Author: Mike Raffety

Candidate for Toastmasters International Second Vice President, 2011-12

Analysis of 2019 Toastmasters tax return 990

Posted on (Updated: )

The 2019 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released. Total revenue was down 9.2%, and expenses were down 1.8%.  Total salaries were up 0.2% (35% of all expenses, up slightly from 34% in 2018), even though the number of employees is down from 236 to 198 (down 16%).

Expenses and vendors

  • Payroll (including all related expenses, like benefits and pensions) was by far the largest single expense, at $13.4M (about the same as 2018).
  • District expenses were $9.7M (up 11%).
  • The magazine cost $2.7M (down 4%).
  • Depreciation added up to $1.4M (unchanged).
  • Insurance was $1.2M (unchanged).
  • Software cost $1.4M (up 17% from $1.2M; this may or may not include Cornerstone, as they’re a vendor).
  • Transportation (apparently different from “travel”) cost $976K (down 1.3% from $1.1M).
  • Travel was $1.2M (up 19% from $1.0M).

Expenditures on club-building and leadership training by world (not TM) region are interesting, it does cost significantly more to support members outside of North America.

  • North America, $902K (up from $832K previous year)
  • East Asia/Pacific, $1,986K (was $1,998K)
  • Europe, $827K (up from $595K)
  • Middle East/North Africa: $678K (up considerably from $461K)
  • Central America/Caribbean: $84K ($79K)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: $387K ($329K)
  • South America: $21K ($6K, reflecting new growth there)
  • South Asia: $576K (up considerably from $306K)

The five largest vendors for Toastmasters were:

22 more companies were paid at least $100K (each) in 2019.

Employee compensation

Staff paid over $100K/year must be reported (per U.S. non-profit tax law), listed below.

  • CEO Dan Rex, $396K base compensation (7.7% decrease) plus a $120K bonus (30% of base), for $552K total compensation (3.8% decrease)
  • Chief financial officer John Bond, $280K (1% increase in base salary)
  • Chief information officer Hamidreza (Sam) Farajian, $326K total comp (3% increase in base salary)
  • Controller Margaret Yamamoto, $206K (base salary up 21%)
  • Application services IT director Nader Hariri, $186K (up 3%)
  • Cloud services manager Albert Hadiprodjo, $164K (new to the list)
  • HR director Gary Kinser, $173K (new to the list)
  • Marketing director John Lurquin, $152K (new to the list)
  • Marketing director William Nissim, $338K (up from $240K, includes $74K in other compensation, likely a termination package)
  • Member engagement officer Darci Maenpa, $296K (up 35%)

The CEO’s compensation was established using a compensation board committee, the form 990 tax returns from other organizations, a written employment contract, a compensation study or survey, and approval by the board or compensation committee (per the tax return, Schedule J).  (The tax form includes one other method for determining compensation which is not used by TI, an independent compensation consultant.)

Expenses did include paying for first-class or charter travel, travel for companions, and tax indemnification/gross-up payments (per the tax return), following a written reimbursement policy, and requiring substantiation of expenses.

Revenue and assets

Total program revenue grew by 5.0%, to a total of $39.7M.  The Toastmasters district conferences globally took in $3.7M in revenue (up 15%).  The annual convention in Denver pulled in $1.0M (down 17% from Chicago in 2018).  For materials sold, the sales revenue only covered half the cost, resulting in a 47% loss on sales. In 2018, the loss was 51%, while in 2017, there was an 6.8% loss.

Total assets grew by 3.8%, to $54.9M, of which $25.4M is cash and investments, equal to 0.65 years of expenses (up from 0.63 years in 2018, 0.52 years in 2017, 0.56 years in 2016, and 1.2 years in 2015), below the range of the recommendation for non-profits to have 1-2 years of expenses saved up in reserves.  The land and building at WHQ is valued at a net of $26.4M (up 1.9%).  Inventory has decreased by another 13% (after decreasing by 13% in 2018), to $602K.

Net assets grew by $1.5M (3.7%), mostly due to prepaid expenses growing by $1M and investments growing by $882K (other smaller shifts canceled some of this out).

Related organizations

Three organizations are identified as related, “Toastmasters International Singapore Ltd”,“Toastmasters International (Hong Kong) Ltd”, and “Shenzen Toastmasters Culture Exchange”, all companies for “legal and compliance administration” (also controlled by TI).

Click here for the full 2019 tax return.

2018 tax return analysis
2017 tax return analysis
2016 tax return analysis
2015 tax return analysis
2014 tax return analysis
2013 tax return analysis
2012 tax return analysis
2011 tax return analysis

2022 Toastmasters annual business meeting proxies

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The annual Toastmasters business meeting is where we elect the board of directors, international officers, and amend our governing documents.

