Category: Finances 2015 Q&A Group 1

Nikisha Sanders 2015 Q&A: Finances, Group 1

Jenny McDevitt

When Elections was ordered to remove Nikisha Sanders from the 2015 Election ballot, the committee was told to erase all information about her candidacy from the website. However, Elections firmly feels that there is no situation in which candidates, whether former or current, should be silenced or erased from Election information. As in all circumstances, Elections’ policy is to only edit and/or post candidate-written information with candidate permission. Therefore, with Sanders’ permission, we have posted the Q&A responses she completed prior to her removal.

If elected to the board, will you push for a published yearly budget? What would you consider key items in a budget? Read More

Q&A Responses – Finances, Group 1

Jenny McDevitt

The fourth set of questions the 2015 candidates have completed is the first of two groups on the topic of finances. You can read their answers by clicking on the links below.

All 2015 Q&A responses so far.

More information on our Q&A process.

Dan Lamson 2015 Q&A: Finances (Group 1)

Jenny McDevitt

Note: Dan has withdrawn from the race, but he completed his answers before withdrawing, so they will be posted to the site.

If elected to the board, will you push for a published yearly budget? What would you consider key items in a budget?

I will totally push for a budget every year. It is something I have been pushing for, as chair of DevMem for a long time.

As to key items in budgets generally, you want to budget how income you’ll need and how much you think you’ll spend. That’s the basics you need. I think every committee should be approached with how much money they will need in the near, and then have that compiled to make a budget how our expenses, both one time and recurring. Then we have to make sure that we will raise enough money to cover our expenses.

For specifics, I would say servers and other hardware that make sure things run would be a priority. I know there has been talk about a paid coder for AO3 which would be a boon to the project. That would be a priority. But basically, all our committees have needs, and if we have the income, I hope all their needs are met in a budgetary process.

A nonprofit’s board has a fiduciary responsibility regarding its assets, which includes making sure they earn a reasonable interest rate. In the past three years, despite our considerable reserves, our investment income (per the OTW’s tax filings and Annual Reports) has been, respectively, US$5, US$40 and US$18. If elected, would you hope we can do anything different about this?

The OTW has a good amount of cash on hand at the moment. We are in a good place financially. I think it is time to start discussing an endowment for the OTW, and investing it and growing it. This kind of thing would be a priority of mine, were I to be elected. It would give the OTW stronger and more secure financial future.

Shorter answer: I do feel we could be getting more interest money then we have been, but we need to do it in the right way.

The latest three OTW fundraising drives had escalating goals: US$70,000; US$100,000; US$175,000 (October ’14, May ’15, October ’15). How would you define responsible fundraising in a fandom context? What does it mean for our finances?

Fundraising is fundraising. We are lucky at the OTW community’s support of our organization and projects. The OTW is and has been growing. I imagine our expenses for 2015 are somewhere around US$275,000, so our past fundraising has been on point for our financial needs. You always want to raise as much (or more) money than you need to cover your expenses, to keep your reserves safe for rainy days.

The simple fact is, more people than ever are using our sites and projects. I find that awesome and a testament to the hard work of a lot of our volunteers. But increased traffic equals more bills. Older infrastructure means large purchases every now and then. There are certain things we have to buy, and to do so, we need money.

I think going forward, when we have a solid budget, we can fine tune exactly what we need to fundraise better. Perhaps our fundraising methods or practices will change, but for now, I stand by them.

There have been complaints in the past, particularly from AO3 committees, of some of the OTW’s service bills not being paid on time or being paid very last-minute—sometimes resulting in committees temporarily losing access to tools they need for their work. What do you think can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?

I am not sure about bills being paid one time or not in the past as an issue. I know of only one situation where it happened and was taken care of quickly. I am in favor of paying bills on time.

I think a good solution to this would be to set up a bill paying system online, whereby as many of our bills as possible are paid automatically. If a bill is coming up due, I would suggest that committees make sure that the treasurer is aware of it. The treasurer may have thought something was taken care of, and I’m sure it would not be a bother for them. Communication is the key.

