Community Contributions Budgeting: an end-of-year, SHORT UPDATE from Finance Working Group

Dear Social.Coop members,

This post is a SHORT UPDATE from the Financial Working Group (FWG) about the Community Contributions Budget for 2024.

Given how the year went for the Social.Coop (or at least for me 😆), we conducted only one round of allocations rather than the two that we had planned.

You suggested the organizations and projects to support. Then, using the Contribution Allocation Poll, here: https://www.loomio.com/p/IfnNLueo/please-allocate-funds-for-community-contributions-allocation-poll-from-fwg- , your allocations informed this FWG decision.

THE MATH looks like this:

£3,400 GBP was assigned for community contributions in the 2024 budget.

£400 was assigned as a late donation to Loomio, as explained elsewhere, leaving £3,000. [Loomio received $499.00 USD (£390.76 GBP)]

The £3,000 was divided among 6 organizations, such that each received about £500.

£3,000 / 6  = £500.00

SHORT SUMMARY OF RECIPIENTS AND AMOUNTS, as they appear in Open Collective, where Social.Coop members transparently manage our budget. 

• Matrix £500 GBP

• PeerTube €600.90 EUR (£519.86 GBP, equiv. to £500 GBP with exchange rate/finance charge)

• Sociocracy for All $651.28 (£518.20 GBP, equiv. to £500 GBP with exchange rate/finance charge)

• IFTAS (Independent Federated Trust & Safety) $624.44 USD (equiv. to £500 GBP with exchange rate/finance charge)

• Mastodon £500 GBP

• Co-op Cloud*  £500 GBP

  [*Community Contribution to The Co-operative Cloud (collective) via Autonomic Co-operative Limited (fiscal host)]

CLOSING THOUGHTS

• ICYMI: Social.Coop is underbudgeted for 2024. Our total income exceeds our total expenses.

• Further financial notes about the recipients are appended to the bottom of this post.

• All around, there were some lessons learned from this participatory budgeting exercise. (We have space to reflect together.)

• FWG members intend to do a new round of Community Contributions in the 2025 Budget.

• The FWG seeks new members for the 2025 year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

-- Caitlin with @Andrew Escobar (Andres) · social.coop Finance Working Group AND @Josh Davis and @Nathan Schneider

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RECAP: THE RECIPIENTS:

• Mastodon: U.S. public charity

• https://givebutter.com/mastodon-inc

• reimbursed: https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses/226862

• IFTAS: U.S. public charity

• https://givebutter.com/iftas-supporter

• reimbursed: https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses/226864

• Sociocracy for All: U.S. not for profit (Peaceable Communities, Inc.)

• https://www.sociocracyforall.org/donate/

• reimbursed: https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses/227037

• PeerTube via Framasoft: French non-profit

• https://support.joinpeertube.org

• reimbursed: https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses/227165

• Matrix Foundation: U.K. community interest company

• https://donorbox.org/keep-matrix-exciting

• Processed via Platform 6: https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses/227717

• Co-op Cloud via Autonomic: Open Collective fiscal host for @coop-cloud

• https://coopcloud.tech

• Paid to Autonomic: https://opencollective.com/socialcoop/expenses/232405

• a collective cannot yet contribute to another collective http://docs.opencollective.com/help/financial-contributors/collective-to-collective

  • the [documented workaround] is to contribute to the fiscal host