These pages are designed to help you understand the Society's complex finances. The NSS is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study, conservation, exploration, and knowledge of caves. It spends approximately $800,000 each year in furtherance of these goals. It's activities include the publication of the NSS News, the Journal of Cave and Karst Science, and books on a wide variety of cave related subjects; the ownership and maintenance of nature preserves for the protection of caves, and numerous educational and scientific programs, including an annual convention.
The NSS accomplishes far more than its modest budget would suggest because it relies heavily on volunteers who contribute their time, talent and expenses to carry out the Society's activities and programs. As a consequence, over ninety percent of its income is used to directly address the Society's goals.
Historically, the NSS fiscal year has run from May 1 through April 30. Beginning in 2007, the fiscal year is being shifted forward by a month. In order to accommodate this change, the current fiscal year will run from May 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007, and consist of only 11 months. Thereafter, the fiscal year will run from April 1 through March 31.
At the start of the 2006/2007 fiscal year, Peri Frantz replaced Ted Kayes as Secretary-Treasurer.
You can use the index on the left to access the Society's budgets, financial reports, and other fiscal information. The NSS Financial documents available here are either PDFs (
) or Excel documents (
). These documents can be viewed on-line or downloaded by clicking the icon in front of the file name. The exact behavior will depend on your system, your browser and your choice of preferences. PDF files can be viewed using the free Acrobat Reader, available from Adobe. Reading the Excel documents requires
that you have Microsoft Excel, the free
Excel Viewer,
or an Excel-compatible program such as the free OpenOffice.org's Calc.