The Rainbow Bridge Community Center offers its Annual Financial Reports for the year 2024.
At the start of 2024, RBCC was just beginning to peek out from under a cloud of confusion that had marked 2023, due to a complete turnover of leadership, incomplete financial records from before the turnover, and of course the historic 2023 flood; and our new Treasurer was stepping into the position in January with more than a little trepidation about what awaited her.
Our aim was to work our way to a point where our financial records were done properly in 2024, and our reporting and budgeting going into 2025 were picture-perfect. This was an ambitious goal, made all the more challenging both by the Anniversary Flood of 2024, and by more turnover of leadership; but while we may not have reached 100% perfection (not that anyone ever does), we are extremely pleased with, and proud of, the huge progress we’ve made, and feel that these financial reports reflect a very accurate and meaningful measure both of RBCC’s fiscal stability, and the maturation of its bookkeeping and operational direction.
Our Statement of Financial Position shows that our current assets are adequate to maintain our continued operation; note that it is based on cash accounting, not accrual, since we have a reasonably simple cash flow not marked by the kind of unevenness that accrual accounting helps to regulate. Our Statement of Activity gives a good picture of where our funding comes from, and goes to. 2024 was marked by both a higher degree of income due to more flood-related grant and donation funding, and a significantly higher degree of spending due to catching up on flood-related direct support that had not been achieved in full during 2023, some investment in deferred purchases of necessary office equipment and supplies, and catching up with salary tax burdens that had been overlooked in 2023.
Going into 2025, we anticipate a more even and stable level of funding and expenditures, though we are of course prepared for Mother Nature to laugh at our intentions once again, as she did when she forced us to cancel our long-planned Flood Commemoration by offering one of her own, of the most ironic form possible. We are taking this opportunity to rethink and retool many of our operations, notably including the Rainbow Relief Fund (being run by a new director) and our drop-in hours. We’re working on more sustainable and consistent funding sources, and our hard work in 2024 makes us eligible to apply for many more grants and other funding sources that will help us attain that goal.
As we update our programming and offerings for the Central Vermont 2SLGBTQIA+ community in 2025, we’d love to hear from you about what you’d like from the Center. Please consider taking a few minutes to fill out our survey about community needs and wants, or reach out to us at info@rainbowbridgevt.org. We look forward to a 2025 full of growth, safety, prosperity, and queer joy.
