THE SSA FOUNDATION

If you are interested in financially supporting the art, sport and science of soaring by donating to the Soaring Society of America, please use the links to the right to be transferred to our Potential Donors’ Page where you can find information about WHY and HOW to donate to SSA.

GIVING OPTIONS

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For a One-time Donation

All gifts to SSA are greatly appreciated! Gifts to the annual Eagle Fund and other gifts given without restriction normally will be kept within SSA and used to support current operations. Gifts that are designated by the donor as endowment gifts (the original gift is maintained and only the income from the gift is available for expenditure) and other gifts that are intended to be held by SSA and spent over a period of longer than one year are normally transferred to the SSA Foundation for investment and management.

Please note: gifts to the General Endowment Fund or to any other existing Fund are treated by SSA as being without restriction as to purpose and without restriction as to expenditure of the corpus of the gift (that is, the entire balance of the gift is available for immediate expenditure) unless the donor advises SSA otherwise at the time of the gift.

To learn more about the SSA Foundation and how it holds, manages and invests your long-term gifts, read the information contained farther down on this webpage in the sections listed below.

  • What is the SSA Foundation?
  • Foundation Leadership
  • Foundation Documents of Corporate Governance
  • SSA-SSAF Memorandum of Understanding
  • The Foundation’s Investment Policy & Strategy
  • Funds Under Management
  • Foundation Financial Statements, Accounting Policies & Other Financial Information

WHAT IS THE SSA FOUNDATION?

In 1998 SSA leadership created a new non-for-profit organization, the Soaring Society of America Foundation (the “Foundation”), which is legally separate and distinct from SSA, for the purpose of holding, investing and managing monies and other assets that are given either to the SSA or directly to the Foundation for the purpose of supporting the tax-exempt purposes of SSA.

The Foundation is a New Mexico not-for-profit corporation and is recognized as an IRS 501(c)(3) charitable entity. The Foundation’s “owners” (called “Members”) consist of all the currently serving Directors of the SSA. The Foundation is managed by a board of between 5 and 7 Trustees who are elected by the Members at their annual meeting, held concurrently with the annual fall SSA Director’s meeting, and who serve for a term of 3 years. The officers of the Foundation, who serve for one calendar year, are in turn elected by the Trustees.

As of August 2021, the Foundation held more than $5 million in assets belonging to the SSA. These monies are segregated into more than 20 distinct funds, some established by SSA out of unrestricted gifts to SSA or SSA’s retained earnings, some created from gifts from donors that were given for specific purposes and each of which has a designated role in supporting the art, sport and science of soaring as established by either SSA or the donor. Some of the funds are endowment funds, in which the corpus of the original gift is to be maintained permanently and only the income is available to support the purposes of the gift; some are funds in which both the original gift and the income may be spent. One of the key roles of the Foundation is to insure that endowment monies are indeed managed, invested and ultimately used as directed by donors.

As provided in Article 2.1 of the Foundation’s Bylaws, the purpose of the Foundation is as follows:

2.1 Purpose. The Foundation is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations described under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revue Revenue Code (“Code”) or corresponding section of any future federal tax code, and specifically for the limited exclusive purpose of furthering the exempt purposes of The Soaring Society of America, Inc., a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (“SSA”). The Foundation shall not operate for purposes that are contrary to the tax-exempt purposes of The Soaring Society of America, Inc.

In 2021 SSA and the Foundation entered into a detailed Memorandum of Understanding that formalized certain practices and procedures and the relationship between SSA and the Foundation. According to Paragraph 3.2 of that MOU,

3.2 The role of the Foundation and its Trustees is to hold, invest, and manage any funds or other assets transferred to the Foundation by SSA or that are given by donors directly to the Foundation to support the tax-exempt purposes of SSA.

Currently, the Foundation does not own any assets of its own. Rather, it holds, invests and manages the assets of the SSA that, because of restrictions imposed by either a donor or by action of the SSA Board of Directors, either cannot be used by SSA or are not required by SSA for current operations. Typically, gifts are given to SSA which then transfers to gifts to the Foundation to hold and invest. Gifts can be given directly to the Foundation (the Foundation is itself an IRS 501(c)(3) charitable organization), but direct gifts to the Foundation will be accepted by the Foundation only on the condition that they may be used to support the tax-exempt purposes of SSA.

