The Financial Health of Our Organizations: COMTA

This is my third year of doing an annual report on the financial status of the major non-profit organizations of the massage therapy profession. I am not an accountant or a financial expert. This information was taken directly from FORM 990, the Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, which is published on Guidestar.

COMTA is the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation. Obtaining accreditation from COMTA is a voluntary and rigorous process that few schools choose to go through; of the hundreds of massage schools and programs in the US, less than 100 have the credential. It is a banner of excellence, requiring that the school do an in-depth self-study and meet high standards meant to insure that they are offering a program and learning environment of the highest caliber.

Non-profits are on a different filing schedule than the rest of us; this form covers the fiscal year of COMTA from 03/01/09 to 02/28/10.

COMTA’s revenue increased by $167,345 over the previous filing. While they still showed a deficit overall of $98,102, it is a vast improvement over last year’s deficit, which was in excess of $277,000.  I guess this does go to show my ignorance on the financial matters of non-profits…COMTA isn’t the only one operating in the red, and you just have to wonder how our non-profits keep on going whenever they’re showing such losses. Presumably, some of that money comes from savings and other assets. COMTA’s assets have dropped by almost $100,000 in the past year, leaving them with net assets of a little over $93,000.

COMTA is a smaller organization than most of the other non-profits, because of the nature of their work. They are not a membership organization and they don’t have a big staff. Their Executive Director doesn’t receive anywhere near the amount of compensation of those in comparable positions in the membership organizations; Kate Ivane Henri Zulaski’s salary, including benefits, is slightly over $57,000. READ MORE...