What observations did you make while putting the budget together?

Financial Management and the Arts

Assignment:

Personal Budget and Reflection

100 points possible

Using the provided “Personal Budget Worksheet” create a monthly budget for yourself. Assume the following data points:
After taxes, you make $36,000/year which means you take home $3,000/month.
Assume you have graduated and are working full time and living in a city (a moderately to low priced cost of living).
Use actuals when possible but do not get overly stressed about the actual cost of the items- your smartest estimation will suffice.
You do not need to fill in every line but you must fill in at least 1 per section.
50 points

After building the above budget, write a 2 page reflection paper about building your budget that considers these questions:
What observations did you make while putting the budget together? Was it hard/easy? Have you done something like this before?
Did you find that some expenses were monthly vs. one time? How did you make those decisions?
In the end did you come up short or have a surplus?
If you had too, could you reduce your expenses by $1,000/month? What would you drop first or what would you prioritize? Why?
How might this activity inform the way you will look at an Arts Organization’s budget? What are some of the major differences and similarities from a personal budget to an organization’s budget?

Course Overview:

Understanding and applying sound financial management tools are fundamental in creating and maintaining sustainable arts enterprises. This course focuses on understanding the financials challenges faced by the arts and the necessary tools to plan, control, interpret and communicate the financial position of the arts enterprise.

Course Objectives:

This course will introduce the basics of Revenue and Expenses for non-profit arts organizations and how the numbers tells a story. Students will earn how to develop a budget,read and interpret financial statements, such as income statements, cash flow statements and balance sheets. Through discussion and hands-on exercises, studentswill explore ways of developing and sustaining fiscal responsibility throughout an organization, including the understanding of roles and responsibilities of the board of directors, management,and staff.