Sincere Holiday Greetings to you all;
I want to explain why there won’t be a fundraising campaign this year in a transparent and clear way, but I will also start where I usually end; if you have any questions or concerns, you are very welcome to reach out. Both the federal and California governments require that Non-profits with more than $2 million in annual revenues submit to and pay for an independent audit each year. This is a standard Imagine always met before the pandemic and will be back in compliance soon.
However, the audits that should have been done in 2020 and 2021 were not completed until earlier this year, and the two that should have been done in 2022 and this year are in process now and expected to be concluded by Spring. We already have a plan and provider for the subsequent and hope to be fully on schedule by fall.
However, as it should, The California Attorney General’s Office, which manages the non-profit registry, takes the independent audits seriously and has suspended our enrollment until we catch up. Imagine cannot solicit donations during our suspension.
However, the IRS is not yet showing signs of being impatient with us, which means that your donations remain tax deductible and unimpacted as long as we catch up before the IRS loses patience with us, too (which we expect to do.)
We are taking this seriously and focusing on complying with this requirement that we support because we believe in transparency.
So we have removed the “donate” button from this newsletter and will not request any support until the suspension is lifted. We do, however, appreciate you very much. The support of our community made an enormous difference when the financial winds were against us or when the pandemic required reducing hours and buying lots of expensive PPE. This is probably the best year of my ten for us not to fundraise. You can expect us to reach out after the suspension is lifted.
As ever, thank you for your support, and we are accepting kind words during this period.
-Submitted by Doug