Executive Director Report
November 27, 2012
“We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.”
Winston Churchill
Hopefully, you have noticed all the good things happening for Creative Living. From our wonder Annual
Campaign and the feedback we are getting, our video, our publicity in Business First, another successful
event, inspiring Strategic Planning retreat and our Technology Maturity Award to name a few.
Normally, when a resident moves on there is a sadness mixed with joy that our mission has truly been
accomplished. Sam Williams has moved back to Lima, Ohio. He had a house there that he couldn’t
sell and with all the bureaucracy out there it was getting punitive to his finances. It showed as an asset
and it affected school funding and medical equipment. He is a proud man and maybe we found out after
the fact or I know Creative Living would be there for him. I am not sure he was ready to go yet but he
applied to the Independent Living Fund and the Weilers approved money for him to make his bathroom
like Creative Living’s. So we have a vacancy.
I hope you noticed in the newsletter our picture moment with Safelite. I am making a mission this year to
try and recognize long time donors. Safelite has contributed over $250,000.000 since 1995. We had an
award made and a presentation. I contacted Nationwide and their records only go back to 1999 so that
one will require some digging in our dusty banker boxes. Remember we cannot recognize or thank
enough.
Last year, we started doing an annual financial reporting of our donors. We include it in the November
newsletter. We do four newsletters a year where we report contributions for the quarter so donors are
really recognized in the quarter they give and then again in our annual reporting. Due to such a
successful year we were not able to summarize our goods and services folks one more time or our
mailing would have been too bulky. Now this past newsletter had donors in the actual newsletter for
October only as it was the first month of our fiscal year. Of course, you get the newsletter three weeks
later so if someone made a contribution in November they will not be listed until February newsletter. I
am so big on donor recognition and repeat thank you that I do take this seriously but if someone gives
once a year there is not space to list them in every newsletter or we would not have a very newsy
newsletter. For years we never even listed our donors except once a year. Always welcome to
suggestions.
I am coming to the opinion of not having the resident holiday party this year. Last year only 3 residents
attended and it cost over $500. I think the money would be better spent keeping in the resident relief
fund. No one has even asked.
I have attached the Resident Assistant Program summary page I use quite a bit. You will notice quite an
increase in the budgeted cost from the two years. Just a reminder that we have kept the cost of the
program to the residents at $200. We have not had an increase since 2006 which we evaluate every
year. But we made a larger than normal increase in the RA pay. We changed our starting rate from
$8.00 to $8.50 so everyone automatically got a $.50 raise plus some performance increases.
Ok I am not a political person but I hate it when they start messing with the charitable deduction.
I know people should give from their heart and not think of how it will benefit them but size of the
gift can’t help but be influenced by our tax laws.
As Congress reconvenes for the year-end lame duck session to address a number of looming priorities,
including the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, reinstatement of the tax provisions commonly
known as extenders (including the IRA charitable rollover and other giving incentives), sequestration,
further deficit reduction, and setting the stage for comprehensive tax reform, there are reports that
suggest limits to the charitable deduction may be under consideration to help pay for any number of these
issues.
Proposals to limit or cap the charitable deduction are nothing new – in fact in the past few years we’ve
seen:
•President Obama propose capping the charitable deduction at 28% for taxpayers earning above
$250,000;
•Governor Romney propose an aggregate cap as low as $17,000 on deductions for all taxpayers, which
would effectively eliminate the charitable deduction for most taxpayers (There have also been other
proposals to place an aggregate cap on deductions, including one that would place a cap of 2% of AGI on
deductions for all taxpayers); and
•A proposal from the Simpson-Bowles Commission to eliminate the charitable deduction and replace it
with a 12% flat credit for donations above a 2% floor of AGI.
Contact your members of Congress and the President and urge them not to limit the charitable deduction
in the lame duck session and to avoid deficit reduction and tax reform solutions that would increase
poverty and widen income inequality. As nonprofits continue to see increasing demand for programs and
services, our elected officials should support policies that encourage all Americans to give more to
charitable organizations and protect the most vulnerable in our society.