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Financial Analysis for the Make-A-Wish Foundation

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Refer to the 2002 annual report of the Make-A-Wish Foundation (Wish), in answering the following questions.

1. Did the accounting firm of KPMG audit all of the Make-A-Wish Foundation chapters? How do you know?

2. Would you say that the financial statements are free of error, since they have been audited by a CPA?

3. What was the range of the cost of wishes granted in 2002? How do you know?

4. Under the approach used by Wish, which of the following would be considered to be cash equivalents?
a. Checking account
b. Savings account
c. Three-month treasury bill
d. Six-month treasury bill
e. One- year treasury bill

5. Is there any difference in the way that Wish treats the donation of land, buildings and equipment from the way it treats the contributions of cash that are restricted for the purchase of land, buildings, and equipment? If so, how, and how do you know? If not, why not?

6. Wish records supplies using the FIFO method. Assuming that there has been an average rate of inflation of 2.5 percent in recent years, if Wish used LIFO would they have reported a higher or lower increase in net assets than they did using FIFO?

7. In their notes, Wish indicates that it performs eight functions, listed below. Which of these eight qualify as program services, as opposed to support services?
a. Wish granting
b. Chapter support
c. Program-related support
d. Committee and board support
e. Training and development
f. Public information
g. Fund-raising
h. Management and general

8. Wish had a decrease in net assets for the year ending August 31, 2002. Would you say that a sizeable portion of that decrease resulted from stock market losses on Wish's investment portfolio? Explain.

9. Did the amount of land Wish owned increase or decrease during the year ending August 31, 2002? How do you know?

10. How much did permanently restricted net assets change during the year ending August 31, 2002? How much of the temporarily restricted net assets as of August 31, 2002 are restricted for the specific purpose of wish fulfilment?

11. Does Wish include any provision (i.e., liability) for lawsuits in its financial statements? How do you know?

12. What is the Program Services Expense Ratio for Wish for the year ending Aug 31 2002?

13. What were fund-raising costs, as a percent of total revenue and other support, for the years ending August 31, 2002 and 2001?

14. a. What percent did Program Service Expenses grow from 2001 to 2002?
b. What percent did Support Service Expenses grow from 2001 to 2002?
c. Which is growing at a faster rate, Program Service Expenses or Support Service Expenses?

15. Did Wish meet any donor restrictions during the year ending Aug 31 2002, allowing restricted contributions to become unrestricted? Is so, how much?

16. What is the unrestricted total margin for the year ending August 31, 2002?

17. From the combined statement of cash flows we see that the change in contributions receivable required a negative adjustment of $710,659 for the year ending August 31, 2002. How would you interpret this adjustment? Explain.

18. Cash used for investing activities was over $9 million. Should we be concerned with this cash decrease? Why or why not?

19. Looking at Wish's assets on the combined statements of financial position, would you consider investments to be short-term or long-term? Why?

20. Assuming that the obligation to international affiliates is short-term, and deferred rent is long-term, what is the current ratio for 2002?

21. What is the ratio of total debt to equity for 2002?

22. Based on your calculation of total margin, current ratio, and debt to equity, in Quest was 16, 20, and 21, and your overall review of the financial statements and notes of Wish, how would you categorize their financial position?

23. What is your overall assessment of the finances of Wish?

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Your tutorial is 715 words and a reference and assist with analyzing the financial complexion of Make-a-Wish Foundation in 2002.

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1. Did the accounting firm of KPMG audit all of the Make-a-wish foundation chapters? How do you know?

No, as they state in their report dated May 12, 2003, (page 22) they did not audit the financial statements of certain chapters which reflect total assets constituting 8 percent in 2002.

2. Would you say that the financial statements are free of error, since they have been audited by a CPA?

No, the auditors obtained "reasonable assurance" from examining evidence on a test basis. That means they did not look at everything and so there is some chance they missed errors, especially minor ones that are not material to the financial picture. Audits are intended to find material errors.

3. What was the range of the cost of wishes granted in 2002? How do you know?

Wish granting expenses were $84,794,982 in 2002 (page 24).

4. Under the approach used by Wish, which of the following would be considered to be cash equivalents?

Wish's footnote indicates that they consider highly liquid financial instruments to be cash equivalents (those with an original maturity of three months or less). So, I would expect a, b and c to be cash equivalents.

a. Checking account
b. Savings account
c. Three-month treasury bill
d. Six-month treasury bill
e. One- year treasury bill

5. Is there any difference in the way that Wish treats the donation of land, buildings and equipment from the way it treats the contributions of cash that are restricted for the purchase of land, buildings, and equipment? If so, how, and how do you know? If not, why not?

Contributions of assets other than cash are recorded at their estimated fair value as revenues of unrestricted net assets. Cash contributions that are designated for the purchase of land, buildings and equipment are recognized as revenues of temporarily restricted net assets and the restrictions are considered released at the time of acquisition of the required asset. (p 29)

6. Wish records supplies using the FIFO method. Assuming that there has been an average rate of inflation of 2.5 percent in recent years, if Wish used LIFO would they have reported a higher or ...

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