Re: Foundation budget (was: Re: Question for candidates)

[Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com>]

On 20 May 2014 14:21, Dave Neary <dneary gnome org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Apologies in advance for a question that will take us away from the main
> thread topic...
>
> On 05/20/2014 06:15 AM, David King wrote:
> > Initially, I think that much of the money raised by an executive
> > director would go towards financially supporting the executive director
> > role. If the Foundation's revenues continue to drop (as has been the
> > case over the last few years), an executive director role would become
> > untenable without increased funding from sponsors.
>
> I have not been paying close attention in the past 3-4 years, but when I
> was, we had:
> * Added new members to the advisory board
> * Increased advisory board membership to $10,000 for small companies and
> $20,000 for large companies
>
> The executive director was, at the time I was on the board, the only
> salary outgoing, but advisory board revenues should be $140,000 unless
> I'm mistaken from my reading of the advisory board page - which ad board
> members have we lost? HP, Nokia, Motorola, Oracle from the looks of
> it... am I missing anyone?

The revenues from advisory board fees since 2006 are as follows (I do
not have access to any financial information before that time):

2006: USD 69000 (USD 5000 for smaller companies, USD 10000 for larger
companies and some in between)
2007: USD 105000 (same as above)
2008: USD 110000 (same as above)
2009: USD 132000 (same as above, although a number of companies paid more)
2010: USD 180000 (the USD 10000/20000 pricing structure was introduced)
2011: USD 135000
2012: USD 120000
2013: USD 120000
2014: USD 130000

All figures from 2006-2013 are what the Foundation actually received
in the bank account. All of the figures are against the years in which
they were incurred, not necessarily paid, so there may be differences
from the annual reports. 2014 figures are what the Foundation has
invoiced and is expecting to receive by the end of the year.

Rosanna has been in the Foundation payroll since 2006 as an employee.

> The theory at the time I was on the board was that ad board revenues
> paid for employees with a little margin for error, and we fundraised for
> everything else. Has that principlegone by the wayside?

Unfortunately, yes. I'm not sure whether this was a concious decision
or just tended in that direction as the boards changed, but I am
hoping to reverse this trend in the future. I think this is possible
as any new employee can be hired on new terms.

> Also, at the time we had started to build up some cash reserves after a
> few years when we really did not have a lot of room to manoeuver - have
> we depleted those? I did not notice any budgets proposed that were in
> deficit, but I was not paying very close attention.

At the moment, yes, but that is because we are still waiting on
invoices to be paid. The Foundation is waiting for $380000 in unpaid
invoices, many of which I am expecting to see paid in the upcoming
month. Around 75% of those are related to the OPW, and most of the
rest to advisory board fees for 2013.

Once those invoices are paid, the Foundation will have reserves of
around $150000. Ideally, the Foundation should hold reserves of
$350000 if it never pays out OPW costs before the associated
sponsorship is received (which is what the board has currently voted
for).

> Thanks,
> Dave.
>
> --
> Dave Neary, Lyon, France
> Email: dneary gnome org
> Jabber: nearyd gmail com
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