Hello!
Financial sustainability and budgeting are alive and important topics for the Sociocracy for All Network. As we are learning about and exploring these, I’d be interested to hear personal stories. How do you deal with finances and financial modeling in your other organizations? Or an organization you know of? It should at least be self-managed, maybe even a similar size (~20 staff members, 200 members + audience).
(for Network Members, you can have a look at General Circle’s Financial modeling and strategic priorities Action Plan! (internal drive link))
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And I give it a go: I also work for a community software project named Karrot. It’s smaller than SoFAN with less than 10 team members and an annual financial volume less than 50 000€. What I’d like to point to is the money agreement. It bascially describes the process to distribute money among team members and contributors. which usually lies between 200-500€/person/month (and sometimes one-time agreements). What I find interesting is that there is an emphasis on distribution of exisiting money e.g. when the project receives funding which will likely be fulfilled. There is not so much future planning beyond. Only when the funding deadline comes closer and the situation of ‘running out of money’ nearer, more effort is put into bringing money in again. Having said this, there is a sense and commitment (privilege?) to keep the project alive even without funding as it started as a complete voluntary effort. But also none of the payees has Karrot as a sole income.
One exploration or idea that is brewing for some time is to develop more long-term stability by building a ‘community support software’. This borrows from the idea of community supported agriculture where the receivers of produces contribute to the costs of production (often via a 1 year contract). Moreover, this could be a way to take different forms of contribution into account and form a more intentional and relational bound with users. (I’ve heard this idea also under the term ‘CSX’ or prosumption/ research exists). Donations from groups or individuals are currently only a small part of the budget.
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Another organisation I admire is ‘Konzeptwerk für Neue Ökonomie’ to which I don’t hold any direct connection (but know people who know people…). So I looked at their annual report. They have 26 employees and 4 freelancers, 2024 they raised 650 000€ (65% grants), and had expenses of 775 000€ (80% salaries). I enjoy their transparency page and this more general statement on money
The “dear” money
In the area of finance, the new economy means aligning our compensation with our needs, not with our qualifications, roles, or length of service. We base our financing on two principles:
- As a recognized non-profit organization, we do not operate for profit.
- We do not accept money from organizations that promote unecological, undemocratic, or antisocial production methods.
The Konzeptwerk is financed through grants from government institutions, donations from foundations, donations and supporting memberships, as well as honoraria we receive for workshops and lectures.
(PS: only recently they’ve launched their new website (multi-lingual), maybe an inspiration for us?)