Thomas Dalton wrote:
Thank you very much. It looks like the foundation's finances are in excellent order.
I agree that they're in better shape than they have been in the past. Veronique and her team deserve a great deal of credit for putting a good system in place.
A few things that jump out at me - despite the size of the foundation in pretty much every respect increasing dramatically over the last year, the money spent on travel (which is something I remember some people thought was too high last year) has only increased 16% (and that's including inflation, so in real terms it's even less).
The concerns about travel expenses are something we've taken to heart and will continue to be watchful about. Given the nature of this as an international undertaking, that doesn't necessarily mean we will cut travel expenses drastically, but they need to have a purpose. For example, the chapters will be having a meeting in Berlin next April. The location helps minimize the cost because many of the chapters are nearby in Europe, but we'll need to provide financial support to ensure that the more distant chapters can also be represented at the meeting. So our travel costs will probably always be a bit higher than at an average American nonprofit.
Also, despite the hiring of new executives, hiring fundraisers, moving to new offices, an increase in support required for the increased staff and who knows what else, the percentage of spending on projects is still 63%, down from 77% last year, a pretty small drop considering (and obviously that's not including the $billions worth of work done by volunteers on the projects).
The functional allocation of expenses was still a matter of some concern as discussed in our October board meeting. You're right in identifying some of the issues that make the percentage of project spending lower than would be ideal. Essentially, it has seemed prudent to build up the organizational side for a while, to correct past problems and put a structure in place that's capable of effectively securing and administering funds for project-specific spending. We're beginning to see progress in that regard, though it will take time to build up to "full" capacity, however we might interpret that. (An interesting question, actually - what would full capacity really mean for our projects?)
All in all, it appears the foundation is doing an excellent job and making very good use of the contributions it receives. Thank you, and well done!
Thank you for the kind words, we hope to continue this in the future.
--Michael Snow