The USA Swimming Foundation, the charitable arm of USA Swimming, donated $618,200 to Make a Splash Local Partners in 2019, CEO Tim Hinchey reported at January’s Board of Directors meeting. This allowed the organization’s 117 Local Partners to provide 28,627 free lessons around the country to populations most vulnerable to drowning.
While the number of partners and the dollar figure is a slight decrease from 2018, 2019 saw a number of changes to USA Swimming’s flagship charitable program that included the merging of operations between USA Swimming and the USA Swimming Foundation, with all of the formerly-Foundation staff becoming part of the USA Swimming staff as of the start of 2020.
USA Swimming Foundation Distributions over the Last 3 Years:
- 2019: $618,200 to 117 Make a Splash Local Partners
- 2018: $702,819 to 151 Make a Splash Local Partners
- 2017: $503,000 to 128 Make a Splash Local Partners
There were some positive signs for the future. For one, the Foundation’s signature fundraising event, the Golden Goggle Awards auctions, raised $165,000 in 2019, which is a 6% increase over 2018, and in January, the Foundation had already raised $250,000 from major gifts. This was before the global economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which will probably result in fewer donations in 2020 than the year prior.
USA Swimming received 276 grant applications for 2020, which is the largest applicant pool to date. The organization had planned Make a Splash Tour events in Philadelphia; Billings, Montana; and Borger, Texas, though like most of the organization’s operations, that’s up-in-the-air depending on when doors reopen.
The USA Swimming Foundation was established in 2004. The Foundation, among other activities, provides financial support to USA Swimming National Team athletes and provides live-saving water safety skills to children around the country. In its history, the USA Swimming Foundation has spent more than $4 million to combat drowning across the country, with over 4 million children having received swim lessons through the programs.
The Foundation also provided more than $2 million in direct athlete support, coaching incentives, and National Junior Team Travel in the 2013-2016 quadrennial.
This may not be a popular question, but do we know how much we spent in salaries, bonuses, and benefits for the Foundation staff?
It’s a great question!
We don’t, because 2019 financials haven’t been finalized yet, but we do know that in 2018 they spent $952,084 on salaries, compensation and employee benefits. That was a pretty substantial drop (about $225,000) from 2017.
They put out $1.3 million in other grants besides the money that went toward swim lessons above. The most recent public projection for salaries for 2019 are fairly low, 81,927, but because the staff is being integrated into USA Swimming, the actual cost of running the Foundation programs becomes less clear. The goal of that integration was almost certainly to reduce the costs of the Foundation.
In total, the “program” expenses, on the projected financial statements, for 2019 came out to… Read more »
Thank you for the info. It will be interesting to see how this year shakes out, particularly because we will probably see fewer donations, and I’m not really sure when pools will be open again to allow lessons.
search on “2018 USA Swimming Financial Statements and Supplemental Schedules” and view the Audit report