The overall investment goal of the Foundation is to invest so that there is real growth in the value of the assets held by the Foundation, after allowing for inflation. To accomplish this goal, the Foundation pursues a somewhat aggressive investment strategy with approximately 90% of its assets in equities and 10% in fixed income securities. Refer to the section below titled “Foundation Documents of Corporate Governance” to view the Foundation’s formal statement of Investment Policy.

SSA is grateful to all those who have given freely to advance the mission of SSA: To support and promote the Art, Sport and Science of Soaring flight.  To  insure that our Donors have the greatest confidence that their gifts and bequests will achieve their intended goals, SSA has adopted a ten-point “Donors Bill of Rights,” which can be accessed by clicking on the link below.

FOUNDATION LEADERSHIP

As a New Mexico charitable corporation, the Foundation is “owned” by its “Members.” The Members consist of all the currently serving Directors of the Soaring Society of America, resulting in 16 Members if all Director slots are filled. Day to day governance of the Foundation is entrusted to a Board of Trustees, who are elected by the Members, and to the Officers of the Foundation, who are elected by the Trustees from among themselves.

The Foundation Members normally meet twice each year contemporaneously with SSA Board of Directors meetings.  Minutes of the of the Members Meetings are incorporated into the Minutes of the SSA BOD meetings.  Copies of the available minutes can be accessed by clicking on the link below under “View and Download the SSA Foundation’s Documents of Corporate Governance.”

The Foundation Bylaws provide that at any given time there will be between 5 and 7 Trustees, who are elected by the Members to serve for 3 year terms beginning on the January 1 immediately following their election at the annual Members meeting, held contemporaneously with the fall SSA Board of Directors meeting. No Trustee may serve for more than 3 consecutive terms. Trustee terms are staggered so that normally no more than 2 Trustee terms expire in any calendar year. Officers of the Foundation consist of a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman, a Treasurer and a Secretary, each of whom serves for a one year term also beginning on the January 1 immediately following their election following the annual Members Meeting. Copies of the available Minutes of the Trustees’ Meetings can be accessed by clicking on the link below under “View and Download the SSA Foundation’s Documents of Corporate Governance.”

Under New Mexico Statutes, Chapter 46 Sections 46-9A-1 through 46-9A-10 (Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds) and Chapter 53 Section 53-8-25.1 (Duties of Directors of non-profit corporations), each Trustee is obligated to perform his or her duties in good faith, in a manner the Trustee believe to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the Foundation and with such care as an ordinarily prudent person would use under similar circumstances in a like position. Trustees may delegate to a professional investment advisor the management and investment of the funds entrusted to them by SSA to the extent that an institution could prudently delegate under the circumstances, as permitted by New Mexico Statute Chapter 46 Section 46-9A-5. Copies of these statutes can be accessed by clicking on the link below under “View and Download the SSA Foundation’s Documents of Corporate Governance.”

A link to the SSA webpage containing a list of the current Foundation Trustees and their contact information is available to SSA members by clicking on the link below.  The link will take you to a login page where you will need to login using your SSA number and password.  Once logged in, find the SSA Foundation under “Governance” and click on the link for “Show Members.”

FOUNDATION DOCUMENTS OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Minutes of Meetings of Foundation Trustees and Members

Minutes of meetings of the Foundation’s Trustees and of the Foundation Members for the three (3) most recent years are available under the section “View & Download the SSA Foundation’s Documents of Corporate Governance.”

Articles of Incorporation

The Articles of Incorporation are in essence the “constitution” of the organization and constitute the corporation’s official charter from the State of New Mexico.

Foundation Bylaws

The Bylaws set out basic rules for the Foundation’s corporate governance and operation.

IRS Determination letter recognizing the Foundation as an IRS 501(c)(3) entity.

The Foundation has been an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) charitable organization since February 2020. As a result, donors may give tax-deductible gifts directly to the Foundation as long as those gifts are for the purpose of supporting the mission of SSA. However, the preferred practice is for donors to give their gifts directly to SSA (which is also a 501(c)(3) charitable entity) for the reason that the Foundation only holds assets that benefit the charitable purposes of the Soaring Society of America.