Also, I am not averse to paying bills early. It may be due on the 20th, but if you get the bill on the 3rd, why not pay it? I hope this is not an issue going forward.

Matty Bowers 2015 Q&A: Finances, Group 1

Jenny McDevitt

If elected to the board, will you push for a published yearly budget? What would you consider key items in a budget?

Yes. Our budget should outline our expected expenses (OTW tools, contractor fees, server upkeep, committee expenses, etc.) and projected income. After the budget has been drafted, it should be sent to the committee chairs to ensure everything is correct and nothing has been overlooked. It should be reviewed as the year continues if new expenses arise.

A nonprofit’s board has a fiduciary responsibility regarding its assets, which includes making sure they earn a reasonable interest rate. In the past three years, despite our considerable reserves, our investment income (per the OTW’s tax filings and Annual Reports) has been, respectively, US$5, US$40 and US$18. If elected, would you hope we can do anything different about this?

Yes. Leaving most of our reserves sitting in a checking account means that, in practice, we’re losing money. I believe we should speak to a licensed professional who can offer advice and suggestions. We should then listen to said professional and implement the suggestions we believe will work best for us.

The latest three OTW fundraising drives had escalating goals: US$70,000; US$100,000; US$175,000 (October ’14, May ’15, October ’15). How would you define responsible fundraising in a fandom context? What does it mean for our finances?

Our fundraising goals should be centered on our budget: our projected expenses for the coming year and the amount we need to cover these expenses. That way, when it’s time for a fundraising drive, we can present to our potential donors a clear breakdown of our projected expenses, showing them how we plan to use the money we’re raising. That will help the OTW be more transparent in its financial management and might even, I believe, help us raise more donations from people who may have reservations about our current financial practices.

There have been complaints in the past, particularly from AO3 committees, of some of the OTW’s service bills not being paid on time or being paid very last-minute—sometimes resulting in committees temporarily losing access to tools they need for their work. What do you think can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?

Without knowing all our financial details, here are a few general suggestions:

  • Have more than one person available to pay bills
  • Organize our finances so that all information is in one location, with a payment schedule for everything outlined
  • When possible, set up recurring payments
  • Ensure that backups of all legal and financial documents are in a secure, shared location so no one person has the only copy of anything

Katarina Harju 2015 Q&A: Finances, Group 1

Jenny McDevitt

If elected to the board, will you push for a published yearly budget? What would you consider key items in a budget?

I think that a budget is one of those basic things that any organization needs to have, so I find it vitally important that we figure out a process to make a budget in time for every fiscal year. Once we do manage to make a budget (and repeat the same process every year) I see no practical reason not to publish it, and in fact making it public would be a good start towards demonstrating our accountability.

The key items would be things that are probably also rather obvious to include: our expected income (donations, interest, possible income from OTW merchandise) and what we plan to spend money on during the fiscal year (how much different projects need, changes to previous years costs). Of course, this means that developing a functional budget requires input from all the different committees.

A nonprofit’s board has a fiduciary responsibility regarding its assets, which includes making sure they earn a reasonable interest rate. In the past three years, despite our considerable reserves, our investment income (per the OTW’s tax filings and Annual Reports) has been, respectively, US$5, US$40 and US$18. If elected, would you hope we can do anything different about this?

I’m not that familiar with interest rates in US banks, but that does sound like very little for the amount of funds the OTW has had in recent years. If we adopt a surplus budget—which considering the OTW’s, and more specifically the AO3’s, rapid growth does seem most sensible—it would certainly make sense that the surplus would be able to generate more interest than what it has so far. Furthermore, with a budget in place it would be possible to invest the surplus while keeping sufficient funds for projected expenditures and keeping a healthy cash reserve in place.

Because we are dealing with donated funds, we have a responsibility to be careful with them, because of this and because of US tax laws we would have to make conservative passive investments. This basically boils down to the fact that we should start with moving some of our money into an account with better interest rates.

The latest three OTW fundraising drives had escalating goals: US$70,000; US$100,000; US$175,000 (October ’14, May ’15, October ’15). How would you define responsible fundraising in a fandom context? What does it mean for our finances?

