over halfway through the fiscal year, here's where we are on the budget. In the last newsletter, I outlined the general parameters of the cash and in-kind funding and expenses, as well as the cash reserves.

For this fiscal year, Jazz in June has raised about 71% of the cash income for the concerts or about $60,000. We anticipate another $20,000 will come in by the end of the concerts. But overall, we are anticipating only raising about 86% of the cash goal of $92,000.

The income that comes in last will be that from the current Friends Campaign where we are asking individuals for their contributions and from activities at the concert that includes: table sales; t-shirt sales; bucket contributions; and, CD sales. We anticipate that these categories will meet 100% of the goal.

The bad news is that the grants category this year will only make about 80% of the goal because some donors needed to back out of their commitment at the last minute due to their own economic situations. No doubt this is going to hurt the overall goal to spend only as much as we bring in for FY09.

In-kind donations add another $75,000 to the operating budget and most of this is documented closer to the actual concerts as the donations are made. These are important contributions because these are services or products that we need and would have to raise cash for if these donations were not made.

We've only spent about 33% of the total expected cash expenses so far, with most of that in administrative and fundraising expenses. The bulk of the expenses - concert marketing, concert logistics and the concert program, which total 75% of all costs, are realized in the few weeks before and during the concerts. So far the program committee is a little under budget, which will help the bottom line.

The board of Jazz in June monitors the financial situation monthly and the projected budget is adjusted as needed. The loss of some regular grants from local businesses will hurt and most likely result in an operating deficit for the first time in nearly 10 years. The board has approved tapping the cash reserves.

One of the issues the Jazz in June board struggles with each year is the fact that we must book the artists about 18 months prior to the actual concerts. Thus, the artist's contracts for the 2009 concerts were negotiated in late 2007, and we already have letters of intent with the 2010 artists. So the bulk of the future expenses are already fixed, even though we have not yet raised the funding for these concerts. That is one of the reasons why the board has worked to build up cash reserves –for moments like this when anticipated donations do not materialize but we have existing contracts that must be honored.

Donations from individuals and businesses early in the fiscal year help the board project the operating budget with more accuracy. Thank you for your support for Jazz in June!