View & Download the SSA Foundation’s Documents of Corporate Governance

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Current SSAF Bylaws
Historical SSAF Bylaws
Historical SSA Trusts (Pre-Foundation)

SSA-SSAF MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

In 2021 SSA and the Foundation entered into a detailed Memorandum of Understanding that formalized certain practices and procedures related to the donated and saved monies that the Foundation holds, invests and manages for SSA for the purpose of supporting the charitable purposes of SSA – that is, to support the art, science and sport of soaring flight.

The SSA has, over many years, received cash and other assets donated to SSA to support either SSA operations in general or specific aspects of the art, sport and science of soaring. To these donated assets have been added monies saved by SSA from operations. For donated and saved assets not needed for current operations SSA has created a number of “Trust Funds” into which these assets have been placed so that the contents could be invested and allowed to grow pending use in future years.

In 1998 SSA created the Foundation for the purpose of holding, investing and managing the Trust Funds with the ultimate goal of insuring that the Trust Funds are used to further the tax-exempt purposes of the SSA, to wit: fostering and promoting all phases of the art, sport and science of gliding and soaring.

The Bylaws of both the SSA and the Foundation set out certain aspects of the relationship between the two organizations. However, prior to 2021 there had never been a comprehensive written agreement between the two organizations. Rather, the relationship had been governed by informal oral agreements supplemented from time to time by various Board resolutions and limited-purpose MOUs or Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) between SSA or the Foundation and various stakeholders in the Trust Funds.

In order to promote management of the Funds in accordance with any donor or SSA imposed restrictions, in order to provide that certain procedures and agreements are not lost through a turnover in volunteer and staff personnel, and in order to improve the overall management of the Trust Funds, in 2021 SSA and the Foundation adopted a detailed Memorandum of Understanding.  The MOU, as amended, can be accessed by clicking on the link immediately below.

INVESTMENT POLICY & STRATEGY

The assets held by the Foundation for SSA are currently invested in a single non-managed investment account with a target allocation of 90% equities and 10% domestic fixed income securities.

The Foundation’s Investment Policy Statement, formally adopted by the Foundation Trustees, can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of this section.

The assets of the Foundation are invested with the objective of preserving the long-term, real purchasing power of the assets while also providing a relatively predictable and growing stream of annual distributions in support of SSA. The goal of the Foundation is therefore real growth in the value of the investment assets after allowing for inflation and distributions from the Foundation’s investment assets.

To achieve the target returns while still limiting risk to an acceptable level, all of the more than 30 Funds under the Foundation’s management are pooled into a single diversified investment account with a traditional and well-respected investment brokerage firm, currently The Vanguard Group. Investments are limited to traditional stocks, bonds and mutual funds. No venture capital, hedge funds or real estate investments are currently authorized by the Trustees. Loans to SSA are authorized in the Foundation’s Bylaws (see Bylaws Section 2.2) but none are currently in place (such a loan to SSA was last authorized in 2006).

The current asset mix with Vanguard is considered aggressive, with target allocations of 90% equity (63% domestic U.S. equities and 27% non-U.S.) and 10% domestic fixed income securities. The Trustees feel such a portfolio mix, while subject to more volatility in the short run, is nevertheless prudent given the exceptionally low returns currently available on bonds and other fixed-income investments and is necessary to achieve the targeted returns of at least 6% to 7% annually, on average.

The Foundation prefers not to hold “non-liquid” assets (such as the occasional glider that is given to TSA by a member or their heirs). Normally, such gifts will be sold by SSA and the proceeds then transferred to the Foundation for addition to the pooled investment account and subsequent use in accordance with the donor’s instructions. The Foundation does, however, occasionally receive investment securities and other liquid assets that generally will be sold and invested in accordance with the Foundation’s investment policy and strategy described below. The proceeds, of course, will be applied in accordance with any instructions provided by the donor or, in the absence of donor instructions, the directions of the SSA Board of Directors.

