A More Complete Picture of ONE Spark Financials

[Metro Jacksonville]

A More Complete Picture of ONE Spark Financials



Joe Sampson the executive director of One Spark, recently shared with us a slightly more detailed accounting of the costs of ONE Spark, the Festival. It bears remembering that the financials of One Spark are not at issue in the ongoing story revolving around the Shad Khan financed KYN group.  They are separate groups (as detailed in the letter) with separate finances.  The information was presented to us simply in the spirit of full disclosure.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-oct-a-more-complete-picture-of-one-spark-financials

[simms3]

Good letter.

[TheCat]

I'm appreciative of this letter.

His statement, "as Executive Director, responsibility for all things One Spark in Jacksonville (a completely separate entity from KYN) has started and stopped with me for the last 18 months"  essentially loops Elton out of One Spark ,in a way.

Is Joe saying that any mismanagement that could have occurred at KYN could not have occurred at One Spark because he (joe Sampson) not Elton Reeves was at the helm?

[Juddbone]

"If they really want to be "transparent", they'd do well to stop stating that 260K people attended this year.  260,000 people did not show up to this. Approximately 50,000 people came multiple times. "

I am not sure I understand this infatuation with downplaying the numbers.  Estimation of crowds is an art not a science.  My wife and I only attended one night and it was clearly the hotest thing in town.  If you replicate that attendence over several days I think they are right on with ~250,000.  They don't state 250,000 different individuals attended.   

[TheCat]

I think the numbers are important. There is no need to over describe. We can appreciate where and what One Spark is without having to compare to much larger events. Downtown Jacksonville doesn't have to become Manhattan to be respectable. 

It hurts the credibility of One Spark if the numbers are overstated...kind of like saying $1 million is available from Stache investments for creators, when in actuality about $100 was available. 

[Tacachale]

One person coming on multiple days has the same impact as multiple different people coming on only one day each. This is pretty standard practice for multi-day events. Whether it's the same people or different, it's still multiple days' worth of seats taken, booths visited, and food and beer bought. It also means the person decided to spend multiple days' worth of their free time and entertainment dollars doing this event instead of something else. This is pretty standard with multi-day events (in fact, places that ticket generally count multi-day passes for the entire duration, whether or not the buyer actually spent every day there).

If anything, I'd say One Spark has seriously understated its total economic impact. Unlike other events that try to put a dollar figure on their total impact, often making big assumptions, I've only seen One Spark tout the more quantifiable hotel stay figure, which is just one part of their impact on Downtown.

[edjax]

If they really want to be "transparent", they'd do well to stop stating that 260K people attended this year.  260,000 people did not show up to this. Approximately 50,000 people came multiple times. This event is is NO way whatsoever comparable to SXSW.

Also, as someone involved with OS at its very earliest stages: "To date, Elton...[has] not been on One Spark's payroll," does not appear true.  I had it on very, very good authority that Elton was drawing over $100K in salary as of August 2012 (part of the reason I stopped my involvement, I thought that was absurd and indicated bad leadership). Maybe that changed, but I definitely trust my source as to the accuracy of that information at the time when it was told to me.

Axe to grind?? I guess when those people came a second or third night they came as ghosts and didn't buy more beer, more food and vote more? 

[Gunnar]

Ok, so I am trying to compare the numbers given in Joe Sampson's letter to those in the 990 form, particularly the expenditures in part IX.

Some of the numbers were a straight forward match to the amounts given in the 990 form:

• Full-Time Staff ($256,977.36) matches line 5
  
• Contractors (Design, Content, Accounting Audit, Finance, Seasonal Admin.) ($54,041.00) matches lines 11 c+g
  
• Marketing ($216,024.96) and Digital Marketing ($34,867.04) match line 12 advertising and promotion
  
• It Systems ($119,715.24) match line 14 information technology
  
• HQ (Rent, Utilities, Internet, Phones, Furnishings, Software, Accounting, Etc.) ($53,175.75) matches line 16 occupancy
  
• Insurance ($20,670.44) matches line 23 insurance
  

So the remaining expenditures appear to be grouped under "Office expenses" (line 13) and "All other expenses" (line 24e).

This does not really seem correct as e.g. travel expenses have their own line (17) in the 990 form . Festival related expenses (Event Production) should - if I understand the 990 for instructions correctly - rather have been in line 19 (Conferences, conventions, and meetings).

[WarDamJagFan]

If they really want to be "transparent", they'd do well to stop stating that 260K people attended this year.  260,000 people did not show up to this. Approximately 50,000 people came multiple times. This event is is NO way whatsoever comparable to SXSW.

I don't find any issue on how they reported the number. It's no different than the crowd estimates for TPC. Lots of the same people go for different days of the tournament.

