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BUSINESS REPORTS

Atla Association Update
Brenda Bailey-Hainer, Atla Executive Director

ABSTR AC T The Atla Association Update provides highlights of 
Atla’s accomplishments for the year, an overview of finances for 
fiscal year 2020, and a brief preview of the projected budget for 
fiscal year 2021.

Each year at Atla Annual, I provide an update on the finances and 
accomplishments of Atla during the previous year along with a look 
at high priorities for the next year. Due to the condensed nature of 
Atla Annual 2020 Online, my usual update on the Association has 
been combined with the official business meeting. Because of this, 
my remarks will be relatively brief and primarily about the Associa-
tion’s financial health, but a detailed report, including information 
on Atla’s many accomplishments since last year, will be included in 
the July 2020 Atla Newsletter.

Last fiscal year, which ended August 31, 2019, was a financially 
healthy one for Atla. As always, our budget for the year was break-
even, with $7,966,799 projected for both revenue and expense. 
Although at the end of the year our revenue came in slightly less at 
$7,477,770, our expenses also were less than anticipated at $7,368,768.

Atla’s primary source of revenue continued to be royalties from 
the research tools we create (93%). Income generated from Member 
Programs department activities was related to the conference and 
fees for services such as hosting e-journals for other organizations 
(4%). Interest from investments and other miscellaneous income 
accounted for another 3% of overall revenue.



2  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

On the expense side, the largest portion is used for staff and 
technology to produce research tools (61%). However, we focus 
a significant amount of income on fulfillment of our mission and 
organizational ends—last year this was 23%. That includes funding 
committee work, open access publishing, Member Programs staff, 
and professional development opportunities for our members—like 
Atla Annual. Board meetings and other governance work makes up 
4% of expenses and administration costs comprise 12%.

Because fiscal year 2019 was a successful one, at the end of last 
year we were able to invest in Atla’s future. $50,000 was contrib-
uted to the Endowment Fund from product revenue. As of mid-
June, the current balance in the Endowment Fund was $785,708, an 
increase of over $100,000 from the previous year. In addition, we 
were able to add $100,000 to our operating reserve. The operating 
reserve is a fund mandated by the Board of Directors to cover unfore-
seen expenses or unexpected capital expenditures. The operating 
reserve must be maintained at a level between three to six months of 
monthly operating cost. For fiscal year 2020, it stands at $2.3 million, 
equal to 4.75 months of operating cost. Atla’s audited fiscal year 2019 
financial statements are available online in the Annual Report.

Our membership numbers have been fairly consistent over the 
last seven years, holding steady in the low to mid-800s. Memberships 
at the end of fiscal year 2019 stood at 830.

Currently, we are about three-quarters of the way through fiscal 
year 2020. This year’s budget is $8,516,285. At this point in the year, 
we are on track to meet our revenue goals and our expenses are down 
significantly due to the impact of COVID-19, which has curtailed all 
travel and exhibiting expenses that we would normally have in the 
second half of the year.

The staff leadership team is in the middle of our regular budget-
ing cycle, which begins in March and ends with finalizing the budget 
in August. We are carefully watching the impact of COVID-19 on 
higher education because academic libraries are the primary market 
for our research tools. Like many of our member institutions, we 
expect reduced revenue next fiscal year—perhaps at a level closer to 
fiscal year 2018 or 2019. However, we are confident that we can live 
within our means. Just a few areas that we believe will have reduced 
expense in the coming year are travel—which we are curtailing 
through the end of the fiscal year due to health and safety reasons—
and our expense for physical office space. The 15-year lease on our 



Business Reports  3

office space ends in February 2021, and we know that we will be 
significantly reducing our square footage in a new location. Another 
area in which we expect lower costs next year is infrastructure. Over 
the last seven years staff have been systematically updating vari-
ous parts of our infrastructure—our production platform for the 
research tools, association management software, content manage-
ment software, website design, and, finally, our accounting and 
budgeting systems. We will complete the last project in the next few 
months and there are no more major investments needed in infra-
structure at this time.    

So, let’s turn to where we will focus our attention next year. The 
Atla Board of Directors adopted new organizational ends in February. 
A new strategic plan is being developed and workplans for commit-
tees and task forces will be created specifically to work on achieving 
those ends. Staff will be completing a search for new office space in 
the next few months, and then we’ll focus on successfully exiting 
our current space. But most importantly, we will continue to focus 
both human and financial resources on creating quality professional 
development opportunities for members, and we will continue to 
create the quality research tools that support your work with your 
faculty and students.  

But we are concerned about the well-being of our members. 
While we feel confident that Atla itself can weather the turmoil 
that COVID-19 has caused, we know that the pandemic is having a 
significant impact on many Atla members. This has manifested itself 
in budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs, or eliminated positions. We were 
pleased to be able to offer free event registration for members to 
attend Atla Annual 2020 Online but wanted to do more. At their regu-
lar meeting on June 16, the Atla Board of Directors authorized Atla to 
offer members financial relief through optional dues reduction for 
fiscal year 2021. At the point of renewal, individual members may 
pay their regular dues amount, or choose to take a discount of 25, 50, 
75, or 100%. Institutional members may choose to pay their regular 
dues or take a discount of 25%. These rates are also available to new 
members. This is Atla’s way of helping our members through these 
trying times by ensuring they still have access to the full benefits of 
Atla membership.

It’s already clear that the coming year will be fraught with chal-
lenges, but ample opportunities exist as well to make progress on 
moving forward with Atla’s new organizational ends and our ongo-



4  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

ing purpose:  to promote worldwide scholarly communication in 
religion and theology by advancing the work of libraries and related 
information providers. Together, we can still thrive in the face of 
adversity.


