Where Most Needed

The CFO of the United Way of the National Capital Area (EIN 53-0234290) has resigned, at least in part due to concerns about accounting for income, reports Jacqueline Salmon in the Washington Post.  Apparently the resignation happened in March, but former CFO Kim Tran is just now talking about it. 

According to the story, the final audited numbers for last year's campaign are about a million dollars lower than the $39 million that was reported earlier by the Washington Post.  However, the audited financial reports are not available to confirm these reports.  What we can find are the two most recent Form 990s—Form 990 2004 from Guidestar and Form 990 2005 from the UWNCA web site.  They show us the following:

This is a mixed bag result, with lower overall contributions but a substantial increase in undesignated pledges, which is a good thing. 

The story also suggests that the CFO left because of unhappiness with the compensation of CEO Charles Anderson, who received a raise and deferred compensation while other staff took benefit reductions.  This may be reported in the 2005 Form 990, but the 2004 form shows Mr. Anderson with a relatively modest compensation (by today's standards) of $221,000 and the CFO herself with $108,000. 

Overall, it is not clear that there is a real story here.  Since United Way depends on pledges more than cold hard cash, there is certainly a possibility of fiddling with the estimates of revenue, which United Way has been accused of in the past.  Yet it is difficult for a staff person, even a CFO, to make that accusation and have it stick, especially if the auditors are willing to sign off on the financial statements.