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