The FreeCAD project association - 2022 budget
Established by: Yorik van Havre
Reviewed by: Brad Collette, Chris Holman
Approved by the general assembly on 2022.04.05
Introduction
The AISBL The FreeCAD project association was founded at the end of 2021, so 2022 is its first year of operation. Its purpose is to support the FreeCAD project, a free and open-source 3D modeling software developed collaboratively by a community of people.
This budget is based on the revenue and expenditure the project has experienced in previous years, to which has been added an estimated increase in revenue, as observed on other projects similar to FreeCAD at the time the project obtained legal personality.
The budget presented here is careful and conservative. We expect this year to only handle current expenses, and observe the impact of the creation of our association on revenues.
Revenue growth has also been conservatively estimated. Despite having been informed by the administrators of similar projects of increases of 500% to 1000% the year following the obtaining of legal personality, as a precaution, we are planning here an increase of 200%. In other words, the project would receive in 2022 double what it received in 2021
The FreeCAD project association is currently classifiable as a nano-association, having no full-time workers, less than €300,000 in revenue, and less than €1,000,000 in assets and debts. This situation will certainly continue for several years. As a result, it is only subject to simplified accounting.
Assets and debts
The project currently has an accumulated sum available on the BountySource platform, and some expenses to be reimbursed advanced by the members during the creation of the AISBL.
Assets and debts at the start of 2022:
| Assets | Debts | |
|---|---|---|
| Amount available on BountySource | 6,000 € | |
| Creation costs of the AISBL | 455 € |
Expected revenue
The expected revenue is made up entirely of donations, made without counterpart, from individuals and businesses. These people and companies give to the project in order to help it develop, without expecting any action in return.
Current revenue comes mainly from one crowdfunding platform, Bountysource. This platform receives donations from individuals and companies and pass on the sums received to certain FreeCAD developers who have helped solve a particular problem or who request it.
This year, we anticipate additional revenue by listing FreeCAD on new crowdfunding platforms, including Liberapay, OpenCollective, GitHub (conditioned to having a bank account) or the Software Freedom Conservancy (application sent, awaiting approval).
Once in possession of means of payment (bank account, accounts on payment platforms such as PayPal), new donation options, always optional and never mandatory, will be presented to users on freecad.org, after downloading the application.
A stimulation campaign will also be launched with interested companies or FreeCAD users, in order to motivate them to make larger donations and in a more planned way.
Estimated revenue for the year 2022:
| Revenues in 2021 | Revenue forecast for 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Donations through BountySource | 4,000 € | 4,000 € |
| Direct donations via freecad.org | 2,000 € | |
| Donation via other crowdfunding platforms | 2,000 € | |
| Donation from Packt Publishing, awaiting financial instruments | 500 € | |
| Total | 4,000 € | 8,500 € |
Planned expenditures
The planned expenses in 2022 are the continuation and handling of the expenses of 2021, namely the payment of support services to the project, and the financing of the hours of work of developers so that they can work on FreeCAD. The distribution of funding will be decided by the general assembly for the new channels.
Again, the expenditures below have been established in a conservative and prudent manner. If the revenue exceeds the estimates, the remainder will either be kept for the following year or invested in new projects decided by the general assembly.
The operation of the association itself is assumed on a voluntary basis by its administrators. Meetings and other operations of the administrative body and general assembly are done fully online, at no additional cost.
Planned expenses for the year 2022:
| Expenditure in 2021 | Planned expenditure in 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting freecadweb.org | 420 € | 420 € |
| hosting digitalocean.com | 520 € | 520 € |
| BountySource Developer Funding | 1,000 € | 3,000 € |
| Funding developers through other channels | 3,000 € | |
| Total | 1,940 € | 6,940 € |