Maybe Silver Spring can toss a few midgets Bethesda’s way

By Sonny Goldreich

Here’s a munchkin dilemma.

Take the subway to watch midget wrestling at Fillmore Silver Spring Tuesday night or hop in the car to hear the Children's Chorus Spring Concert at Strathmore in North Bethesda?

The Micro Wrestling Federation Micro Wrestling Federation likely will be the more mind-searing spectacle.

But the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras and the Maryland State Boychoir probably will make you feel better about yourself.

Either way, you’ll be supporting Montgomery County taxpayers, who own both Fillmore and Strathmore. But you might choose the latter if you’re charity minded, considering its fluctuating financial status.

It seems the plush concert venue and music education program run by the county-supported Strathmore Hall Foundation has shown wildly uneven income and losses in recent years thanks to vagaries in private contributions and the stock market. Strathmore's IRS Form 990 filings—which are made public for non-profit groups—show it’s on a financial rollercoaster, which can require dipping into its reserves.

The foundation reported net income of $162,701 for fiscal year 2013—which ended June 30—compared to a loss of $745,047 in fiscal year 2012.

That followed net income of $158,065 in fiscal year 2011 and $523,259 in fiscal year 2010. But Strathmore showed a loss of $38,393 in fiscal year 2009 after recording net income of $810,627 in fiscal year 2008.

Where Strathmore is consistent is in repeatedly spending more money than it takes in from its fundraising events.

In fact, Strathmore could have almost doubled its net income last year if it didn’t bother staging its two fundraising events. While the foundation reported $162,701 in net income, it showed a net fundraising loss of $146,805.

That’s a lot of white wine and finger food.

But to be fair, that loss is derived on the IRS form after subtracting $464,674 in contributions from the $707,204 in gross receipts raised at the two events.

And despite all the ups and downs, Strathmore has been able to strengthen its balance sheet since the recession ended. Its endowment fund climbed to almost $4.4 million last year, rising steadily from less than $3.4 million in fiscal year 2009.

Unfortunately, Strathmore’s management doesn’t seem to quite grasp its financial status, based on a comical exchange of misinformation on the BethesdaNow.com website.

A columnist misreported that Strathmore lost more than $2.9 million in fiscal year 2012, the latest year for which the IRS form is available on the music hall’s website.

After the erroneous column ran online May 7, Strathmore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl, responded with the correct loss of $745,047 reported on the IRS form, which results from subtracting total expenses of $8,568,524 from total revenue of $7,823,477.

But he confused matters further by claiming that “in FY 2013 we were able to turn that financial picture around and posted a $517,763 gain.” Of course, the IRS form clearly shows net income of $162,701.

Unfortunately, the gain Pfanstiehl reported was actually the jump in net assets from 2012 to 2013. That’s the bottom line of the balance sheet rather than the income statement.

As any freshman bookkeeping student knows, the former is a record of assets and liabilities, while the latter shows revenues and expenses.

In this case, Pfanstiehl (or a press flack) is guilty of comparing apples to oranges, or maybe midgets to choir boys.

The takeaway from all this? Maybe midgets might be more edifying at Strathmore. After all, the Micro Wrestling Federation reports that “We recently did a study at 51 venues that we worked with in 2013 and we’ve found that our events increased alcohol sales by 47% in comparison to an average night.”

You can pay for a lot of choir boys with that kind of booze haul.