[CityLife]

I believe SXSW only counts visitors once. From their 2012 Economic Impact Study:

"At  147,000,  the  total  number  of  SXSW  Conference  and  Festival  participants  (defined  as  any  individual  who  attended  at  least  one  SXSW  activity)  set  a  new  record. SXSW  also  hosted  numerous  popular  free to the public  consumer  events  including  the  3 night  Auditorium  Shores  concert  series,  the  4 day  Flatstock  poster  art  show,  and  the  2 day  StyleX  fashion  expo.    Turnout  at  these  functions  pushed  the  total  number  of  participants  to  more  than  300,000. "

http://sxsw.com/sites/default/files/attachments/2012%20SXSW%20Economic%20Impact%20Analysis%20-%20FINAL.pdf

SXSW also isn't a free Art Walk style block party, so not really an apt comparison.

[devlinmann]

They say sunshine is best disinfectant.

I truly hope that One Spark, this excellent event/opportunity for the creative and entrepreneurial community of Jax, will continue and grow.

That said I do not blame Mr. Khan one bit for pulling his funding from KYN.

Wouldn't you if you found out that something like a mere 12% of your investment was going to the groups that you intended it for while the Lion's share was going to the administrative costs of a self appointed middle man and so called 'Business Accelerator"? A 'Business Accelerator'? Please, pull this other leg and it play a rousing version of I'm a Little Tea Pot at an accelerated pace.

Its quite telling that KYN closed its doors within 24 hours of Mr. Khan's withdrawal and its head has gotten out of town as fast as was possible.

Mr. Rummell has supported/enabled One Spark to exist and grow I deeply hope he will continue to do so but the public trust must be restored and that's a tall order as it stands.

It will take someone who has experience managing significant public/private partnerships, managing large public events and most of all someone whose integrity is beyond reproach. 

I can think of a woman fits that bill perfectly and I would be very interested to know if her name comes up on here without my naming her.

Maybe a little game of who might she be by the engaged and passionate participants in this discussion. What do you say who wants to play "Who is that mystery woman with the impeccable qualifications???

[AuditoreEnterprise]

Just out curiosity does anyone else notice that it sort of reads as if Sampson is saying Elton Rivas was just recently added to the directors roster?

[CityLife]

Joe's letter says, "The amounts listed as paid to Elton and Dennis from their employers at the time were only estimates (which is what the form indicates). This information needed to be listed since they are officers of the company along with me and at the time, Vince." Varick Rosete, like Dennis was listed as a Vice President and check marked as an "officer". Yet nothing was listed for compensation to him. His bio tells me he was employed, so surely he had outside income too.

If Elton and Dennis were not paid by One Spark, what is the "related organization" they were paid by?

A 990 guide from the IRS says, "Under what circumstances must compensation paid by a related organization be reported on Form 990?"

For purposes of Form 990, related organization generally means a parent, subsidiary, brother or sister organization under common control, a sponsoring organization of or contributing employer to a voluntary employee beneficiary association (VEBA), or a section 509(a)(3) supporting or supported organization of the filing organization. An organization need not list individuals who are officers, directors, trustees, key employees or the five highest compensated employees of a related organization unless that person also serves in one or more of these capacities with the filing organization.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/Form990Part7FAQs_071013.pdf

[CityLife]

Joe also said, "I am not affiliated with KYN in any way, nor is the One Spark team, with the exception of Elton, who only very recently began serving as CEO for One Spark as we work to scale the platform."

Sarah Davidson is listed as the current "VP of Marketing" for One Spark and has been since August of 2014. According to her LinkedIn, she was also hired as the "VP of Marketing" for KYN at the same time.  I wonder how the salary split worked there?

Additionally, Lorrae Famiglietti was One Spark's Outreach Coordinator and Executive Assistant from January 2013 to August 2014. During that same period she worked at KYN as a "Launch Operations Manager". She was recently promoted to "Program Director" at KYN at which point it appears she left One Spark.

Olivia Fore was a PR Assistant at One Spark from Jan 2014 to April 2014 and then became "Community Director" at KYN in June 2014.

Dennis Eusebio is a Co-Founder and VP of One Spark and was "Chief Designer" at KYN from 2013 to June 2014.

There is an obvious desire for the group currently running One Spark to distance themselves from KYN, but the reality is they are sister organizations. I'll leave it at that for now....

[Gunnar]

Just out curiosity does anyone else notice that it sort of reads as if Sampson is saying Elton Rivas was just recently added to the directors roster?

Thats how I read it, as well:

with the exception of Elton, who only very recently began serving as CEO for One Spark as we work to scale the platform.

Odd that he is listed as President on the 990 form for  2012 .