Clubs not assigned to a district are assigned to a district director as a proxy option, and so it is possible for districts to get more than 100% of “their” proxies for the business meeting. This year, we had one do that, exceeding the total number of clubs in the district!

The districts with the best percentage of club proxies were:

  • D41 (region 13, North India and Nepal), got 103.4%, 150 proxies out of 145 paid clubs.
  • D88 (region 14, Northeastern China), got 96.9%, 156 out of 161.
  • D113 (region 3, Northern Mexico), 95.0%, 115 out of 121.
  • D62 (region 6, Michigan), 94.9%, 56 out of 59.
  • D23 (region 3, New Mexico, El Paso County, Texas, Oklahoma panhandle), 93.9%, 62 out of 66.

At the other end of the scale, we had:

  • D122 (region 11, Pakistan), 18.6%, 8 out of 43.
  • D92 (region 13, North and central Karnataka, India), 19.4%, 30 out of 155.
  • D12 (region 2, Southern California), 20.5%, 16 out of 78.

The top quarter of districts beat 77% representation, the top half beat 69%, and the top 3/4 beat 56%.

The top regions were:

  • Region 3 (Southwestern US and Mexico), 76.1%
  • Region 8 (Southeastern US and Caribbean), 70.8%.

The vast majority of the votes come from clubs (98.8%, two per club), the rest are “at large” members, which is any current or past International Director (which includes International Presidents and officers), and the current District Directors (they each get one vote, regardless of any clubs they also may represent). At-large votes cannot be assigned to someone else (unlike clubs).

Undistricted clubs are randomly assigned a default district director for their proxy, if they choose to do so (they can assign it to anyone, just like all other clubs). That’s why there’s no “U” line in the spreadsheet (and that’s why a district can have more than 100% of the proxies).

Of those votes from clubs, the large majority are represented by the District Directors. There’s no way of knowing just how many, but based on my informal observations working in credentials, it’s probably 80-90% of the votes (though lower now with remote/online voting).

While there are many more important things for Toastmasters districts to devote scarce resources to (like helping struggling clubs and building new clubs), this shouldn’t be that hard to do. A district proxy chair with a committee to call clubs and round up proxies makes an excellent project!

Full details in the Excel spreadsheet here: Proxies-2022

Here’s my post on the 2019 proxy returns.

Analysis of 2018 Toastmasters tax return 990

Posted on (Updated: )

The 2018 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released. Total revenue was up 10.0%, and expenses were down 4.0%.  Total salaries were down 12.9% (34% of all expenses, down from 37% in 2017), even though the number of employees is up from 181 to 236 (up 30%, partly a recovery from staff loss during the Denver move the previous year).

Expenses and vendors

  • Payroll (including all related expenses, like benefits and pensions) was by far the largest single expense, at $13.4M (but down by 12.9% from 2017).
  • District expenses were $8.7M (down 16%).
  • The magazine cost $2.8M (down 3%).
  • Depreciation added up to $1.4M (61% higher).
  • Insurance was $1.2M (down 14%).
  • Software cost $1.2M (up 49% from $833K; this may or may not include Cornerstone, as they’re a vendor).
  • Transportation (apparently different from “travel”) cost $1.1M (and was not listed in the 2017 return).
  • Travel was $1,017K (up 12% from $908K).
  • Credit card fees were $1,000K (unchanged).

Expenditures on club-building and leadership training by world (not TM) region are interesting, it does cost significantly more to support members outside of North America.

  • North America, $832K (down from $1,061K previous year)
  • East Asia/Pacific, $1,998K (was $1,936K)
  • Europe, $595K (down from $860K)
  • Middle East/North Africa: $461K (down from $742K)
  • Central America/Caribbean: $79K ($66K)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: $329K ($397K)
  • South America: $6K (was $8K; the decrease is surprising given the focus on growing clubs in Brazil)
  • South Asia: $306K (was $385K)

The five largest vendors for Toastmasters were:

24 more companies were paid at least $100K (each) in 2018.

Employee compensation

Staff paid over $100K/year must be reported (per U.S. non-profit tax law), listed below. This year, some employees (not specifically identified) received relocation benefits (which were grossed up to cover taxes) or retention incentives to stay on until the move (all included in the total compensation reported below).

This year, for the first time, it appears most of the people listed below received a bonus or incentive payment (in 2017, only Dan Rex and Jennifer Quinn received such payments). Interestingly, many of these staffers are showing flat or even a small decrease in base compensation, probably a result of the lower cost of living in Denver, compared to the former WHQ location in Orange County.

