Fundraising in KDE

[Eike Hein]

Hi everyone,

As Carl's email has lead to people reaching out to me with immediate worries about KDE e.V.'s financial health, allow me to provide some additional context. :-)

KDE e.V.'s expenses in 2019 were higher than its income. This was by design, because the organization has accumulated large financial reserves in recent years and it is obligated, as a non-profit, to put them towards its mission statement. This scaling-up of our expenses was done carefully; we're not dependent on this additional spending to keep up our core activities. Additionally, the size of the delta is also an artifact of several large membership payments slipping to the 2020 financial year.

To hammer it home: KDE e.V. is currently in the financially strongest position it has been in its history, and has more options today than it had in the past. Our most immediate concern is spending money, not fundraising.

This situation is (as it should) leading to proposals for how to scale up KDE e.V.'s activities, leading to further increase in spending. One such proposal is the one mentioned by Carl, submitted by Nate. As we discuss and probe these proposals and their various potentials for becoming policy, their sustainability is under review.

This is great, aand a buzz of activity around making relate.kde.org better for the longer-term future is very welcome.

If you have further questions about KDE e.V.s finances, feel free to take a look at the financial statements in our annual reports[0] or to reach out to me directly.

0 = https://ev.kde.org/reports/ev-2019/


Cheers,
Eike Hein
-
KDE e.V. Vice President, Treasurer