Responsible fundraising to me means that we need to be transparent. We need to be able to tell people why we are asking for the amount of money we do, to show them what we plan to use money on and to tell them what the money has been used for. We can’t afford to lose the confidence of our donors. To keep hiking up the goal for each successive membership drive without ever giving a good explanation for why the goals keep rising seems to me like a good way of alienating our donors.

It’s important that whoever handles the finances and accounting (at this point our Treasurer and Board as a whole) communicates with the people in charge of fundraising (the Development & Membership committee) to ensure that the goals are set according to our needs. Having a budget would make this much clearer and easier.

There have been complaints in the past, particularly from AO3 committees, of some of the OTW’s service bills not being paid on time or being paid very last-minute—sometimes resulting in committees temporarily losing access to tools they need for their work. What do you think can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?

If the payments are recurring and consistent, then it should certainly be possible to look into some form of automatic payment. Other than that, all I can say is that we need to have someone reliable in charge of paying the bills and to make sure that there is some form of backup for that person, in case they are unavailable for whatever reason.

Atiya Hakeem 2015 Q&A: Finances, Group 1

Jenny McDevitt

If elected to the board, will you push for a published yearly budget? What would you consider key items in a budget?

Yes, a budget is essential. So far we have never had an actual budget, but only a retroactive statement of how our money was spent. That is a necessary thing for accountability purposes, but it is no help in setting our fundraising goals or allowing committees to plan based on what resources will be available.

Key items on a budget are, of course, what assets we have, itemized lists of what expenses we expect each committee to incur in the following year (worked out in conjunction with the committees in question), and an estimate of what funds we expect to raise.

A nonprofit’s board has a fiduciary responsibility regarding its assets, which includes making sure they earn a reasonable interest rate. In the past three years, despite our considerable reserves, our investment income (per the OTW’s tax filings and Annual Reports) has been, respectively, US$5, US$40 and US$18. If elected, would you hope we can do anything different about this?

Yes. Even just putting more money in Certificates of Deposit would be better than this. I don’t think we are in a position where our reserve assets are large enough to justify a financial advisor or any fancy investment instruments, but making sure we earn as much interest as possible without risk seems like a really good idea. Once we have an actual budget, we can decide how much money we want to keep in reserve, and what kind of flexibility we need for accessing it.

The latest three OTW fundraising drives had escalating goals: US$70,000; US$100,000; US$175,000 (October ’14, May ’15, October ’15). How would you define responsible fundraising in a fandom context? What does it mean for our finances?

I think that responsible fundraising in any context requires knowing what one’s projected expenses are, and choosing a goal in keeping with them, rather than simply picking an arbitrary round number larger than the last time. Any donor base has a finite amount of money, and crying wolf or going to the well too often will give short term results at the expense of ongoing support. Donors want to see not only what we’ve done with their money in the past, but to know that we have a plan for what to do with it in the future.

The fandom context is relevant in that we have a particularly invested donor base, who feel ownership of our organization and our projects. That is great, since it means we can count on them when we need them, in many cases even if giving is a financial burden. However, it means that our donors will be particularly sensitive to questions of whether their money is being used well.

I think fiscal responsibility to ensure we spend sensibly, on necessary expenses, and fiscal transparency, so that our donors know this is the case, are essential for us to maintain the trust of our donors.

There have been complaints in the past, particularly from AO3 committees, of some of the OTW’s service bills not being paid on time or being paid very last-minute—sometimes resulting in committees temporarily losing access to tools they need for their work. What do you think can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?

Indeed, as a staffer I have experienced this issue on several occasions. I think fixing it should be extremely easy. First, set up automatic renewal for services that allow it. Second, resurrect an actual Financial committee. The committee should have records of what needs paying when, and contact information for all suppliers, stored in a location that all members can access. That way, if the chair for some reason is not available to make a payment, things don’t just fall through the cracks. A system for paying the bills reliably seems like a really obvious and necessary thing for any organization to have, and something that our volunteers should certainly be able to expect.