Board Candidate Cites Poor Financial Performance at ASTA

In his bid for a Board seat, ASTA member and National Board candidate Alan Fiermonte claims the association is failing its members by financially under-performing. Announcing his candidacy Friday, Fiermonte cites his thorough analysis of ASTA’s publicly available IRS Form 990s (not-for-profit tax returns), going back to 2002.

According to Fiermonte’s analysis (which is unadjusted for inflation), annual dues revenues have dramatically decreased from approximately $4 million in 2002 down to a level of $2.5 million in 2007, while operating deficits have aggregated to approximately $5 million over six years, from 2002 through 2007 (2008 results are not yet available from ASTA).

At the same time, total expenses have essentially remained the same at or just above $6 million per year for the last five years. Total key executive and officer compensation expense has essentially remained the same, hovering between $600,000 and $700,000.

According to Fiermonte, ASTA headquarters had a net deficit of $792,000 in 2007. The previous year was even worse, he claims, dishing up an $847,000 deficit. In 2007, ASTA chapters, who file a separate group tax return from ASTA HQ, had an aggregate deficit of $98,000 with 24 out of 31 chapters contributing to that.