Financial Report

Short report on the Foundation's finances, from 2013-2014.

Should be 250-300 words, plus tables.

Article

The GNOME Foundation 2014 financial year ran from October 1st, 2013 to September 30th, 2014. It was a very challenging time as spending was frozen for much of the year due to cash flow issues and the threat of having to pursue legal action against Groupon.

Income

2014 saw a drop in corporate income, but a rise in donations from the community. The large increase in OPW income was the result of sponsors form 2012 and 2013 rounds reimbursing the Foundation for the payments that had been made to the interns in previous years. As a result, the board took a harder stance on requiring invoices to be paid before providing the services which corresponded to those sponsorships.

1. From 2012, OPW was moved from "Sponsorship" to its own line in the summary.
2. Donations: one time and subscription donations from individuals.
3. European conferences (GUADEC and Desktop Summit): the income from any specific year often shows up on the budget for the following year. For example, the income from 2009 Desktop Summit shows up in the 2010 accounts. The income from 2010 GUADEC shows up in the 2011 accounts.
4. Some GUADEC/DS conference income and expenses are handled by the organizing teams, so this is not a good indication of turnover.
5. Royalties: from merchandise sales and Amazon referral fees.
6. Outreach Program for Women: in the 2010-2012 financial years, the income from OPW was under "Sponsorship."

Expenditures

After an active start to the year, 2014 saw an intentional reduction in spending to counteract delays in receiving sponsorship towards the OPW project. The delays put the Foundation into a tough situation, but with the help of supporters and patience from sponsored members, enough funds were raised to tide the Foundation over until the OPW could be brought back to a positive balance.

Unfortunately, the timing of Groupon naming its product Gnome meant that expenditures were kept frozen until the end of the financial year as a defense against the trademark infringement would have been extremely likely. GUADEC expenses are also lower due to conscientious spending by the organisers.

The drop in employee expenses was the result of the Foundation losing Karen, the Executive Director, who had been with GNOME since 2011.

2014 also saw the completion of work on accessibility by Igalia which was the result of an earlier fundraiser.

1. The GNOME Foundation employed an executive director and an administrator, and contracted a system administrator in 2013.
2. Some GUADEC/Desktop Summit conference income and expenses were handled by the organizing teams, so this is not a good indication of turnover.
3. The 2011 and 2012 OPW expenses were offset by income under "Sponsorship" for those years.

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See Also

Editor/Reviewer Notes

• Proofread by Nuritzi on Sept 6 - syntax only, added a few missing periods. Needs proofreading by Zana.

• Proofread by RosannaYuen on Sept 8.

• Reviewed by MarinaZhurakhinskaya on Sept 8. - changed Groupon mention, since there would have been no good timing by Groupon; alternatively can be "especially bad timing"

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