Our finances
Results 2023
Our annual financial report for 2023 was audited by Hilgers Accountants and can be downloaded here (only available in Dutch).
Income
Mostly, our projections turned out to be fairly accurate. One thing stands out. Like last year, our targeted net donor growth remained entirely unrealized. Although we, again, succeeded in finding many new donors, an above-average number also left us.
Mostly, our projections turned out to be fairly accurate. One thing stands out. Like last year, our targeted net donor growth remained entirely unrealized. Although we, again, succeeded in finding many new donors, an above-average number also left us.
Income 2023 (in euro)
| Realization 2023 | Estimated 2023 | Realization 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual donors | 381,285 | 424,000 | 368,901 |
| Foundations | 683,973 | 752,000 | 574,000 |
| Corporate supporters | 112,333 | 109,000 | 139,157 |
| Other | 6,913 | - | 16,489 |
| Subtotal | 1,184,504 | 1,285,000 | 1,098,547 |
| Project financing | 314,884 | 302,492 | 258,893 |
| Net interest | 6,611 | - | - |
| Total | 1,505,999 | 1,587,492 | 1,357,440 |
Expenditures
On the expenditures side, four things stand out. First, we postponed hiring a new colleague due to a grant falling through. We also relied less on freelancers, together resulting in significantly lower personnel costs than budgeted. Nevertheless, we made a big jump in our personnel expenses, our biggest cost and measure of sustainable growth: we spent a little over € 200K more than in 2022. After several years of being very cautious about our spending, this is good news.
Second, due to developments in our movement building strategy and plans, spending in this area was mostly pushed forward to 2024. Third, our ambition was to increase our communications expenses. We are happy to see this finally happening, most notably by running a major brand campaign. Finally, we set aside €50,000 for a move (housing) that didn't take place.
Expenditures 2023 (in euro)
| Realization 2023 | Estimated 2023 | Realization 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 935,751 | 1,137,118 | 718,479 |
| Housing | 31,475 | 89,170 | 29,508 |
| Office | 20,021 | 21,204 | 37,596 |
| Communication | 102,011 | 118,648 | 42,711 |
| Movement building | 5,112 | 26,500 | 16,005 |
| General costs | 43,589 | 62,347 | 32,408 |
| Deductions | 1,432 | - | 1,201 |
| Subtotal | 1,139,391 | 1,455,005 | 877,908 |
| Projects | 272,706 | 337,492 | 186,920 |
| Total | 1,412,097 | 1,792,479 | 1,064,828 |
All in all, this means that we'll close the year with a positive result which will be put to use in the coming years. It brings our designated reserve to approximately € 666K and our continuity reserve to roughly 25% of our expected costs for the coming year.
In 2023, 5,5% of funds spent went to fundraising and 5% to administration. 89,5% was spent directly on achieving our objectives. This is in line with our principle of not spending more than 20% of our funds and our time on fundraising and administration.
Supported by
Foundations
For a part of our work, it's difficult to obtain (sufficient) financial support from individual donors. For this reason, foundations are extremely important to us, both for the sustainability of our work and for the further development and growth of our organization. In some cases, foundations make it possible to take important steps at crucial moments, for instance by funding a new role in the team or research into a new work program.
In 2023, we received support for our core costs from:
- The Adessium Foundation: works toward a society in which people live in harmony with one another and with their surroundings.
- The Ford Foundation: works toward a fair and just society.
- The Limelight Foundation: works toward a robust and free information ecosystem.
- Open Society Foundations (OSF): work toward robust and inclusive democracies.
- Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland (SIDN): works toward a carefree digital world with opportunities for all.
- Stichting Democratie & Media: invests in independent, critical media and is dedicated to a robust democracy, based on the rule of law.
We received project funding from Aspiration Tech for our public interest tech pilot, from Luminate for Litigating Big Tech (in collaboration with PILP and Nederland Wordt Beter), from Gieskes-Strijbis Fund for our collaboration with Amnesty, Open State Foundation, Waag and Setup, from Open Society Foundations under the New Executives Fund, and from Goeie Grutten, SIDN fund, Civitates and EDRi for our work on platform regulation and in particular a public interest campaign to be launched in early 2024.
Donors
We concluded 2023 with 3.143 recurring donors, from whom we receive a donation on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. We also receive one-off donations from individuals directly through our website or by direct transfer (1,190 times in 2023). Donations from individual donors totaled € 381,285.
