This is my second 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, only about 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 03/01/08 to 02/28/09, and was filed in January of 2010.
COMTA appears to be another organization that has taken a hit due to the recession. In this particular case, COMTA’s financial state this year may be partially attributed to the fact that AMTA’s fiscal year ending 2008 filing shows a grant of over $261,000 to COMTA; no such contribution was forthcoming in the fiscal year ending in 2009. In fact, COMTA’s Schedule A shows that 2008 was the first year that they haven’t received grants totaling at least $240,oo0.
When a non-profit depends largely on grants and public support, and a recession hits, that’s not a good thing. COMTA’s return is showing a deficit of over $277,000 for the year. Expenses go on, whether there’s money coming in or not. And of course COMTA does not rely only on largesse; the organization received $271K in program revenues and investment income, but expenses were just a few thousand dollars short of being twice that amount. READ MORE….