  • CEO Dan Rex, $429K base compensation (4.5% decrease) plus a $66K bonus (15% of base), for $574K total compensation (7.9% decrease)
  • Chief financial officer John Bond, $419K total comp (58% increase, mostly in “other compensation”, likely a relocation package; base comp is essentially unchanged)
  • Chief information officer Hamidreza (Sam) Farajian, $409K total comp (21% increase, also mostly in other comp (relocation), base comp is down 12%)
  • Chief operations officer Sally Newell, $358K total comp (down 4%, includes a $125,000 in “other” compensation, and the compensation schedule indicates at least one person received a severance payment, probably her since she left Toastmasters in August 2018)
  • Marketing & communications director William Nissim, $240K (up 30%, but base comp is only up 5%)
  • Chief member engagement officer Darci Maenpa, $220K (down 2%, but base comp is essentially unchanged)
  • IT manager – enterprise architect Sean Mattox, $209K (new to the list)
  • Controller Margaret Yamamoto, $191K (up 22%, but base comp is up only 2%)
  • Application services IT director Nader Hariri, $181K (up 2.3%; base comp is down 3%, but he received an 8% bonus, the highest percentage other than Dan Rex)
  • Business enablement manager Gary Maziarz, $180K (new to the list)
  • Business data analyst Neyra Espinoza, $166K (new to the list)
  • Executive and board relations director Jennifer Barr (was Quinn), $153K (down 33%, but 2017 included $83K for other/relocation; base comp is essentially unchanged; she left Toastmasters in March 2019)
  • Senior product development manager Angela Cunningham, $135K (up 5%)
  • Application services manager Sofia Ageyeva, $139K (new to the list)
  • Communications manager Diana Passow, $138K (new to the list)
  • Publications manager Suzanne Frey, $139K (new to the list)

The CEO’s compensation was established using a compensation board committee, the form 990 tax returns from other organizations, a written employment contract, a compensation study or survey, and approval by the board or compensation committee (per the tax return, Schedule J).  (The tax form includes one other method for determining compensation which is not used by TI, an independent compensation consultant.)

Expenses did include paying for first-class or charter travel, travel for companions, and tax indemnification/gross-up payments (per the tax return), following a written reimbursement policy, and requiring substantiation of expenses.

Revenue and assets

Total program revenue shrank by 4.6%, to a total of $37.8M.  The Toastmasters district conferences globally took in $3.2M in revenue (down 34%, likely due to eliminating the October/November district conferences, an average of about $9 per member).  The annual convention pulled in $1.2M (down 2% from 2017).  For materials sold, the sales revenue only covered half the cost, resulting in a 51% loss on sales. In 2017, the loss was 6.8%, while in 2016, there was an 18.2% profit margin

Total assets grew by 2.1%, to $52.9M, of which $24.9M is cash and investments, equal to 0.63 years of expenses (up from 0.52 years in 2017, 0.56 years in 2016, and 1.2 years in 2015), below the range of the recommendation for non-profits to have 1-2 years of expenses saved up in reserves.  The land and building at WHQ is valued at a net of $25.9M (down 8.5%).  Inventory has decreased by another 13% (after decreasing by 8% in 2016), to $691K.

Net assets grew by almost $4M (10.7%), mostly due to savings and temporary cash investments growing by $3.8M and accounts payable and accrued expenses shrinking by $3.6M (other smaller shifts canceled some of this out).

Donations to Toastmasters International totaled $104K, compared to $76K in 2017 and $40K in 2016 (likely a result of the new marketing of the Smedley Foundation). Donations over $5K must be reported, and two donors met the threshold. F. Dian Prasko of Colony, Kansas, donated $5K (she apparently passed on in November 2018), and the Homer N Allen Charitable Trust of Madison, Florida, donated $25K (details on the trust here).

Related organizations

Two organizations are identified as related, “Toastmasters International Singapore Ltd” and “Toastmasters International (Hong Kong) Ltd”, both companies for “legal and compliance administration” (also controlled by TI).

Click here for the full 2018 tax return.

2017 tax return analysis
2016 tax return analysis
2015 tax return analysis
2014 tax return analysis
2013 tax return analysis
2012 tax return analysis
2011 tax return analysis

After ten years, what Toastmasters clubs have dissolved?

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Many questions are asked about how long Toastmasters clubs tend to live, and what kinds of clubs live longer. I’ve compared a 2009 global club roster to a 2019 global club roster to put some numbers on this topic.

32.1% of all clubs in 2009 are gone in 2019, which is about 3% a year (not counting new clubs chartering in that ten years). Company clubs, clubs with specific membership criteria (like being an employee) were far more likely to dissolve. Over half of the clubs 0-3 years old in 2009 had dissolved by 2019. Almost 20% of the 2009 company clubs still around in 2019 had switched to being a community club.