FUNDS UNDER MANAGEMENT

As of August 2021, the Foundation holds and manages more than 20 distinct primary Funds for SSA, along with 7 additional “Available Funds” accounts that hold income authorized for withdrawal, but not yet withdrawn, from the Foundation to support the purposes of the primary Funds. These Funds are described in Exhibit A to the SSA-SSA Foundation MOU. Set out below is a list of these Funds along with links to relevant donor agreements, SSA Board of Directors actions, or other key documents governing the Funds.

Funds Supporting SSA Operations Generally

The General Endowment Fund supports SSA’s general operations without restriction and as seen fit by the SSA leadership.  Although called an “endowment fund,” only a small portion of the monies in the Fund are a true “corpus restricted endowment;” it is the policy of SSA that donations given to SSA for addition to the General Endowment Fund normally shall be considered to be without donor restriction on expenditure of the corpus unless expressly stated by the donor at the time of the gift. Certain rules regarding the operation of the General Endowment Fund — including limitations self-imposed by SSA on the amount of money that can be taken from the General Endowment Fund in any one year — are set out at Article 11, Section 11.1 of the SSA Foundation Bylaws.  Perhaps the most important of those limitations is the “Annual Distributable Amount” calculation, whereby the Foundation Trustees annually determine the amount of money that can be taken from the General Endowment Fund and made available to support SSA operations in the coming calendar year.

The Life Member Trust was created for the purpose of setting aside payments for life memberships into a “Trust” and using those payments over time to support the annual costs of servicing the living life members. As of 2-23-2023, SSA Bylaw Article XI, Section 2 provides that both the corpus and income from this Fund shall be available to cover the cost of servicing Life Members of the Society.  Although the Trust was underfunded for a number of years because (1) life memberships were not properly priced and (2) substantial portions of the Life membership payments were used for current operations rather than being set aside for future use, the SSA BOD directed in 2014 that payment for any life membership sold after July 1, 2014 be deposited initially by SSA into the office “restricted” bank account and then that full amount be transferred to the Foundation for addition to the Life Member Trust. (Policy approved by SSA BOD Excom on July 12, 2014.)

Originally established by a very generous bequest to SSA from the estate of SSA member Rudolph Kunda and subsequently increased by a large additional and anonymous gift, the Kunda Fund is used by the SSA BOD (1) to cover unanticipated and irregular expenses such as, for example, major repairs of SSA’s headquaarters building and (2) for major projects approved by the SSA Board. Neither the gift document establishing the Kunda Fund nor any subsequent action by the SSA leadership provides any comprehensive ground rules for the purposes and operation of this Trust Fund, other than the general statement by the BOD that the Kunda Fund is considered a “rainy day fund.” The BOD Excom did, however, approve procedures for withdrawal of Funds from the SSA Operating Reserve Fund (that is, the Kunda Fund) by Excom action on July 18, 2006.

US Soaring Team & Individual Racing Funds

The Robertson Fund is an endowment fund that supports the activities of the U.S. Soaring teams in world competition. There is a grant letter for this Fund dated September 19, 1988 that sets out the purposes for which the Fund can be used. The grant letter provides that the original gift amount of $140,000 is a permanently restricted endowment. Operation of The Robertson Fund, the Woods Fund, the U.S. Team General Fund, the Club Class Fund and the Junior Team Trust are all currently governed by an MOU between SSA and the U.S. Team Committee. The original MOU has been amended several times; the current MOU is dated July 1, 2019.

The Lawrence Wood Fund is an endowment fund that supports the U.S. Soaring Teams in world competition. There is a draft grant letter for this Fund dated November 8, 1996 that tracks the language of the Robertson grant letter. However, SSA files do not contain an executed copy of this draft or any other grant letter. The draft letter provides that the original gift of $100,000 (raised through the sale of a sailplane donated to SSA by the grantor) is a permanently restricted endowment. Operation of The Robertson Fund, the Woods Fund, the U.S. Team General Fund, the Club Class Fund and the Junior Team Trust are all currently governed by an MOU between SSA and the U.S. Team Committee. The original MOU has been amended several times; the current MOU is dated July 1, 2019.

