Re: Foundation Budget for 2008

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi Vincent,

First, congrats on having a budget, and getting it out into the public
several months before I did last year, it's a big step forward on the past.

I have a fair few comments, though, both about the form and the content.

Vincent Untz wrote:

> (Note that the GUADEC budget is not included by default in the totals,
> since we're keeping it separate.)

Last year we included a line on GUADEC. It has almost always generated a
surplus which has been used to fund other foundation activities such as
the summit, and last year I included that estimate in the budget. The
GUADEC team generated a surplus in excess of what I had included in the
budget, way to go guys!

Last year, we figured a surplus of $30,000. Given the reduction in the
dollar value over the past year, I think that a surplus of $20,000 is
more reasonable this year, but it's important that the expectations be
explicit for all concerned.

> Some interesting items:
> 
>   + currently projected income: $217,000
>   + currently projected expenditures: $256,261
>   => we're projecting a $39,261 loss so far

I think that you should try to balance the budget. If you spend a little
less or a little more so be it, but starting out with the goal of losing
money is dangerous.

> But:
>  + $40,000 are allocated for the business developer which we don't have
>    yet. This amount of money means (s)he'll join us around or after the
>    middle of the year, but this is most probably related to us paying a
>    head hunter...

I would allocate the entire $40,000 to getting a headhunter on board,
and getting advice on the bizdev/executive director hire. I would drop
the sysadmin hire and sysadmin fundraising from the budget. The
foundation will have to pay for a sysadmin from its income. As I
suggested, I think that any fundraising which will be used to pay a
sysadmin should be program-related.

As I was saying to you on IRC, fundraising to pay a salary is a *very*
hard sell. To fundraise in a non-profit you need to tug on
heart-strings, get people worked up, or appeal directly to people's
wallets. Paying a salary does none of those. So break it down: why do we
need a sysadmin? What will a sysadmin achieve? How will that further the
goals of the foundation? Fundraise against the end, not against the means.

>  + the budget assumes we'll have 3 $10,000 hackfests without any
>    sponsor.
>    => hopefully, we'd get some sponsorship

I would drop one of the hackfests from the budget until the question
comes up. In the case of the accessibility summit, for example, we're
piggy-backing on the Summit. For GMAE meetings we have also done this.
To this point, we have not yet drawn down money for either of these. I
would like to see smaller focussed meetings like the GTK+ hackfest
(great initiative), but I'm not convinced that there will be another 3
of those this year.

I think that one of the 3 "hackfests" could be a board meeting. The idea
was proposed in the past, but was awkward because the good time isn't
really obvious.

>  + we'll likely spend a bit more (I'd say between $5,000 and $10,000)
>    for community development (Latin America tour is not complete, for
>    example)

$25,000 on community user groups seems very generous to me already - I
think it'd be better to tighten the purse stroings a little for everyone
and ask local groups to supplement the foundation funds with local
sponsorship, membership fees and merchandising sales (as GNOME-fr has done).

Some further comments:

Trademark applications: are there plans to do any of those this year?

Friends of GNOME: community contributions have been ridiculously low for
the past 2 years since we have not pushed them. This can be a source of
problems for us if we get audited by the IRS, since we don't have enough
community funding to justify our 501(c)3 status right now. I suggest
overhawling FoG, figuring out how to set up annual subscriptions and
establishing donation levels, and doing a big community fundraising push.


Short version: I think the budget should be balanced, I suggest removing
some of the aspirational items which might not happen, and I suggest
focusing on one hire, preferably the bizdev/executive director hire,
rather than the sysadmin hire. And Friends of GNOME should be a major
source of income for the foundation for two reasons: we have a community
who is passionate and rocks, and the IRS insists we pass a community
interest test.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org