When we announced increases in USEF membership, horse registration and other fees last fall (the first in more than eight years), members had a lot of questions – and a lot of frustration. One of the most common questions we received was where the money goes at US Equestrian. In a series starting today, we will try to make the answer to this question more understandable.
©Leslie Potter/US Equestrian
In accordance with the USEF Constitution and the requirements of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), the Association undergoes an independent financial audit each year and is required to publish our audited financial information and IRS Form 990. Recent years’ documents are available on our website in the For The Record section here. In addition to our required annual independent financial audit, USEF undergoes a thorough review by the USOPC every four years, which includes separate financial audits.
Our audited financial figures for 2025 are due to be published this week. If you don’t regularly comb through financial documents, it’s easy to get lost or confused in a category with a broad name.
These charts break down USEF’s revenue sources and expenses in 2025.
The money that funds the USEF budget each year doesn’t just come from your contributions. Membership dues and fees, including horse registration fees, accounted for 28% of USEF’s $38.7 million budget in 2025. The drug and drug fee paid by competing members at licensed competitions accounted for an additional 15%, which is used entirely to fund the more than 11,000 samples tested annually at 455 competitions, as well as the contractors who collect these samples at horse shows and the staff who manage the program. There will be an article in next month’s Insider that takes a closer look at the cost of this program.
Event and team sponsorships account for an additional 12% of USEF’s annual income. Competition contributions and fees derived from competition licensing are an additional 12%. USET and USOPC funding is 10% of our total budget and can only be used to support high-performing programs. You can find out more about how high performance programs are funded here.
Then there are smaller pieces of the pie – sales of USEF merchandise, fees charged at specific championships or events, and investment activity. Like many nonprofit organizations, USEF maintains an investment portfolio to remain financially diverse and, most importantly, to be a source of funding in an emergency. You can find out more in an article in the next USEF Insider newsletter.
On the spending side, fairness, security and social education account for 16% of spending. This area includes many services that are available to all members, even though many do not plan to ever need them. This includes our medication and medication program as well as our regulatory department, which processed 634 reports in 2025 alone. This includes the Licensed Officers Division, which licenses and conducts continuing education and evaluation for 2,204 officers with a total of more than 4,000 licenses. In 2025, the department processed 248 applications, hosted 27 licensed officer training sessions, and processed 739 officer-related competitive evaluations.
High performance athletic programs also account for 16% of USEF spending. Most people do not realize that high performance sports programs bring in their own funds that fully fund these programs. Find out more in this insider article.
Marketing and communications account for 11% of USEF’s expenditure distribution. This includes the staff who sell the sponsorships and advertising that make up part of the revenue, as well as management of the USEF network, which is available to all members and broadcast 116 live streams last year. This department also creates written and multimedia content to promote equestrian sports in all 29 breeds and disciplines and produces six e-newsletters per month and five magazine issues per year for our members. The annual meeting, Pegasus and Horse of the Year awards programs, and USEF Championship coverage also fall under this scope.
National races and disciplines and non-Olympic international discipline programs account for 10% of USEF spending. This department administers the rulebook and supports national sports, including USEF championships and events.
Spending on information technology, leadership and legal, finance/HR, membership, competition and equine services, and RDI each account for approximately 7% in the spending graph. The Information Technology Department created and manages the member-facing capabilities for required training, outcomes, equine services and programs, including EZ Entry and Lifetime Care. Our finance team processes more than 65,000 transactions per year and ensures our members’ data remains secure throughout the process. The FEI costs are the FEI fees collected by the USEF at international events, which are paid to the FEI to facilitate the registration process for the participant. Horse Services teams handle 200 to 250 calls per week and last year processed 34,755 horse applications, 3,766 passports and over 1.7 million unique result lines. Competition Services handled the licensing process for 2,091 competitions in 2025 and investigated 1,967 reported compliance issues from officials and members and through on-site inspections.
Included in each of these sections is the cost of staff – the people who answer your calls, respond to your emails, drive our programs and are on site at competitions to provide fairness, safety and enjoyment to you and your horses. These are also the people who see and hear your questions about how the organization works. If you have any questions, please contact us [email protected]. They may be the subject of a future USEF Insider article.
https://www.usef.org/media/newsletter/the-insider/where-does-money-go-at-us-equestrian