At the beginning of 2023, we experienced an above-average number of cancellations and reductions in recurring contributions. Fortunately, we managed to reverse this trend by the end of the year, and the number of recurring donors stabilized. We met our donors during the Big Brother Awards and our anniversary. We also conducted a comprehensive donor survey, the results of which we will present and use in 2024.
Furthermore, in 2023 we introduced a new (and easier) way to make one-off donations on our website, and added new products to our shop, including the popular supporter socks. We also launched a major brand campaign called "i <3 technology, but only on my terms" in collaboration with advertising agency KesselsKramer.
Corporate supporters
The following companies supported us in 2023:
With € 10,000 or more: Duckduckgo and Freedom Internet
With € 2,500 or more: BIT, Greenhost, IB-Vision, iunxi - serious ict infrastructure Unc Inc, and Voys.
With € 1,000 or more: Cryptography in Context, Eureka Unlimited, Hunki Enterprises, Intermax Cloudsourcing, VBVB ICT and Yourhosting.
With € 500 or more: Breedbandwinkel.nl, Considerati, CT&V advies, GeoCat, Green Mini host, Het Rooster B.V., iCulture, Mark Verhijde Advies & Projecten B.V., Mijndomein, NederHost, Nijweide BV, PrivacyLab, Prijs Vergelijken, RealConnections, Root Legal, Sooda internetbureau B.V., Talksome, VPNGids.nl and Zygomatic.
With € 250 or more as ZZP (independent worker without employees) donor: Charys, DevNomads, Filosofie in actie, Leemshop, Mindshards.
Finally, we received support in kind from: Bitonic, Blendle, Byte, CipherMail, Cyso / SQR.NL, DMARC Analyzer, Ekco, HAGENS, Jeroen Smeets, Mollie, Passbolt, Rick Pastoor, Rootgamer, DeBesteVPN.nl, VPNgids.nl, Sentia and Xolphin.
Budget 2024
Projected expenditures 2024 (in euros)
| Personnel costs | 1,367,319 |
| Housing | 91,153 |
| Office | 24,204 |
| Communication | 141,602 |
| Movement building | 23,500 |
| General costs | 65,588 |
| Subtotal | 1,713,366 |
| Projects | 304,758 |
| Total | 2,018,125 |
Projected income 2024 (in euros)
| Individual donors | 427,362 |
| Foundations | 971,792 |
| Corporate supporters | 130,000 |
| Merch and other | 9,700 |
| Subtotal | 1,538,854 |
| Project financing | 259,758 |
| Total | 1,798,612 |
In our expenditures, we allow for a staffing of 11 FTEs. A number of projects and events have already been budgeted - and income largely committed - to the amount of about €300K, including our own share of €30,000.
We have multi-year contracts for financial support with six foundations. In 2024, our contracts with Stichting Democratie en Media (Democracy and Media Foundation), Open Society Foundations, Limelight Foundation and Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland (SIDN) will expire. We hope to renew them. We're aiming to raise an additional € 415K in foundation support for 2024.
We hope to raise a total of € 437K from individual donors in 2024, which represents a substantial increase of approximately € 50K compared to last year. We hope to raise approximately € 130K from companies, which is an increase of about € 18K.
Should we realize the above ambitions, the difference between our estimated income and expenditures will come to approximately - € 220K. This negative result will be supplemented with funds from our designated reserve. Our continuity reserve will not be used in 2024.
Our financing in the coming years
Desired income mix
Bits of Freedom assigns great importance to having a sustainable financial situation, and it is our intention to remain fully independent. In drawing up our financial planning, we always try to look five years ahead. In recent years we have seen increased attention from private foundations for our work. Contributions from individual donors, on the other hand, are growing less rapidly. This means that our funding mix is changing and most notably the share of our income coming from foundations is increasing. In 2024, we expect 24% of our income to come from donors, 7% from corporations, and 54% from foundations. 15% of our income in 2024 is earmarked and comes primarily from foundations. Because earmarked income carries risks in terms of effectiveness, assurance of knowledge and expertise, and good employment practice, we aim to keep this type of income as low as possible.
Challenges
In the areas of asset management and financial reserves, we wish to maintain a continuity reserve of at least 25% of our annual costs for the coming year. That's an average for NGOs of our size. We expect to have a continuity reserve of approximately 25% at the end of 2024.