NELLY BLY INVESTIGATIONS
THE burbank chamber of commerce part one: their finances
The Chamber has a great deal of power in our city. It’s worth the time to take a deep dive and explore where they get their revenue and how they choose to spend it.
First, a fun fact from the IRS – there is a special nonprofit designation for chambers of commerce which is a 501(c)(6).
“Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the exemption of business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, boards of trade and professional football leagues, which are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual”
Nice to know that our Chamber is seen by the IRS in the same way as the NFL, which is they get to have a nonprofit designation to avoid paying taxes while they make money. We will do a deep dive into the ramifications of this designation in the future.
As a nonprofit, the Chamber has to file a Form 990 which is public record. The IRS is way behind on processing returns and posting them so the latest 990 that is available on the IRS website is from 2019.
Here is the Link.
It’s 36 pages long so we will summarize it for you:
Total Revenue – $477,154 which consists of:
$233,648 from member dues
Net income from events of $79K (State of the City event grossed $74K and Burbank Economic Summit grossed $41K before total expenses of $37K).
Public Service Announcement – you can watch the State of the City on the Burbank Channel on You Tube for as many times as you like for free.
And lastly, revenue from Program Services (not defined) – $65,553
Total Expenses – let’s see
Grants – 0 (so no programs to help struggling businesses with grants)
Benefits paid to or for members – 0 (not getting much there as a member)
Salaries – $273,124 ($126,000 went to the Chamber CEO)
Misc. fees for accounting, insurance, office expenses, payroll taxes, etc. – $126,335
and then there is an undefined “other expenses” of $46K
Total Expenses – $445,459
Assets – their main asset is their HQ building on Magnolia.
In 2022 the current market value is $188,491. Source-Property Shark
The mortgage balance on that building that was still owed at year end in 2019 is $115,299. Despite being at that location for decades, they still haven’t paid off their mortgage.
Let’s go back to the fact that the Chamber doesn’t give any grants to the Burbank community.
What is happening elsewhere?
“The City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce have partnered to expedite recovery for local small businesses through the SaMo Small Business Recovery Grant Program.” (https://www.santamonica.gov/press/2021/03/17/city-and-chamber-of-commerce-launch-effort-to-support-small-business-grants)
“The City of Vista has allocated $2.7M to fund a Small Business COVID-19 Grant Program (Grant Program) which will be administered by the Vista Chamber.” (https://www.vistachamber.org/small-business-covid-19-grant-program/)
“The US. Chamber of Commerce Foundation today announced that the Coalition to Back Black Businesses is now accepting applications for its 2021 grant program.” (https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/press-release/applications-now-open-coalition-back-black-businesses-2021-grant-program)
The US Chamber of Commerce also started the Save Small Business Fund – https://savesmallbusiness.com/
Did the Burbank Chamber of Commerce act to help our small businesses access this US Chamber funding before it ran out? You know the answer to that question.
But wait – didn’t the Chamber do the Chow Down campaign to help restaurants? The City Council gave them $50,000 to do that.
Have we ever seen an accounting of how that money was spent? Do we know if this actually helped restaurants – has the City requested any information from the Chamber about how much income this brought in for restaurants, how that was measured, and how they know it was tied to this campaign. How we can define whether this whole thing was a success or failure?
If the City has received an accounting, why hasn’t this been shared with the rest of us?
This was taxpayer money they received. What happened to it? Whose pocket did it end up in and can that person prove that anyone else in Burbank benefited besides himself?
The Chamber keeps telling us they support small businesses. But what they really want is the dues from these businesses.
It appears the Chamber collects dues and has fundraisers simply to pay their salaries, expenses and mortgage. They promote their members to the community, you say? Only on the usual socials, cause that is free, and let’s see how that is going.
In a city of 110,000 people:
The Chamber has 870 Twitter followers and hasn’t tweeted since July 2020.
On Facebook, they have 2000 followers.
On Instagram they have 1100 followers.
And the followers are mostly Chamber members.
Posted March 2, 2022
Coming soon – How the Chamber blurs the line between business and politics and causes more harm than good (Part Two)