By type of club

Toastmasters classifies all clubs into eight types (open vs. membership criteria is a separate metric). Company clubs are far more likely to have dissolved than community clubs.

  • 61% of all clubs in 2009 were community, and of those, 21.5% were gone after ten years.
  • 28% were company, and of those, 52.6% were gone (2.4 times the rate of community clubs).
  • 4.3% were government, and of those, 35% were gone.
  • Other types are other/specialized, college, correctional institution (prison), church, and military, but in total, they only add up to the remaining 6%.

By open or membership criteria

Toastmasters separately classifies all clubs into either open, or “group specific”, membership criteria (like is commonly found in company-sponsored clubs). It is a separate field though, so you can have a “closed community club” or an “open company club”, even though those don’t seem to make much sense to me.

  • 70% of all clubs in 2009 were open, and of those, 24% were gone after ten years.
  • 30% were group specific, and of those, 51% were gone.

By club officer terms

Clubs are also grouped into either annual or semiannual terms for the officers. Only weekly clubs can (optionally) have semiannual terms; all other clubs must have annual terms. This was not a factor in predicting whether a club was likely to close, with nearly identical data for both types.

  • 83% of all clubs in 2009 have annual officer terms, and of those, 32% were gone after ten years.
  • 17% have semiannual terms, and of those, 32% were gone.

By age

Based on their ages in 2009, the clubs most likely to close were the youngest. Clubs that were less than three years old as of 2009 were 53% likely to have dissolved by 2019. Only 17% of clubs at least 20 years old in 2009 had dissolved by 2019. Clubs under five years old in 2009 accounted for 52% of all the clubs gone by 2019.

Sadly, this ten-year period saw six clubs of over 70-82 years age (as of 2009) dissolve, including club #3-Los Angeles Toastmasters, founded in June 1927.

  • 0-1 year old in 2009: 55% dissolved by 2019.
  • 1-3 years old: 52%
  • 3-5 years old: 44%
  • 5-10 years old: 33%
  • 10-20 years old: 23%
  • 20-30 years old: 20%
  • 20-50 years old: 13%
  • 70+ years old: 11%

Other interesting data

The average club age today is 15.7 years old. The median club age (half older, half younger) is 9.4 years old. Of the clubs that dissolved from 2009 over the next ten years, they were on average 9.3 years old in 2009, and the median was 4.5 years in 2009 (they were generally quite young).

Changing club types

Clubs show an interesting history of changing types, e.g., from company clubs to community (or vice versa).

  • For clubs identified as a company club in 2009 (and still around in 2019), 19.9% of them switched to community clubs by 2019 (326 out of 1,636). Another 2.6% had switched to some other type; 1.2% (19) of them had switched to government agency.
  • For clubs identified as community clubs in 2009, just 1.7% (101) of them had switched to another type, 0.8% to company, 0.4% to other/specialized.
  • For clubs identified as aligned with a government agency in 2009 (345 in total), 15.7% (54) had switched to community by 2019.
  • For clubs identified as “other/specialized” in 2009 (206 in total), 37.4% had switched to community by 2019.

Trends by district and country

Some districts and some countries do far better at retaining clubs (like D76-Japan), while others do much worse (perhaps due to short-term conditions, like natural catastrophes).

Club loss 2009-2019 by district
Club loss 2009-2019 by country (countries with less than 10 clubs in 2009 omitted, listed in order from the most clubs on the left to just 10 on the right)

2019 Toastmasters annual business meeting proxies

Posted on (Updated: )

The annual Toastmasters business meeting is where we elect the board of directors, international officers, and amend our governing documents.

In previous years, we’ve occasionally seen a district that collected 100% of the proxies, but this is usually quite rare. In 2015, the average was 68%, in 2016 it was 70%, in 2017 it was 67.8%, in 2018 it was 70.8%, and in 2019 it was 73.5% (quorum is 33.3%). But this year, in 2019, we had five districts reach 100% or higher!

The districts representing all their clubs (and then some!) were:

  • D111 (region 8, Brazil), got 104.3%, 24 proxies out of 23 paid clubs.
  • D95 (region 10, Germany/Scandinavia), got 101.4%, 144 out of 142.
  • D67 (region 14, Taiwan), 100%, 186 out of 186.
  • D90 (region 12, New South Wales, Australia), 100%, 155 out of 155.
  • D114 (region 11, east Africa), 100%, 51 out of 51.

At the other end of the scale, we had:

  • D104 (region 11, western Saudi Arabia), 35.3%, 36 out of 102.
  • D79 (region 11, eastern Saudi Arabia), 35.2%, 75 out of 213.
  • D89 (region 14, Hong Kong, Macau, Fujian, Hainan and part of Guangdong), 30.4%, 41 out of 135.

