[Osmf-talk] OSMF 2024 budget project presentation

[Heather Leson]

Excellent work and report back.

Thank you

Heather

On Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 06:28 Guillaume Rischard <
guillaume.rischard at osmfoundation.org> wrote:

> Dear community,
>
>
> As we approach the vote on the OSM Foundation’s 2024 budget
> <https://osmfoundation.org/w/images/0/06/OSMF_2024_Budget_v2024-02-23.pdf>,
> I would like to share its highlights and goals.
>
>
> Increases in funds raised have let us address core improvements to the
> project, spending money on our strategic plan
> <https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan>. Specifically, this year,
> this income growth lets us increase our spending on IT operations,
> engineering, local chapters, and communication. We are effectively managing
> funds, and growing carefully. This is the base of our fundraising efforts
> <https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/>, and we are very grateful for our strong
> community support
> <https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2024/02/13/mappers-universities-companies-and-nonprofits-contributed-over-373000-to-support-osm-in-2023/>.
> When I joined the board in 2019, that year’s turnover was £260k, with more
> than half coming from SotM. Fast forward to 2023, and we’ve nearly doubled
> that, hitting £464k, and that’s without a SotM event.
>
>
> The first question we get from donors is about where the money goes. We
> have focused our work on answering that more easily, building the
> accounting infrastructure to track expenses vs budget for all working
> groups on a monthly basis.
>
>
> On the operations side, since we hired Grant in 2022, he has tirelessly
> <https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2023/05/22/powering-openstreetmaps-future-a-year-of-improvements-from-openstreetmap-foundations-site-reliability-engineer/> been
> improving the stability and reliability of our infrastructure. We will be
> spending a bit less on new hardware this year; the operations working group
> has, through database wizardry, expertly managed to squeeze more life out
> of our servers.
>
>
> We have decided to spend more this year on the engineering side than ever
> before. Paul Norman is already working on minutely updated vector tiles
> <https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2024/02/11/2024-announcing-the-year-of-the-openstreetmap-vector-maps/>.
> Improvements to the website are already happening, and you can now mute
> unwanted messages. The Engineering working group will be looking at
> organising a round of microgrants this year. We will be delighted to share
> updates throughout the year.
>
>
> Local chapters do a tremendous job in promoting OSM on a local level, and
> small sums spent there can make a big difference. A microgrant program for
> LCCWG will provide crucial funds, and help provide incentives for local
> communities to organise and join the OSMF as chapters.
>
>
> One frequent comment we get is that the OSMF should communicate more and
> better. From updates on projects to improving the copyright page
> <https://openstreetmap.org/copyright> (it's the largest landing page!) to
> understanding our community through surveys, we want to invest where the
> required effort has been too large for volunteers.
>
>
> The budget is currently at a slight deficit, but I am not overly concerned
> about it. We are playing it very safe with our conservative income
> predictions, but expect fundraising to increase, especially now that we can
> communicate on specific engineering projects (vector tiles!). We are also
> in a very good place with our current cash reserves of about £630k at hand,
> and have a duty to donors to spend their funds. The usual rule of thumb is
> that one year of expenses in savings is very comfortable, and our current
> planned deficit would, if fundraising doesn’t improve, leave us with that.
> If our income does increase, we have planned for the overflow to go into
> further funding of the vector tiles project and the microgrants for
> targeted projects for engineering and local chapters.
>
>
> It is important to note that this budget is a project, and not the final
> version; the board still intends to discuss it in detail at its meeting
> next Thursday.
>
>
> Are we spending on the right things, and are we spending on them in the
> right way? Let us know in the comments. If you’d like to support our
> efforts, you can donate at https://supporting.openstreetmap.org. If you
> think we should spend money on other things, you can even leave a comment
> with your donation :). But the most effective thing you can do? Volunteer
> in our working group to support these efforts. It’s not all about the
> money; the community’s time and skills are what keep this ship sailing.
>
>
> Happy mapping,
>
>
> Guillaume
>
> --
> Guillaume Rischard
> Director and chairperson of the board
> OpenStreetMap Foundation
>
> St. John’s Innovation Centre
> Cowley Road
> Cambridge
> CB4 0WS
> United Kingdom
>
> A company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales.
> Registration Number 05912761.
>
> _______________________________________________
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> osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
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>
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