A cash crunch at the GNOME Foundation

From: Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756-AT-gmail.com> To: foundation-list <foundation-list-AT-gnome.org> Subject: Current state of Foundation finances Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 00:32:12 +0100 Message-ID: <CAM2D-RoiJpGUX74Z0_S7B2Uts9HQtz9kTC_nOPByU2ZG8RLFQQ@mail.gmail.com> Archive-link: Article, Thread

Dear Foundation members, Due to a shortfall in the budget, the Foundation board voted on 2014-04-08 to freeze all expenditure which is not essential to the running of the Foundation. This freeze affects sponsorship expenses which are unpaid at this time, but it does not affect the funds which we hold for other organisations. By keeping our expenditures to a minimum while we regain some delayed revenue, we aim to have things back to normal within a few months. All Foundation members who expect to receive reimbursements within the next three months have already been informed of the issue and most have responded positively. The board will prioritise these pending reimbursements over other expenses. The issue has been caused by a number of factors. These include increased administrative overheads in the last few years due to the increased turnover which has been caused by to the Outreach Program for Women (OPW), and the associated payments going out while the associated income has been slow to come in. The board expects that you may have some questions or would like to know more details about the problem, please read https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/CurrentBudgetFAQ and contact the board at board-list@gnome.org if you have any further questions.