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Quiz: Tracking Expenses and Building Funding Partnerships

Test your understanding of expense reporting, reimbursement, donation receipts, annual budget review, and the year-over-year funding partnerships that keep a no-fee club funded past its first year with these review questions.

1. What is a budget tracking spreadsheet?

  1. A one-page document used to pitch a school district or PTA
  2. The forecast document created before a club's year begins
  3. A running, dated record of every dollar a club actually receives or spends, kept separate from the budget so a leader can compare what was planned against what really happened
  4. A written policy stating what expenses a club will reimburse
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. The chapter distinguishes the tracking spreadsheet, a ledger of what actually happened, from the budget itself, a forecast made in advance -- the two are meant to be compared side by side. Option A describes a partnership proposal template, an unrelated pitching document. Option B describes the budget from Chapter 30, the forecast the spreadsheet is compared against, not the spreadsheet itself. Option D describes a reimbursement policy, a different financial document.

Concept Tested: Budget Tracking Spreadsheet See: Budget Tracking Spreadsheet

2. How does an emergency fund reserve differ from equipment depreciation planning?

  1. An emergency fund reserve is saved for a known, expected replacement, while equipment depreciation planning is saved for the unknown
  2. An emergency fund reserve is saved for an unplanned, unpredictable cost, while equipment depreciation planning sets aside a specific amount for equipment's known, expected eventual replacement
  3. They are the same reserve, just described using two different terms
  4. Equipment depreciation planning only applies to laptops, never to kits or furniture
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter explicitly distinguishes the two: an emergency fund reserve covers an unplanned cost like a laptop dying mid-semester, while equipment depreciation planning sets aside a known, calculated amount for equipment's expected eventual replacement. Option A reverses which reserve covers the known versus the unknown cost. Option C ignores the chapter's explicit distinction between the two reserves. Option D contradicts the chapter's own depreciation table, which covers Chromebooks, kits, and a storage cart together.

Concept Tested: Emergency Fund Reserve See: Emergency Fund Reserve

3. Why does the chapter warn against requiring income verification before a family can select the $0 tier on a sliding scale fee model?

  1. Because income verification is required by federal law for any coding club
  2. Because requiring proof recreates the exact stigma Chapter 28 warned a fee creates, defeating the purpose of a self-selected, honor-system scale
  3. Because a sliding scale fee model is illegal without income verification
  4. Because verifying income would make the club ineligible for grant funding
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter's warning is explicit: requiring proof to unlock the $0 tier recreates the stigma a fee creates, so the scale should stay self-selected on the honor system, with no proof required and no questions asked. Option A invents a federal legal requirement that does not exist. Option C fabricates a legality claim about sliding scale models the chapter never makes. Option D invents a grant-eligibility consequence unrelated to the actual reasoning given.

Concept Tested: Sliding Scale Fee Model See: Sliding Scale Fee Model

4. Using the chapter's own equipment depreciation schedule -- $375 for Chromebooks, $50 for Moving Rainbow kits, $20 for robot kits, and $20 for a storage cart -- what is the total annual reserve the club needs to set aside across all four items?

  1. $465
  2. $1,830
  3. $375
  4. $500
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. The chapter's own worked example sums all four annual reserve amounts -- $375 plus $50 plus $20 plus $20 -- to get $465 a year, not just the $375 for laptops alone. Option B reports the original one-time purchase total from Chapter 30, not the annual reserve figure. Option C reports only the laptop reserve, ignoring the other three items. Option D does not match summing the four figures given.

Concept Tested: Equipment Depreciation Planning See: Equipment Depreciation Planning

5. Using the chapter's own worked example, 10 families select from a sliding scale ($0, $5, $10, $15, $25): three choose $0, four choose $10, two choose $15, and one chooses $25, collected over 9 months. What is the resulting total annual revenue?

  1. $900
  2. $850
  3. $765
  4. $8.50
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. The chapter's own worked example computes this exact mix as averaging $8.50 per family per month, or roughly $765 across the nine-month year -- somewhat less than a flat fee's $900 but without excluding the three $0-tier families. Option A is the revenue from the flat $10-per-month fee model instead, a different scenario in the same chapter. Option B does not match summing this specific family mix. Option D reports the average monthly amount per family, not the total annual revenue.

Concept Tested: Sliding Scale Fee Model See: Sliding Scale Fee Model

6. A mentor buys a $60 tool without checking the pre-approval threshold and submits the receipt 45 days after the purchase, past the club's 30-day submission window. Following the chapter's reimbursement policy example, what happens, and why?

