Shared post - Is the GNOME Foundation Going to Go Bankrupt in 1 Year?
It's no secret that many Open Source organizations struggle to fund themselves -- with the GNOME Foundation being on more of a shoestring budget than you would expect for a project as widely used as GNOME.
To make matters worse, the GNOME Foundation has been paying for most of their expenses by draining their savings account (as they spend far more than they take in).
What's more: The GNOME Foundation has been unusually silent about their operations -- not publishing any public reports for closing in on 2 years now. And their strategy to save themselves from bankruptcy appears to center around "sustainability, diversity, and inclusion".
"As you may be aware, the GNOME Foundation has operated at a deficit (nonprofit speak for a loss – ie spending more than we’ve been raising each year) for over three years, essentially running the Foundation on reserves from some substantial donations received 4-5 years ago. The Foundation has a reserves policy which specifies a minimum amount of money we have to keep in our accounts. This is so that if there is a significant interruption to our usual income, we can preserve our core operations while we work on new funding sources. We’ve now “hit the buffers” of this reserves policy, meaning the Board can’t approve any more deficit budgets – to keep spending at the same level we must increase our income."
To fully understand the dire straits the GNOME Foundation finds itself in, let's take a look at what we know about their finances.
