self-funding-by-grant-and-appropriation.org

FOSSHOST INCREMENTAL SELF-FUNDING SUSTAINABILITY PLAN

TL;DR

• Assets are divided into long and short term bundles.
• Funds in the short-term bundle are kept in our bank account.
• We can spend from the bank account per approved budgets, grants, invoices, or receipts.
• We distribute the long term bundle across stable investments, listed in Strategic Allocations.
• A process called “appropriations” covers money-movement between long- and short-term bundles.
• We require specific accounting/reporting/auditing practices related to handling funds.
• We list key persons having financial responsibilities at/for Fosshost.

INTRODUCTION

This document is a work-in-progress draft hinting toward possible format a financial plan for Fosshost may take. The details likely aren’t right. Hopefully, as you read, you have ideas as to what is missing, not sufficiently in-focus, or doesn’t seem quite right.

Please don’t assume what’s obvious to you is also obvious to others: share your ideas to leverage a large gift in the 100-250k USD range into long term sustainability for our mission: providing free hosting to help out Free and Open Source software development.

STATUS: This is an Early/Initial Draft for Internal Comment

Don’t view this document as closing any discussions whatever. Our goal is to stat thinking together about making formal and public commitments around money. This will help every feel on the same page as we put specific rules in place about how we will handle money as an organization, including how we will plan to save and to spend it.

Is it “Secret”?

Not really. If the process of agreeing on how we’ll approach budgeting (hopefully an open process potentially involving all hands, like this) drags on it’s likely that you will receive questions. Inevitably, you may wish to speak from these, and other ideas. Please make sure those you discuss with understand our ground rules:

1. The Fosshost board will reach a decision no sooner than 1 July 2021 regarding a near (and any initial longer term) financial plan.
2. All conversations between now and then are speculative.
3. We welcome all input toward delivering the maximum value to the community with our project. Thank you for thoughts & suggestions.

ABSTRACT

FOSSHOST CIC is a not-for-profit provider of internet hosting services for Free and Open Source Softare (FOSS) development.

This document outlines our approach to ensure the long term viability our mission and provides specific actions for our organization to complete related to the management of our budgets, with the aim of ensuring our services availability for the foreseeable future, and providing direction for our regular and publicly report on our expenditures as being in terms specifically of these proscribed actions and stated terms of mission viability.

DOCUMENT SCOPE (ALL VOLUNTEERS)

This document is a draft. No provisions are binding currently. This disclosure will be removed if/when this document is approved.

All provisions herein are binding to all volunteers (including our diectors), other agents or asignees, etc. Any exceptions must be approved in advance by our secretary in accordance with our articles and general practices of management: generally that the board are all aware of significant decisions in advance and that we will generally not approve (for example) exceptions to our prior written direction without attempting to reach an unanimous consensus of all our directors, if not of all of all volunteers.

How This Document Is Organized

This remainder of this document describes our financial plan. It is divided in three major sections (following this one):

1. Administration: accounting, money-movement, and disclosure practices
2. Strategic: investment, grants, and routine auditing practices
3. Incremental: tactical and routine appropriations (buying stuff, paying bills)

Plan Administration The initial sections detail with administrative natter, such as stating clear parameters for using the top natter of the document to describe the nature and state of the this plan, as it changes, describing our general accounting practices, and setting out expectations for each of us when/if we spend/handle/transfer funds for Fosshost (e.g. “money movement”).

Strategic Allocations Following the administrative practices we set out our plans for longer term viability of our organization, our “Strategic” plan. In addition to describing our plans generally, this section also provides long term forecasts and outlines long term investment practices, practices for releasing/recovering funds from investment when needed for operation/expense (“grants”), and provides lists of significant assets currently invested along with financial models and forecasts based on the practices described, along with details for updating these as invested monies are released/spent and otherwise the calculus changes.

Incremental Expenditures The most current and specific information will always be toward the end of the document, for example the current month’s operating expenses form the final section, immediately preceded by forecasts/planning for the following three (3) months.

PARTIES OF RESPONSIBILITY

Person	Title	Financial Role? (Focus)
Thomas	CEO	Yes (all)
Nikola	CIC Secretary	Yes (public reporting)
Jonathon	Executive Director	Yes (audits)
Corwin	COO	Yes (forecasts/prospectus)
Hope	DDO	Yes (budgeting)

Plan Administration

Strategic Allocations

Incremental Expenditures