  1. The club reimburses the mentor immediately, since $60 is a small amount
  2. The club changes its policy retroactively to accommodate this specific purchase
  3. The club fires the mentor for violating the reimbursement policy
  4. The club declines the late reimbursement, applying its written policy consistently the same way it would to anyone else, even though the mentor is disappointed
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. The chapter's own worked example describes exactly this outcome: the club declines the late reimbursement because the mentor missed the stated 30-day window, applying the written policy consistently rather than making an exception. Option A ignores the chapter's explicit point that the policy is applied consistently regardless of amount. Option B contradicts the entire purpose of a written policy, which is to avoid case-by-case renegotiation. Option C is a disproportionate response the chapter never suggests for a missed deadline.

Concept Tested: Reimbursement Policy See: Reimbursement Policy

7. A coding club and a school's robotics team share one 3D printer, purchased for $250 and split $125 each between the two programs' budgets. Separately, the two clubs write a half-page document stating who stores the printer, how it's scheduled, and how repair costs are split. Which concept applies to which action?

  1. The \(125/\)125 split is robotics club overlap funding, settling who pays for the item, while the storage/scheduling/repair document is a shared resource agreement, settling who stores, schedules, and repairs it afterward
  2. The \(125/\)125 split is a shared resource agreement, and the storage/scheduling/repair document is robotics club overlap funding
  3. Both actions are examples of the same concept, a partnership proposal template
  4. Both actions are examples of a cost benefit analysis
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. The chapter's comparison table draws exactly this distinction: robotics club overlap funding settles who pays for the item in the first place, while a shared resource agreement settles who stores, schedules, and repairs it afterward -- both applied to the same shared 3D printer in the chapter's example. Option B reverses which action each concept actually names. Option C misapplies an unrelated pitching-document concept to both actions. Option D confuses both actions with a time-versus-yield decision tool, unrelated to either arrangement.

Concept Tested: Robotics Club Overlap Funding See: Robotics Club Overlap Funding

8. According to the chapter's institutional funding partnership map, which partner best addresses a club's need for "multi-year recurring cash support"?

  1. PTA partnership funding
  2. School district funding
  3. A shared resource agreement
  4. A community foundation grant, since it is more likely to renew automatically across multiple years if a club meets its reporting requirements, unlike smaller one-time microgrants
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. The chapter's own map routes "Multi-Year Recurring Cash Support" specifically to a community foundation grant, illustrated by its two-year, $1,200-per-year award in the chapter's worked example. Option A describes funding that resets with each new PTA board, the opposite of multi-year stability. Option B describes in-kind space and network support, not primarily cash. Option C describes an equipment-sharing document, unrelated to institutional cash funding.

Concept Tested: Community Foundation Grant See: Community Foundation Grant

9. A leader is deciding between writing a competitive $150 microgrant application, estimated at eight volunteer hours, or having a thirty-minute conversation pitching the library for its $300 teen programming allocation. Evaluate these two options using the chapter's cost benefit analysis framing: which should the leader pursue first, and why?

  1. The microgrant, since $150 plus effort always outperforms a conversation
  2. Neither, since both require a written partnership proposal template first
  3. The library conversation, since it offers a far better return on volunteer time invested per dollar raised, saving the more time-intensive microgrant application for a future semester with hours to spare
  4. Both simultaneously, since cost benefit analysis recommends pursuing every opportunity at once
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. The chapter's own worked example explicitly favors the library ask by a wide margin on time invested per dollar raised, recommending the leader pursue that conversation first and defer the more time-intensive microgrant application. Option A ignores the effort side of the comparison entirely, which the chapter treats as equally important as the dollar amount. Option B invents a prerequisite the library conversation does not require in the chapter's example. Option D contradicts the entire purpose of a cost-benefit comparison, which is to prioritize, not pursue everything at once.

Concept Tested: Cost Benefit Analysis See: Cost Benefit Analysis

10. A club's recurring budget is $860 after an annual review revealed a mid-year insurance increase, and the leader wants a resilient funding plan that avoids relying on a single source while also respecting Chapter 28's caution against fees that quietly exclude families. Which combination best constructs such a plan, drawing on this chapter's concepts?

  1. Charge a flat $15-per-month membership fee to every family, since it is the simplest to administer
  2. Combine a school district's in-kind space and wifi support, a library funding partnership's cash and meeting-room allocation, and a self-selected sliding scale fee for any remaining gap, so no single source carries the whole budget and no family is priced out by a flat, undifferentiated fee
  3. Apply only for a single community foundation grant and make no other funding plans
  4. Skip fee models entirely and rely solely on unpredictable donation-jar contributions
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. This combination draws directly on the chapter's own institutional partnership examples -- district in-kind support, a library's cash and space allocation -- paired with the sliding scale model the chapter presents as the middle path that avoids the flat fee's exclusion risk, together avoiding dependence on any single source. Option A reintroduces the flat-fee exclusion risk the chapter explicitly warns against. Option C recreates the single-point-of-failure risk the chapter's diversified funding examples are built to avoid. Option D ignores the chapter's institutional partnerships entirely in favor of the least predictable funding source described.

Concept Tested: Sliding Scale Fee Model See: Sliding Scale Fee Model