Zarek snorts and I glare at him again.
“Thank you,” I say pointedly and look at the door. “I read it. I have no questions. Except… it can roll over to next year, right?”
He nods. “All your loose funds can. Especially when they’re via donations and fundraising. What’s unspent from your budget will be absorbed back into the larger budget and redistributed next year.”
“So, if I rolled over $5,000 and my budget is $60,000, I’d get $65,000?” I ask.
Zarek shakes his head. “No. You should always spend up to your budget. Every penny that you can. The committee will take a look at any overage as we’re allotting you too much money and they may lower your budget for the following year.”
“Being frugal doesn’t pay off.”
He grins. “No. Not in the land of budgets.”
“It’s more likely that I’d get $55,000.”
“Yes,” Zarek agrees. “You should hit your cost screen first, then dip into the fundraising or grants as needed.”
“Where do sponsorships fall?” I ask.
“Somewhere in the middle. It’s best if you have set sponsorship expenditure. Studies have shown that if a company knows exactly where their money is going, they’re more likely to consider sponsoring/donating.”
“Ah,” I muse.
“That’s why a lot of coaches will put the sponsor’s logos on different things. Alka’s soccer balls always have the bank’s logo on them because they specifically give for the purchase of new equipment every year.”
“If you tell me this kind of knowledge was in an email, I’m going to lose my mind,” I grumble.
Zarek laughs. “It’s not. Outside of your independent research, it’s not necessarily something you’d instinctively know unless you’ve been talking to others and sharing knowledge. Just so you know—fundraising is much the same way. You will alwaysget a better turn out if people knowexactlywhat their money is going toward. Saying ‘the football team needs to raise $10,000’ is informative to an extent. But saying ‘the football team needs to raise $10,000 for repairs to the goal posts’ will make a lot more people pay attention. That’s tangible. Something they can see and know that their hard-earned money went to a good cause.”
“That makes sense in my own donating habits,” I say, frowning. “These things should be taught in school.”
He smiles. “There’s a lot that should be taught in school that isn’t.”
I glance down at the letter. “One more question. I’ve just been keeping a tab of what money I’ve spent and adding my fundraising money into the pot. Is my budget gone now? How do you know which money to draw from when I submit a purchase order if I didn’t know that I needed to specify?”
“Generally speaking, I always approve it to your budget first becauseIunderstand how the budget committee works, unless you tell me otherwise. Which you never have because you didn’t know to. Not a big deal. I’ve made sure your budget is spent before your grants and sponsorships. Believe it or not, Iamlooking out for you and your team when I question your spending, Lemon.”
If I were a better person, I’d thank him and maybe feel a little sheepish for being such a dick to him for all these years. But I’m still angry that he has Declan when I wanted Declan. I’m irritated that he always uses email when he knows I hate email.
Glancing at my letter again, I think about the fact that he didn’t send this via email this time. I can’t stop myself from asking, “Why didn’t you just email this to me? Why did you bring it in person?”
“You never read emails,” he says, rolling his eyes. “The school policy is that everyone communicates via email. It’s a paper trail protection for all parties. So, yes, I sent this via email, but I knewyou weren’t going to read it. But this one thing I thought you’d really want to know about. I know how frustrated and stressed you’ve been concerning your budget this year.”
I hate that he sounds so human and nice. Thoughtful. With a heavy sigh, I grit out, “Thank you.”
He laughs as he heads for the door. “That about killed you, didn’t it?”
I scowl as he smiles at me. “It’s not in email. You have no proof that I said those words.”
His laughter follows him down the hall. This has been super informative. Bringing the flower back to my lips, I stare at the letter and try to fathom who could possibly have sent this kind of money. Is it a coincidence that it’s the exact sum of money that was stripped from my budget at the beginning of the year?
Then my mind wanders to the other things Zarek told me about fundraising and sponsors. I didn’t know that, but it makes complete sense. It’s not like I don’t spend on very specific things. I could totally rearrange some spending so that the tangible things I need to buy all the time are what we’re announcing we need money for.
I’m left thinking about this throughout the day. It’s probably too late to rearrange what we’re doing this year, but next year, we can definitely strategize better. Not that I’ll admit this even on my deathbed, but I’m a little excited to have this new knowledge. Only a little.
After practice, I head straight to my car, but pause when I see that Hansley’s truck is still here. Chewing the inside of my lip, I drop off my things in my car and head back through campus toward the arena with my flower in hand.
The building is closed. Almost all the doors on the front are locked. I’m getting ready to be pissed, but I find one that’s not and step inside. It’s instantly cooler. The doors to the stadiumseats are propped open with bright lights coming from deep within.