This Fund was established by action of the SSA BOD at the October 2011 BOD meeting with an allocation of $75,000 out of a larger unrestricted gift to SSA. The entire $75,000 is treated by SSA as an endowment with only the income from the endowment amount available to support U.S. Soaring Team activities in amounts and for such purposes as the US Team Committee shall from time to time deem prudent and appropriate. Operation of The Robertson Fund, the Woods Fund, the U.S. Team General Fund, the Club Class Fund and the Junior Team Trust are all currently governed by an MOU between SSA and the U.S. Team Committee. The original MOU has been amended several times; the current MOU is dated July 1, 2019.

This Fund was established by action of the SSA BOD at the October 2011 BOD meeting with an allocation of $50,000 out of a larger unrestricted gift to SSA. The entire $50,000 is treated by SSA as an endowment amount with only the income from the endowment amount available to support U.S. Soaring Team Club Class activities in amounts and for such purposes as the U.S. Team Committee shall from time to time deem prudent and appropriate. Operation of The Robertson Fund, the Woods Fund, the U.S. Team General Fund, the Club Class Fund and the Junior Team Trust are all currently governed by an MOU between SSA and the U.S. Team Committee. The original MOU has been amended several times; the current MOU is dated July 1, 2019.

This Fund was established by action of the SSA BOD at the October 2011 BOD meeting with an allocation of $50,000 out of a larger unrestricted gift to SSA. The BOD action treats the entire $50,000 as an endowment amount available to support US Soaring Junior Team activities in amounts and for such purposes as the U.S. Team Committee shall from time to time deem prudent and appropriate. Operation of The Robertson Fund, the Woods Fund, the U.S. Team General Fund, the Club Class Fund and the Junior Team Trust are all currently governed by an MOU between SSA and the U.S. Team Committee. The original MOU has been amended several times; the current MOU is dated July 1, 2019.

This Fund was established by a very generous gift from an SSA member and is governed by a formal MOU between the Donor, the SSA and the SSA Foundation. Amended several times, the current MOU is dated June 30, 2019. Under the MOU, the U.S. Team Committee and the Foundation share responsible for the administration of the Fund. The corpus of the Fund is Permanently Restricted.

This Fund was established by a very generous gift from an SSA member and is governed by a formal MOU between the Donor, the SSA and the SSA Foundation that is dated August 26, 2019. Under the MOU, the U.S. Team Committee is charged with determining what costs may be reimbursed out of this Fund. The corpus of this Fund is Permanently Restricted.

The origins of this Fund are not well documented. It is governed by a June 29, 2007 action by the SSA Excom (see minutes of 6/29/2007 Excom meeting, Agenda Item 5) that states the Fund originated from a gift “containing monies originally donated to support the U.S. Women’s Soaring Team” and that formally sets the money aside to support women members of the SSA who compete in international competition. The Fund is administered by the U.S. Team Committee. Despite the absence of a gift document or other written evidence of donor intent regarding use of either the original gift corpus or the income from the Fund, SSA has historically treated this Fund as being “Donor Restricted – Purpose Only,” meaning that both the original amount of the Fund as well as all accumulated income is available to support the purposes of the gift.

This Fund was created by action of the SSA BOD at its September 2008 BOD meeting (see minutes, under agenda item 8.4.2). The Fund was created originally through a set-aside by SSA of a portion of the “sanction fees” paid by contest pilots to participate in soaring contests sanctioned by SSA. The Fund is administered by the Rules Sub-committee of the SSA Contest Committee. The Fund is available for spending as directed by the Rules Sub-Committee on either (i) funding of Junior soaring or (ii) contest equipment and contest related expenses. Currently, the Fund is governed by a three-part MOU between SSA, the Foundation and the SSA Contest Committee dated as of January 1, 2021.

Scholarship & Award Funds

Administered by the SSA Youth Soaring Committee, this is a “worker” award for young soaring pilots who have made impressive contributions to a U.S. soaring club or school and is intended to support post-solo soaring by SSA members aged 14-22. The Bultman Fund was originally operated outside of SSA by the Collegiate Soaring Association but was transferred to SSA for administration in 1995. See article in Mar 1995 Soaring, at p. 14. There is no known transfer agreement or governing document as well as no record of the money having been given by the donors or accepted by SSA as an endowment and therefore this Fund is not treated as an endowment fund; the entire Fund (corpus plus accumulated and unspent income) should be considered Without Donor Restriction. This award is intended to finance post-solo soaring by SSA members aged 14-25 in soaring activities such as chasing badges, attending wave and cross country camps, entering contests, and continued flight training.

