The USA Swimming Foundation has released its 2022 financial reports, and the philanthropic arm of USA Swimming has dramatically-improved its efficiency in the new year.
In 2021, the program spent over $1.27 million in management and fundraising costs to administer $2.35 million in program funding. That amounts to a 35% overhead ratio.
In 2022, both metrics improved. The organization spent less on overhead ($1 million) and more on programming ($4 million) for a ratio of 25%.
That ratio (24.9% to be exact) is significant – CharityWatch considers charities to be “highly efficient,” it’s best rating, when they spend 25% or less of their money on overhead and reserve 75% or more of that spending for programming.
This improvement in efficiency came in a year when the foundation was rocked by more than $3 million in investment losses, meaning that the organization’s net revenue for 2022 was only $212,540.
Besides that investment loss, fundraising also fell from $2.5 million to $2.1 million. That was partially offset by an increase in corporate sponsorship ($551,516 to $619,799).
Other Notes:
- As the world began to stabilize after the COVID-19 pandemic, teams were able to raise significantly more money from Swim-A-Thon revenue in 2022 than in 2021.
- USA Swimming increased its spending in Saving Lives programing from “more than $900,000” to “more than $1.35 million”. In 2021, $507,618 were given as grant dollars to swim lesson providers, but in 2022 that number increased to $910,155
- In 2021, “Over $1 million (was) provided to support the National Team.” In 2022 that number was listed as $1.1 million.
- While corporate revenue is up from 2020 and 2021, donations fell significantly. Both are still well below the last pre-COVID-19 pandemic year, 2019. Fall 2019 was the last time the USA Swimming foundation had a dedicated president, Debbie Hesse, before USA Swimming rolled-up management of the organization.
- USA Swimming’s support fell in 2022. While the report did not provide a breakdown of this spending for 2022, prior years’ breakdowns show that this includes in-kind staff support, national team travel & training endowment, and donating toward fundraising support.
- In spite of the substantial investment loss in 2022, the organization’s first since 2018 and one of the biggest losses they’ve had, the foundation’s net assets position of $19,829,084 is still within the organization’s historic range of around $20 million.
- The organization’s investment return loss rate of about 15% is still better than the market-tracking S&P 500 index did. The S&P 500 had a yearly return of -19.44% in 2022.
YOY Comparison of USA Swimming Foundation Financials
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | |
| Olympic Year |
Onset of COVID-19
|
||||
| Donations/Grants | $2,122,495 | $2,521,177 | $1,179,337 | $2,711,776 | $1,819,550 |
| Investment Return | -$3,033,307 | $2,308,511 | $2,274,554 | $2,938,313 | -$852,584 |
| Corporate Sponsorship | $619,799 | $551,516 | $520,750 | $702,500 | $480,000 |
| USA Swimming Support | $268,740 | $348,806 | $392,446 | $449,414 | $996,997 |
|
Trials VIP Packages
|
$126,043 | ||||
| Swim-A-Thon | $232,707 | $48,410 | $51,509 | $358,711 | $361,920 |
| Other Income | $2,106 | $37,776 | $819 | $25,425 | $137,826 |
|
Uncollectible Pledges
|
-$120,500 | ||||
| Total Revenue | $212,540 | $5,821,739 | $4,419,415 | $7,186,139 | $2,943,709 |
| Total without investment returns | $3,245,847 | $3,513,228 | $2,144,861 | $4,247,826 | $3,796,293 |
| Program Services | $3,037,808 | $2,356,095 | $5,069,329 | $3,012,494 | $2,771,853 |
| Management & General | $505,224 | $397,930 | $420,987 | $455,574 | $975,979 |
| Fundraising | $502,122 | $880,670 | $513,862 | $958,103 | $481,359 |
| Total Expenses | $4,045,154 | $3,634,695 | $6,004,178 | $4,426,171 | $4,229,191 |
| Overhead ratio | 24.90% | 35.18% | 15.57% | 31.94% | 34.46% |