Where the money goes
People around here have good reason to ask that question carefully. We would rather show you than reassure you, so every figure below is read straight from our records and updates itself.
The ledger
From our first gift, 29 July 2026. Not a summary — the actual totals.
$2,278.54
Received (gross)
20
Gifts
$82.28
Spent
$2,146.26
Held for athletes
$50.00 has been refunded. Received is the gross figure; refunds are taken off to reach what we still hold. Every gift is receipted automatically and every card payment carries a transaction record we cannot edit.
What has been spent
Itemised. If a line looks odd, ask us about it.
| Date | Category | What it was | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Aug 2026 | Management & general | Business cheques for the charity's bank account (chequebook). Paid personally by Patrick McCarty and recorded as an unrestricted gift of the same amount. | $27.54 |
How we make misuse difficult
Structure, not promises.
- No one person can move the money. Our bank account requires two signers, and both must be present to open or change it.
- The coach does not decide who gets funded. Any decision that could benefit a director or their family is taken by the directors who have no interest in it, and who recused is written into the minutes.
- We do not handle loose cash where we can avoid it. Card gifts leave a record in Stripe that we cannot alter. Cash or cheques are entered with a reference and a date received.
- Every gift is receipted automatically the moment it clears, to the donor's own email — so you hold a record that does not depend on us.
- There is a director on our board who is not family. Three of the four of us are related, and we would rather say so plainly than have you discover it.
- Our conflict-of-interest, whistleblower and record-retention policies were adopted at our first board meeting and any director can be asked for a copy.
What we are not
The part most organisations leave out.
- Federal tax-exempt status
- Application for federal 501(c)(3) recognition not yet filed. Until that is granted, we do not promise your gift is tax-deductible.
- Independent audit
- No independent audit or review has been performed. We are far too small to justify the cost, and we would rather tell you that than imply otherwise.
- Form 990
- None filed yet — the first is due after our first full fiscal year. It will be public the day we have one.
- Track record
- We incorporated on 28 May 2026. We are new, and we have not earned trust yet — the ledger above is how we intend to.
Check us yourself
You should not have to take our word for any of this.
We are registered in Michigan as The Distance Project, entity number 900221793, federal EIN 42-2825158. You can look us up in the State of Michigan's business registry at LARA's entity search without asking us for anything.
The people responsible are named on our board page: Patrick "PJ" McCarty (President), Courtney McCarty (Vice President), Emma Grace McCarty (Treasurer), Lilyanrose Martin (Secretary). If something concerns you, any of us can be asked directly.
If you would like to see something that is not here — a bank statement, a receipt for a particular purchase, the bylaws — ask us. A nonprofit that will not show you its books has told you something.
