What Does Headquarters Actually Do - Financial Management

Brett Widner
Chief Financial Officer

Indianapolis - Continuing our "What Does Headquarters Actually Do?" series, the Offices of the Grand Chapter is pleased to present the financial management of Tau Kappa Epsilon.

Every year, the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer work with the Finance Committee of the Grand Council to establish an expense budget based on prior years expenditures and current trends. With an established expense budget, Frater Brett Widner, Chief Financial Officer of Tau Kappa Epsilon, is primarily responsible for the planning, implementation and management for all financially related activities of TKE and the TKE Educational Foundation (TEF).

How does TKE Headquarters collect and use money?

As you can see in the charts below, Tau Kappa Epsilon generates and expends funds in a number of different ways. Further below you will find a detailed breakdown of each chart. At the end of the day, Tau Kappa Epsilon is focused on one common theme: building Better Men for a Better World.

Revenue:

Initiate & Membership Fees—New men to TKE pay a Candidate and Initiation Fee. Initiated members pay an Annual Membership Fee (AMF). These fees account for a large portion of revenue that we use to keep TKE running at the highest level.

Risk Management—In addition to the Annual Membership Fee are risk management and insurance expenses through James R. Favor and Company. This is necessary to offset the cost of various legal expenses.

Programming— These fees help offset the cost associated with hosting Province Educational Conferences (PECs), Regional Leadership Conferences (RLCs), Alumni Volunteer Academy (AVA), Regional Planning Conferences (RPCs), the Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. Leadership Academy and Conclave.

Foundation Grant & Support—Money from the TKE Educational Foundation (TEF) helps support the educational programs of the Fraternity. Dollars granted help lower registration fees that attendees pay. 

Founders Housing Fund Fee—This fee helps to secure, maintain, improve and re-establish housing at active chapters.

Other—Miscellaneous revenues, which include licensing and trademark revenue, ritual supply purchases, finance charges/penalty fees, and tenant revenue from the International Headquarters building in Indianapolis.

Expenses:

Administration—These organizational expenses include salaries, building costs, technological improvements and investments, shipping costs, awards and other various operational expenses.

Fraternal & Member Services— Professional Staff members are dedicated toward making TKE success on every campus throughout the United States and Canada - fraternal service expenses allow our staff to do just that. This aspect covers traveling expenses as well as supplies including TEKE Guides, candidate pins, membership certificates and badges, and recruitment supplies.

Risk Management—These expenses cover attorney and court fees, insurance premiums, and risk claims.

Programming—In order to maintain the growth and development of Fraters on campuses across the United States and Canada, TKE continues to invest finances back into events such as RLCs, PECs, RPCs, AVAs, Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. Leadership Academy and Conclave.

Communications & Volunteer Support—To keep you in the know, TKE uses funds to cover website and social media management, and most importantly, the delivery of THE TEKE magazine.

We hope this gives you an overview of how the Offices of the Grand Chapter works to support our chapters and members in order to continue producing Better Men for a Better World. If you would like help assessing your own chapter budget and dues assessment follow the link: HERE

For more information, please contact:

Brett Widner
Chief Financial Officer
317.872.6533 Ext. 282
bwidner@tke.org