I recently had a client have us investigate the contribution differences between our recommendation to Fully Fund their Reserves, and only Baseline Fund their Reserves. After their initial reaction that the difference was rather small, they asked why their Percent Funded didn’t change. Good question!
The reason their Percent Funded didn’t change is that Percent Funded is a measure of the strength of the Reserve Fund on the first day of their fiscal year. With no change to their Reserve Component List and no change in their starting Reserve balance, there was no change to their Percent Funded.
If you want to see an increase in your Percent Funded, the best way is to add some cash to your starting Reserve balance. You could make some adjustments to your Reserve Component List in order to minimize the present Reserve needs of the association, but that type of monkey-business is regularly discouraged.