During the pledge drive last spring, we promised you an update in November as to how UCE was doing financially — and whether we would possibly need to come back to members to ask for more help.   

We are happy to report that our financials are stable.  Importantly, we received a Payroll Protection Program loan (PPP) of $72,000 that we used to pay salaries this spring and summer. We fully expect this to be converted to a grant. We have also benefitted from a combination of late and additional pledges, non-pledge extra gifts, significant cost savings in running the building, and a successful Serendipity Auction. 

As a result, we have been able to maintain staffing (other than kitchen, childcare and lobby, all of whom we paid through mid-July), and keep virtual programming in full swing. As a result of all these factors, we expect to end this year with a surplus. 

We do have significant concerns about next year’s budget when we will not have the PPP to help us out.  Therefore, our plan is to carry over the surplus from this current fiscal year to fiscal 2021-22 in order to maintain stable staffing into that year.  Thus, we will continue to keep an eagle eye on expenses this year, in order to be well positioned for FY 2021-22. 

We’ll share more information as we launch the formal budget process in January. Thank you for your generosity! We are so grateful to have UCE and its staff available to support us through these difficult times. And we couldn’t have done that with you.