CFI-Gs (Certified Flight Instructor – Glider) are the lifeblood of our sport. Without instructors, existing pilots cannot stay current and new recruits to our sport cannot get trained. Recognizing this, in 2019 SSA began – thanks to some very generous donors – providing financial support to SSA Chapters that had members who wanted to obtain a CFI-G rating but needed some financial assistance. The pilot program proved so successful that in 2021 Ken and Michelle Sorenson established a dedicated fund within the SSA Foundation to provide ongoing support for CFI-G training and certification, CFI-G camps and other CFI-G related training activities. The Fund is administered by a selection committee appointed by the SSA Chairman. It is the hope of SSA and the Sorensons that other SSA members will add to this fund and keep it going for a long time.

Established in 1994 by Dr. Frank Gross, the Gross Cadet Youth Fund provides training funds for junior soaring pilots to be applied to flight training in gliders.  Administered by the SSA Junior Soaring Committee, the Fund is governed by two written agreements between SSA, the National Soaring Museum, and the family of Dr. Frank Gross, the agreements being dated May 14 and 21, 1994. By practice SSA awards scholarship amounts only from the net income realized from the original grant plus additional donations directly to this Fund or to youth soaring in general that may be allocated by SSA leadership among the various programs supporting youth soaring.

The Klemperer fund was established by SSA via BOD action in 1965. At some point the BOD elected to include the fund as one of the official SSA Trust Funds; a detailed “Trust Agreement” for the Fund is included in the 1976 SSA Bylaws under the provisions listing the SSA Trusts. At some point thereafter the detailed provisions of the “Trust Agreement” were removed from the Bylaws, but there is no indication that the SSA BOD ever changed the rules regarding the operation of the Trust. The 1976 SSA Bylaws are the best source of the rules for operating this Fund. SSA considers this to be an endowment fund (corpus restricted).

The Kolstad Fund was originally funded by a donation from the Kolstad Family, but has been enlarged over many years through generous donations from SSA members and other friends of soaring.  The Fund supports the Kolstad Junior Soaring Awards, which are of two types: (1) the “Century Awards,” which recognize cross-country soaring flights of 100, 300, 500 and 1,000 kilometers by Junior soaring pilots (those between 14 and 25 years of age) and (2) the Kolstad  scholarship grant, which provides a significant financial award to support a college education for the annual winner or winners of the award.  The Kolstad Fund is currently governed by an MOU dated June 1, 2021.

Other Soaring Funds

The financial and administrative relationship between SSA and the Soaring Safety Foundation is covered by an 8-page Memorandum of Understanding approved by both SSA and the SSF on September 30, 2007. The SSA Foundation holds and manages a significant Fund holding monies earmarked to support the activities of the Soaring Safety Foundation.

There is no gift letter or other written statement of this gift and the reported restrictions on the Fund use are anecdotal. SSA has chosen to limit use of the monies in this Fund for the defense and preservation of soaring sites. It is not an endowment fund and the full Fund balance is available to support the stated purposes.

This Fund was established in 2012 with a gift in the original amount of $10,000. It is not an endowment fund and the entire corpus may be spent to further the purposes of the Fund. The purposes and procedures that govern this fund were established by an exchange of emails between the donor and SSA.

For a number of Funds, either as a result of donor restriction or SSA Board of Directors action, the corpus of the Fund is treated as an “endowment” amount and only a limited amount of the income from the primary Fund can be spent. This amount is calculated by the Foundation Trustees using an “Annual Distributable Amount” calculation that is described at Paragraph 9 of the SSA-SSA Foundation MOU. Funds holding monies set aside as being authorized for withdrawal from the Foundation using this process are:

  • General Endowment Available Fund
  • U.S. Team Trusts Available Funds (This Fund aggregates the Available Funds allocated from 3 Funds: the Robertson, Woods and U.S. Team General Funds)
  • Mozer Trust Available Funds
  • Ittner Trust Available Funds
  • Contest Rules Sub-Committee Sanction Fee Available Funds
  • Junior Team Available Funds
  • Club Class Available Funds

