Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

“The collections, which were acquired through purchases and contributions since the museum's inception, are not recognized as assets on the statement of financial position. Purchases of collection items are recorded as decreases in unrestricted net assets in the year in which the items are acquired, or as decreases in temporarily or permanently restricted net assets if the assets used to purchase the items are restricted by donors. Contributed collection items are not reflected in the financial statements. Proceeds from de-accessions or insurance recoveries are reflected as increases in the appropriate net asset classes.”

“The museum's collections consist substantially of living and nonliving natural history objects related to the museum's interpretive region (the sonoran desert and adjacent habitats). Collections are held for educational, research, scientific, and curatorial purposes. With the exception of certain free-living organisms, collections are catalogued, preserved, and cared for, and activities verifying their existence and assessing their condition are performed continuously.”

“The museum's endowment consists of an individual fund established for a variety of purposes. The endowment includes both donor-restricted funds and net assets associated with endowment funds. The net assets associated with endowment funds are required by gaap to be included in the endowment funds. The endowment funds are classified and reported based on the existence or absence of donor imposed restrictions.”

“Fin 48 (asc 740) footnote from financial statements: the museum is exempt from federal income taxes under section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code. The museum is also exempt from state income taxes. Accordingly, no provision is made for income taxes in the financial statements. Income from certain activities not directly related to the museum's tax-exempt purpose, however, may be subject to taxation as unrelated business taxable income (ubti). Management is not aware of any matters which would cause the museum to jeopardize its tax-exempt status and there are no activities subject to ubti. Gaap requires management to perform an evaluation of all tax positions taken or expected to be taken in the course of preparing the museum's tax returns to determine whether the tax positions meet a "more likely than not" standard of being sustained under examination by the applicable taxing authorities. This evaluation is required to be performed for all open tax years, as defined by the various statutes of limitations, for federal and state purposes. The museum is only subject to income taxes on ubti as applicable. As a result, the museum is required to file informational returns for federal and state purposes and, if it has ubti, federal and state income tax returns. Management has performed its evaluation of tax positions taken on all open tax returns and has determined that there were no positions taken that do not meet the "more likely than not" standard. From time to time, the museum may be subject to penalties and interest assessed by various taxing authorities, which are classified as administrative expenses, if they occur.”

“Rental expenses -59,415. Bad debt expense -11,803. Rounding 4.”

“Rental expenses 59,415. Bad debt expense 11,803. Uncollectible pledges 11,620. Rounding -4.”

“In addition to items donated for its collections, the museum receives donations of art and similar assets to be auctioned at its annual gala.”