The top quarter of districts beat 85% representation, the top half beat 74%, and the top 3/4 beat 62% (overall 2.7 percentage points higher than last year).

The top regions were:

  • Region 12 (southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand), 82.0%
  • Region 13 (India and southern Asia), 80.4%.

The vast majority of the votes come from clubs (99.2%, two per club), the rest are “at large” members, which is any current or past International Director (which includes International Presidents and officers), and the current District Directors (they each get one vote, regardless of any clubs they also may represent). At-large members must attend in person, they cannot give their vote to someone else.

Undistricted clubs are randomly assigned a default district director for their proxy, if they choose to do so (they can assign it to anyone, just like all other clubs). That’s why there’s no “U” line in the spreadsheet (and that’s why a district can have more than 100% of the proxies).

Of those votes from clubs, the large majority are represented by the District Directors. There’s no way of knowing just how many, but based on my informal observations working in credentials, it’s probably 80-90% or more of the votes.

While there are many more important things for Toastmasters districts to devote scarce resources to (like helping struggling clubs and building new clubs), this shouldn’t be that hard to do. A district proxy chair with a committee to call clubs and round up proxies makes an excellent High Performance Leadership (HPL) project!

Full details in the Excel spreadsheet here: Proxies-2019

Here’s my post on the 2018 proxy returns.

2018 Toastmasters annual business meeting proxy returns by district

Posted on (Updated: )

The annual business meeting is where we elect the board of directors, international officers, and amend our governing documents.

In previous years, we’ve occasionally seen a district that collected 100% of the proxies, but this is quite rare. In 2015, the average was 68%, in 2016 it was 70%, in 2017 it was 67.8%, and in 2018 it was 70.8% (quorum is 33.3%).

The districts coming closest to representing all their clubs were:

  • D21 (Southern British Columbia, Canada) at 100% of 147 clubs (they “only” got 83% last year)
  • D70 (Sydney, southern New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, Australia) at 99.5%, 203 of 204 clubs (missed one club, they were two clubs short last year)
  • D112 (Northern New Zealand) at 99.4%, 162 of 163 clubs (missed one club)

At the other end of the scale, we had:

  • D76 (Japan) at 3.1%, just 6 of 192 clubs (was 76% last year)
  • D111 (Brazil territorial council) at 5.0%, just 1 of 20 clubs
  • D105 (Oman, UAE, Jordan, Lebanon) at 17.0%, just 18 of 106 clubs

The fourth district in this ranking was at 34.6%. I think that for those three districts above, the district director may have failed to go through credentials to pick up their votes; perhaps they were unable to attend the convention due to a visa issue or last-minute emergency (though WHQ has a process for allowing the next-ranking district leader to pick up proxies).

The top quarter of districts beat 85% representation, the top half beat 72%, and the top 3/4 beat 61% (overall 2 percentage points higher than last year).

The vast majority of the votes come from clubs (99.2%, two per club), the rest are “at large” members, which is any current or past International Director (which includes International Presidents and officers), and the current District Directors (they each get one vote, regardless of any clubs they also may represent). At-large members must attend in person, they cannot give their vote to someone else.

Undistricted clubs are randomly assigned a default district director for their proxy, if they choose to do so (they can assign it to anyone, just like all other clubs). That’s why there’s no “U” line in the spreadsheet (and theoretically, a district could have more than 100% of the proxies).

Of those votes from clubs, the large majority are represented by the District Directors. There’s no way of knowing just how many, but based on my informal observations working in credentials, it’s probably 80% or more of the votes.

While there are many things more important for Toastmasters districts to devote scarce resources to (no, not speech contests, I mean helping struggling clubs and building new clubs), this is the sort of thing that shouldn’t be that hard to do. A district proxy chair with a committee to call clubs and round up proxies makes an excellent High Performance Leadership (HPL) project!

Full details in the Excel spreadsheet here: Proxies-2018

Here’s my post on the 2017 proxy returns.

Analysis of 2017 Toastmasters tax return 990

Posted on (Updated: )

The 2017 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released. Total revenue was up 16.5% (this was the first full year of the 25% dues increase, from $36 to $45), but expenses were up 11.7%.  Total salaries were up 18.9% (37% of all expenses, up from 35% in 2016), and the number of employees is down from 198 to 181 (down 9%).

Expenses and vendors

Payroll was by far the largest single expense, at $15.4M (up 19%).  Travel expenses are down, from $1,195K in 2016 to $908K in 2017.  $894K was spent on postage, $833K was spend on software, $476K on property taxes, $464K on “new member charter kits”, $334K on audio/visual, and $306K on training and development.

