Archive:What we need the money for (June 2007)

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Revision as of 21:21, 3 January 2007 by BradPatrick (talk | contribs) (→‎Goals for Bandwidth (June 07 = $62,000/mo up to $100,000/mo): rm uncertainly language about Kennisnet)

Day to day operational expenses

The de facto monthly budget for regular expenses is about $75,000. It breaks out like this:

Monthly expense budget
Category Amount
Hosting 13,900
Bandwidth 12,500
Payroll 32,000
Rent 1,200
Internet 100
Phones 400
Westlaw 217
Shipping 100
Equipment 500
Travel 4,000
Hotel/Dining/Other travel 500
Professional fees legal/audit 6,000
Trademark registrations 600
Domain registrations 1,000
Insurance 2,500
Basic monthly 75,517

This constitutes the existing regular day-to-day operational budget items each month (close but imprecise).

Warning: servers purchases are not expenses.

Goals for Hardware (June 07 = $1,670,000 capital expenditure)

Per earlier budget discussion document, that the board endorse the middle option, for $1.67MM. This involves increasing our inventory of servers by another 300 machines around February ($834,000) and another 300 ($834,000) in June. This will constitute the most significant expenditure of the Foundation this fiscal year. From whom to purchase the servers (and precisely what, rather than proportions) is a matter in need of further discussion amongst Tech.

Goals for Bandwidth (June 07 = $62,000/mo up to $100,000/mo)

We are presently investigating the costs for additional bandwidth. If we go up to a 10GB capacity, we can reasonably expect to have at least a $50,000 bandwidth bill (1Mb @ $10 at 50% capacity), unless we are able to negotiate a lower rate. Phased in, we are still looking at an additional minimum commit of $30,000 per month, raising our monthly regular budget up by $18,000 (minimum), and more likely an additional $50,000 (total of $62,000). Monthly budget for expenses including bandwidth in June, 2007 up to $137,000. We also need to recognize that our upward growth cannot be indefinite; we may reasonably slow our growth and/or plateau at this level. Although we are an integral part of Kennisnet's plan and will continue our partnership with them, other costs associated with equipment and operations are important to consider.

Goals for hosting and operations (June 07 = $27,000 setup; $38,000 hosting/mo)

At present rates, the addition of another 4 cages worth (20 racks) will amount to $1900 each plus $1350 setup costs. This brings the total monthly regular expenses up to $175,000.

Goals for Hiring (June 07 = $100,000/mo)

Several positions are currently under discussion, including a permanent CEO, a CTO, chapter liaison, several developers and possibly others. Details will not be given here, but generally, prospectives for hiring should make the total payroll goes up from $32,000 to $100,000.

Goals for Project Specific Expenditures ($300,000)

The board should budget for major categories of project work.

  • Wikimania 2007
  • Wikisummit 2007 - 20 people (max)
  • Various gathering, project support ...

Retained revenue

Goal of increasing cash reserves to at least 3 ($875,000), preferrably 6 months ($1,650,000) of operating expenses for fiscal security per recommendation of auditors.