Trophy Funds

The Trophy Fund, supporting the following trophies

  • The Warren E. Eaton Memorial Trophy
  • The Lewin B. Barringer Memorial Trophy
  • The Richard C. du Pont Memorial Trophy
  • The Larissa Stroukoff Memorial Trophy
  • The Hatcher Trophy
  • The Jon Kubly Trophy
  • The Standard Class Trophy
  • Schreder 15-Meter Class Trophy
  • Hal Lattimore Sports Class Trophy
  • The Rudolf Mozer Trophy (Jr. Class Champion)
  • Spratt 18-Meter Class Trophy
  • Charlie “Lite” Minner 18-Meter Speed Trophy
  • Mary Klassen Club Class Trophy
  • Nathan Maleady Memorial Club Class Speed Trophy
  • Moffat/Woods 2-place 20 Meter Championship Trophy

Note: The 1-26 Marion C. Cruze Trophy and the Senior Championship Trophy are not part of the Trophy Fund and the costs of maintaining, shipping, repairing and replacing those trophies shall not be taken from the Trophy Fund. The Trophy Fund shall not be used for the support of any trophy or award existing as of January 1, 2021 that is not included in the list above.

The primary source of the rules governing the operation of the Trophy Fund is found in the SSA Bylaws at Article X, Section 2.

FOUNDATION FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, ACCOUNTING POLICIES & OTHER FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Financial information about Foundation operations that is available to SSA members on this webpage includes historical and current Statements of Revenues and Expenditures (income statements), Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Fund Equity (balance sheets), the “Tracker” spreadsheet that is used by SSA staff and leadership to keep track of flows into and out of the individual investment accounts, the Foundation’s annual IRS filing (Form 990), and investment account statements for the professional brokerage account where the Foundation’s assets are invested.

The Foundation’s leadership (Foundation Chairman and/or Treasurer) provides reports for the Foundation Members and SSA Directors for the twice annual meeting of the Members.  A selection of these reports is also included in the financial materials made available in this section.

The financial books and records of the Foundation are maintained and prepared by the accounting staff at SSA Headquarters in Hobbs, NM in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) as applied to non-profit entities. As required by the Foundation Bylaws (see Article XII), the financial statements of the Foundation are audited annually by an independent accounting firm as part of the audit of SSA’s financial records. The consolidated annual audit report can be obtained from SSA headquarters in Hobbs.

SSA and the Foundation track flows of Funds from SSA to the Foundation and back from the Foundation to SSA using an Excel spreadsheet tool called the “Funds Tracker.” The Tracker was originally developed as a tool for allocating investment account revenues and expenses on a pro rata basis among the various funds in the pooled investment account. However, SSA and Foundation leadership have found it to be a useful tool for reviewing investment account activity inasmuch as it combines characteristics of both an income statement and a balance sheet.

The traditional financial statements for the Foundation (the Statement of Revenues and Expenses, aka “Income Statement,” and the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Fund Equity, aka “Balance Sheet”) are prepared on an accrual basis. The Tracker is prepared on a cash basis. Thus, while the Tracker, the Income Statement and the Balance sheet complement each other, users of the documents should be aware that from time to time the Tracker may not agree with the other documents because of timing issues when funds are transferred into or out of the Foundation’s investment account on or near the beginning or ending of the month.

Other policies regarding Foundation accounting (such as when income and expense is recognized) can be found in Sections 7 through 16 of the SSA-SSAF MOU accessible elsewhere on this webpage.

Financial information about the Foundation and its investments that is available on this website includes:

  • Statement of Revenues and Expenses, aka “Income Statement,”
  • Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Fund Equity, aka “Balance Sheet”
  • Funds Tracker spreadsheet tool
  • Investment account statements
  • Annual IRS filing, Form 990
  • Reports by Foundation Trustees to the Foundation Members (selected reports)

All of the above information for the three (3) most recent years is available to SSA members after logging in where indicated either immediately below (if you are using a mobile browser) or to the right (if you are viewing this on a computer screen). Information going back to 2012 (and in some cases earlier than that) is archived and can be provided upon request.  Donors and potential donors who do not have access to member-restricted materials on the SSA website can contact the SSA office in Hobbs for assistance in obtaining copies of the relevant information.

SSA Foundation Member-Only Documents

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