Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center

“Collections consist of books, manuscripts and artifacts related to the schwenkfelders. The primary focus of the collection is to engage visitors in the exploration of the themes of religious freedom, tolerance, migrations, and heritage in their own lives and the lives of their families through the stories of the schwenkfelders and the pennsylvania germans of the perkiomen region. Purchases of collection items are recorded as decreases in net assets without donor restrictions if purchased with net assets without donor restrictions and as decreases in net assets with donor restrictions if purchased with donor restricted funds. The library has a policy of not capitalizing the collection of books and historic items. Accordingly, no collection items are recognized as assets, whether they are purchased or received as a donation on the statement of assets, liabilities and net assets - modified cash basis. Each of the items are cataloged, preserved, and cared for, and activities verifying their existence and assessing their condition are performed continuously. The librarys policy is to use the proceeds from deaccessions to acquire other items for the collection absent any donor restrictions and to use any of the funds for the direct conservation of the collection. The proceeds from deaccessions are reflected as increases in the appropriate net asset class on the statement of support, revenue, gains, and expenses and changes in net assets - modified cash basis. Proceeds from deaccessions during the year ended march 31, 2025 were $1,111.”

“Consistent with its mission, the heritage center collects historically significant objects and information that contribute to a more complete understanding of the history of the schwenkfelders in europe and the new world from their roots in 16th century silesia to their roles in contemporary society. The heritage center also collects materials that reflect the local and regional history of the area of early settlement for the schwenkfelders in north america, e.g. The goschenhoppen region in pennsylvania, including sections of montgomery, berks, lehigh and bucks counties from the era of pre-contact native american presence to the advancing present. The heritage center preserves the collections for future generations and uses these collections in public exhibitions and for scholarly research.”

“Permanently restricted endowment funds-prinicipal amounts remain in trust in perpetuity. Each year the board may use up to 5% of the corpus, determined by computing the average market value for the prior three years, for general purposes. The board may also withdraw up to 10% of the principal per fiscal year for emergency, unusual or special need. Unrestricted/quasi endowment-board designated funds for long term investment with the earnings used for operations”

“The library is exempt from federal income tax under the provisions of section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code. The accounting standard on accounting for uncertainty in income taxes addresses the determination of whether tax benefits claimed or expected to be claimed on a tax return should be recorded in the financial statements. Under that guidance, the library may recognize the tax benefit from an uncertain tax position only if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities based on the technical merits of the position. Examples of tax positions include the tax-exempt status of the library and various positions related to the potential sources of unrelated business taxable income (ubit). The tax benefits recognized in the financial statements from such a position are measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than 50 percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement. There were no unrecognized tax benefits identified or recorded as liabilities for fiscal year 2025. The library files its form 990 with the unites states internal revenue service and the bureau of charitable organizations in pennsylvania. The library is generally no longer subject to examination by the internal revenue service for years before 2022.”