Fundraising in KDE

[Uli Klinkhammer]

Hey Eike,


On 2020-09-23 13:32, Eike Hein wrote:

>
> 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.

For sure, the german law does not allow to make to much profit over
several years for a "gemeinnütziger Verein". But I think the problem is
not in spending the money (there should be enough developers waiting for
a paid job out there), but in using it to provide a secure future for KDE.

So I would invest in future donation and payment models as stated in my
last email. Maybe the creation of a non-profit gAG is also an idea.

But at the end, again, I am very new to the community and this is just a
view of somebody, who is seeing it with very fresh eyes. :)

greez,

Uli