Expenditures on club-building and leadership training by world (not TM) region are interesting, it does cost significantly more to support members outside of North America.

  • North America, $1061K (up 16% from $917K last year)
  • East Asia/Pacific, $1.9M (unchanged from last year)
  • Europe, $860K (up from $681K)
  • Middle East/North Africa: $742K (doubled from $361K)
  • Central America/Caribbean: $66K ($68K)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: $397K ($309K)
  • South America: $8K ($13K)
  • South Asia: $385 ($149K)

The five largest vendors for Toastmasters were:

23 more companies were paid at least $100K in 2017.

Employee compensation

Staff paid at least $100K must be reported, and they were as below. This year, some employees (not identified) received relocation benefits (which were grossed up to cover taxes) or retention incentives to stay on until the move (all included in the total compensation reported below).

  • CEO Dan Rex, $582K salary (45.1% increase) and $624K total compensation (41.3% increase)
  • Chief operations officer Sally Newell-Cohn, $345K total comp, up 8.5%
  • Chief information officer Sam Farajian, $339K, up 4.3%
  • Chief financial officer John Bond, $265K, up 7.3%
  • Executive and board relations director Jennifer Quinn, $230K, up 65%
  • Chief member engagement officer Darci Maenpa, $216K, up 7.5%
  • Marketing & Communications Director William Nissim, $185K, up 4.5%
  • Application services IT director Nader Hariri, $177K, up 16.4%
  • Controller Margaret Yamamoto, $156K, up 7.6%
  • Research and business development director Heather von Raesfeld Carter, $156K, up 5.4%
  • Education program director Carol Gregory, $156K, up 2.6%
  • Senior product development manager Angela Cunningham, $128K (new to the list this year)

The CEO’s compensation was established using a compensation committee, the form 990 tax return from other organizations, a written employment contract, a compensation study or survey, and approval by the board or compensation committee (per the tax return, Schedule J).  (The tax form includes one other method for determining compensation which is not used by TI, an independent compensation consultant.)

Expenses did include paying for first-class or charter travel, travel for companions, and tax indemnification/grow-up payments (per the tax return), following a written reimbursement policy, and requiring substantiation of expenses.

Revenue and assets

Total program revenue was up by 14.5%, to a total of $39.6M.  The Toastmasters district conferences globally took in $4.9M in revenue (an average of about $13 per member).  The annual convention pulled in $1.2M (down from $1.3M in 2016, but the same as 2015).  Magazine advertising earned $20K (unchanged).  For materials sold, there was a negative profit margin of 6.8% (down from an 18.2% profit margin in 2016, perhaps from writing off traditional education program materials).

Total assets grew by 7.0%, to $51.8M, of which $21.4M is cash and investments, equal to 0.52 years of expenses (down from 0.56 years in 2016, which was down sharply from 1.2 years in 2015), below the range of the recommendation for non-profits to have 1-2 years of expenses saved up in reserves.  The land and building at WHQ is valued at a net of $28.3M.  Inventory has decreased by 8%, to $793K.

Donations to Toastmasters International totaled $76K, compared to $40K the previous year (likely a result of the new marketing of the Smedley Foundation). This year, no one person gave $5K or more (which would have to be reported by name).

Related organizations

Two organizations are identified as related, “Fifteen to Seventy LLC”, a real estate holding company in Colorado (100% owned by TI, a vehicle for buying the new office), and “Toastmasters International Singapore Ltd”, a company for “legal and compliance administration” (also controlled by TI)

Click here for the full 2017 tax return.

2016 tax return analysis
2015 tax return analysis
2014 tax return analysis
2013 tax return analysis
2012 tax return analysis
2011 tax return analysis

Analysis of 2016 Toastmasters tax return 990

Posted on (Updated: )

The 2016 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released. Total revenue was down 1.7% (the second half of 2016, dues increased from $36 to $45), but expenses were up 7.9%.  Total salaries were up 12% (35% of all expenses), and the number of employees is up from 175 to 198 (up 13%).

Expenses and vendors

Payroll was by far the largest single expense, at $12.9M (up 12%).  Travel expenses are unchanged, from $1,180K in 2015 to $1,195K in 2016.  $769K was spent on postage, $778K was spend on software, $416K on audio/visual, and $460K on “new member charter kits”.

Expenditures on club-building and leadership training by world (not TM) region are interesting, it does cost significantly more to support members outside of North America.

