The budget for the Joomla Project from 1st July 2018 to 30th June 2019 was approved by the board at their bi-weekly meeting on the 24th of May 2018 (Minutes). The valuable lessons learned in last year’s budgeting process allowed for an efficient and clear allocation of funds with discussions and refactoring taking much less time than in 2017.
Budget requests were submitted at the beginning of April 2018. The budget was first discussed as part of the board meeting of the 12th April 2018 (Minutes).
We first locked down our projected income for the year. A major difference in this year’s budget is the removal of the Joomla World Conference, which accounted for approximately 33% of both our income and our expenditure.
Sadly, even with this factored in we have had to reduce our estimated income by another 45%, this has been necessary for the most part due to the global decline in online advertising revenue which has traditionally been our main source of income. We now receive less than 10% of the income we received during the years when online advertising was booming and are still seeing it drop off month by month.
The Capital Team is working hard to find other income streams to make up for this. You can also help by becoming a micro-sponsor at this link, by buying something in the new Joomla Shop or by launching a free Joomla site at launch.joomla.org.
With income conservatively estimated, the board determined and agreed on the budget requests that were “operational”. Operational expenses are essential to keep the project running from day to day and include items such as taxes, accounting, banking and legal fees, hosting, software licenses, mailbox rental and insurance.
With operational expenses deducted from projected income, the board then discussed priorities for the coming year and a percentage of the total was allocated to each department. Focus was given to Production and Marketing as Joomla 4 is the project’s priority for this year.
Departments then reviewed their original requests and provided new ones to match their allocated funds. The cuts that had to be made were considerable and it was a painful process. It was with great sadness that we had to make the hard decision to end the JET program for this year and available funds to support JoomlaDays have also been greatly limited. It is hoped that the global event sponsorship initiative will bring some relief to these areas of the project in the coming year, as this is unfactored in the budget.
Below you will find a link to this and last year’s budgets and summaries from each Department and the Board. Any questions or concerns should go to the contact linked under the summary.
The 2018/19 budget can be viewed by clicking here.
The 2017/18 budget can be viewed by clicking here.
Production
The Production Department is responsible for all software under the Joomla brand and oversees many channels critical to the software's success, including documentation and translations. In addition to producing the software, we also require extensive resources for distributing that software and performing quality assurance tests during the development cycle.
For the upcoming budget year, our primary focuses are on the development (both template and server side) of Joomla 4 so it can be released over the course of the current budget and making the transition from Joomla 3 as smooth as possible, improving the continuous integration systems used for testing our software and support for the students and mentors participating in the Google Summer of Code program.
For queries regarding this department’s budget please contact George Wilson.
Legal & Finance
The Legal and Finance Department consists of the Capital, Compliance, Legal and Trademark Teams. The most active team in the department is the Capital Team that is responsible for raising money for the project.
We have had to severely review our income downwards for this year, as stated earlier, due to the decline in online advertising revenue. We hope that some of the initiatives we have started this year can bear fruit and our income is considerably over our conservative estimates.
With regards to expenses, we have renewed the majority of our 10 yearly Trademark renewals in the 2017/18 year which has helped to minimise our legal expenses. We still need to travel to find and meet with potential partners at events, as this has always been where we have been able to raise money and this makes up the rest of our expenses.
For queries regarding this department’s budget please contact Soren Beck Jensen.
Marketing & Communication
The Marketing & Communication Department handles all matters related to marketing, communications and marketing translations to share information and increase awareness both internally and externally.
You can see a summary of our strategy and goals for the forthcoming year here. Our main focus is to ensure the success of Joomla 3.9 and Joomla 4 by increasing our external communications to improve awareness.
For queries regarding this department’s budget please contact Sandra Decoux.
Events
At the Events Department we focus in allowing our community to meet and share their knowledge through JUGs, and Joomla Events. Our main focus is to facilitate Joomla Official Events around the world to help engage more people in our awesome community.
For queries regarding this department’s budget please contact Carlos Cámara.
Operations
The Operations Department covers two areas of business for Joomla. The first part of this is operational activities which keep the websites running. These costs are operational and are covered within the core budget. The second part are the various teams which provide additional resources to the community. Key elements for development during the coming financial year include the Joomla Template Directory and an update to the Joomla Extensions Directory.
For queries regarding this department’s budget please contact Hugh Douglas-Smith.
Programs
The Programs Department is responsible for the Joomla Certification (JCP), the Joomla Event Travel program (JET) and the Volunteers Engagement Team (VET). Due to budget constraints for this year, both the JET and VET will receive no funds, with JCP receiving the same amount as their projected income to help run the program.
For queries regarding this department’s budget please contact Yves Hoppe.
Local Communities
For more information about the Local Communities Department, please see the meeting minutes here.
Board of Directors
With the exception of essential operational expenses (which do include essential travel for banking/finance purposes) the Board of Directors has a token travel budget only this year.
For queries regarding this department’s budget please contact Rowan Hoskyns Abrahall.