  • North America, $917K (up slightly from $877K last year)
  • East Asia/Pacific, $1.9M (up from $1.7M)
  • Europe, $681K (up from $476K)
  • Middle East/North Africa: $361K ($409K)
  • Central America/Caribbean: $68K ($116K)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: $309K ($271K)
  • South America: $13K ($6K)
  • South Asia: $149 ($177K)

The five largest vendors for Toastmasters were:

  • Asendia USA, $1.9M for shipping (down from $2.3M last year)
  • Walsworth Print Group, $1.7M for printing and mailing (down from $2.0M last year)
  • Freeman Audio, $594K for convention audio/visual services (down from $634K last year)
  • Confluent Development in Denver, $447K for property development (the new WHQ site, not listed lastyear)
  • Andovar PTD LTD in Singapore, $430K for language translation (not listed last year)

26 more companies were paid at least $100K in 2016.

Employee compensation

Staff paid at least $100K must be reported, and they were:

  • CEO Dan Rex, $401K salary (16.3% decrease) and $442K total compensation (14.5% decrease)
  • IT Director Hamidreza (Sam) Farajian, $325K total comp, up 9.8%
  • COO Sally Newell-Cohn, $318K, up 5.3%
  • Controller John Bond, $247K, up 11.8%
  • Member Support Director Darci Maenpa, $211K, up 17.9%
  • Marketing Communications Director William Nissim, $177K, up 10.6%
  • Employee Margaret Yamamoto, $145K, up 19.8%
  • Employee Carol Gregory, $152K, up 16.0%
  • Employee Heather Von Raesfeld, $148K (not listed in 2015)
  • Employee Nader Hariri, $152K (not listed in 2015)
  • Employee Jennifer Quinn, $139K, up 14.9%

The CEO’s compensation was established using a compensation committee, the form 990 tax return from other organizations, a written employment contract, a compensation study or survey, and approval by the board or compensation committee (per the tax return, Schedule J).  (The tax form includes one other method for determining compensation which is not used by TI, an independent compensation consultant.)

Expenses did include paying for first-class or charter travel, travel for companions (per the tax return), following a written reimbursement policy, and requiring substantiation of expenses.

Revenue and assets

Total program revenue was up by 6.8%, roughly congruent with membership growth, to a total of $34.6M.  The Toastmasters district conferences globally took in $4.6M in revenue (an average of about $13 per member).  The annual convention pulled in $1.3M (up from $1.2M in 2015).  Magazine advertising earned $20K (unchanged).  For materials sold, the profit margin was 18.2% (was 18.1% in 2015).

Total assets shrank slightly again, by 1.2%, to $48.4M, of which $20.8M is cash and investments, equal to 0.56 years of expenses (down sharply from 1.2 in 2015), below the range of the recommendation for non-profits to have 1-2 years of expenses saved up in reserves.  The land and building at WHQ is valued at a net of $25.6M (with the Denver building purchase).  Inventory has decreased by 1.3%, to $863K.

Toastmasters International must report on individual donors who gave $5K or more, and in 2016, Curtis Hellenbrand of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, gave $11,850 (someone with that name passed away in 2012).  Total donations were $40K.

Related organizations

Two organizations are identified as related, “Fifteen to Seventy LLC”, a real estate holding company in Colorado (100% owned by TI, a vehicle for buying the new office), and “Toastmasters International Singapore Ltd”, a publishing company (also controlled by TI)

Click here for the full 2016 tax return.

2015 tax return analysis

2014 tax return analysis

2013 tax return analysis

2012 tax return analysis

2011 tax return analysis

2017 Toastmasters annual business meeting proxy returns by district

Posted on

The annual business meeting is where we elect the board of directors, international officers, and amend our governing documents.

In previous years, we’ve occasionally seen a district that collected 100% of the proxies, but this is quite rare. In 2015, the average was 68%, in 2016, it was 70%, and this year it was 67.8% (quorum is 33.3%).

The districts coming closest to representing all their clubs were:

  • D90 (New South Wales, Australia) at 100% AGAIN (they did this last year as well, well done!)
  • D70 (Sydney, southern New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, Australia) at 99.0% (missed two clubs, identical to last year, well done!)
  • D41 (North and West India) at 97.6%

At the other end of the scale, we had:

  • D80 (Singapore) at 0% (not one proxy was picked up; there was confusion over what paperwork was needed for credentials)
  • D102 (Malaysia) at 22.6%
  • D75 (Philippines) at 27.0%

The top quarter of districts beat 82% representation, the top half beat 70%, and the top 3/4 beat 58%.

The vast majority of the votes come from clubs (99.2%, two per club), the rest are “at large” members, which is any current or past International Director (which includes International Presidents and officers), and the current District Directors (they each get one vote, regardless of any clubs they also may represent). At-large members must attend in person, they cannot give their vote to someone else.

Undistricted clubs are randomly assigned a default district director for their proxy, if they choose to do so (they can assign it to anyone, just like all other clubs).  That’s why there’s no “U” line in the spreadsheet (and theoretically, a district could have more than 100% of the proxies).

Of those votes from clubs, the large majority are represented by the District Directors. There’s no way of knowing just how many, but based on my informal observations working in credentials, it’s probably 80% or more of the votes.

While there are many things more important for Toastmasters districts to devote scarce resources to (no, not speech contests, I mean helping struggling clubs and building new clubs), this is the sort of thing that shouldn’t be that hard to do. A district proxy chair with a committee to call clubs and round up proxies makes an excellent High Performance Leadership (HPL) project!

Full details in the Excel spreadsheet here: Proxies-2017

Here’s my post on the 2016 proxy returns.

Analysis of 2015 Toastmasters tax return 990

Posted on (Updated: )

dollar_noteThe 2015 990 tax return for Toastmasters International has been released. Total revenue was up 2.2%, but expenses were up 3.7%.  Total salaries were up 14.2%, but the number of employees is down from 179 to 175 (-2%).

Expenses and vendors

Payroll was by far the largest single expense, at $10.1M (up 12%).  Travel expenses are down, from $1,377K in 2014 to $1,180K in 2015.  $630K was spend on software, $467K on “new member charter kits”, $83K on “employee relations”, $76K on translations, and $10K was spent on “speakers”.

Expenditures on club-building and leadership training by world (not TM) region are interesting, it does cost significantly more to support members outside of North America.

  • North America, $877K (down from $1.1M last year)
  • East Asia/Pacific, $1.7M (down from $2.1M)
  • Europe, $476K (down from $534K)
  • Middle East/North Africa: $409K ($266K)
  • Central America/Caribbean: $116K ($66K)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: $271K ($250K)
  • South America: $6K ($4K)
  • South Asia: $177 ($316K)

The five largest vendors for Toastmasters were:

16 more companies were paid at least $100K in 2015.

Employee compensation

Staff paid at least $100K must be reported, and they were:

  • CEO Dan Rex, $479K total compensation, 21.0% increase
  • COO Sally Newell-Cohn, $270K, 12.5% increase
  • IT Director Hamidreza (Sam) Farajian, $265K, 23.3% increase
  • Controller John Bond, $188K, 22.1% increase
  • Member Support Director Darci Maenpa, $152K, 10.1% increase
  • Marketing Communications Director William Nissim, $152K (not listed in 2014, new hire?)
  • Employee Carol Gregory, $112K (not listed in 2014)
  • Employee Margaret Yamamoto, $111K (not listed in 2014)
  • PR Manager Suzanne Frey, $107K, 1.9% increase
  • Employee Jennifer Quinn, $104K (not listed in 2014)
  • Club Services Manager Kristen Rolapp, $111K, 1.8% increase

The CEO’s compensation was established using a compensation committee, the form 990 tax return from other organizations, a written employment contract, a compensation study or survey, and approval by the board or compensation committee (per the tax return, Schedule J).  (The tax form includes one other method for determining compensation which is not used by TI, an independent compensation consultant.)

Expenses did include paying for first-class or charter travel, travel for companions, and tax indemnification and gross-up payments (per the tax return), following a written reimbursement policy, and requiring substantiation of expenses.

Revenue and assets

Total program revenue was up by 1.8%, roughly congruent with membership growth, to a total of $32.4M.  The Toastmasters district conferences globally took in $4.7M in revenue (an average of about $13 per member).  The annual convention pulled in $1.2M (down from $1.4M in 2014).  Magazine advertising earned $20K (down from $31K in 2014).  For materials sold, the average profit margin was 12.6% (down from 14.1% in 2014).

Total assets shrank slightly, by 3.4%, to $49.0M, of which $41.6M is cash and investments, equal to 1.2 years of expenses (down slightly from 1.3 in 2014), in the range of the recommendation for non-profits to have 1-2 years of expenses saved up in reserves.  The land and building at WHQ is valued at a net of $5.5M.  Inventory has increased by 18.8%, to $874K.

Toastmasters International had to report on individual donors for the second year, it’s only required if someone gave $5K or more, and in 2015, Virginia Figg of New York City gave $10K.  Total donations were $22K, after hitting $67K in 2014 (including a single $50K gift), and $15K the year before.

Related organizations

Two organizations are identified as related, “Fifteen to Seventy LLC”, a real estate holding company in Colorado (100% owned by TI, a vehicle for buying the new office), and “Toastmasters International Singapore Ltd”, a publishing company (also controlled by TI).  (This schedule was not in previous tax returns.)

Click here for the full 2015 tax return.

2014 tax return analysis

2013 tax return analysis

2012 tax return analysis

2011 tax return analysis