Mozilla Europe/Budget Request Process
Overview
In order to effectively support community marketing efforts across Europe and provide full visibility on the donations made, it is important for Mozilla Europe to establish a clear and detailed process to evaluate and approve budget requests sent to us by the community.
This document outlines the Mozilla Europe budget request and approval process for events and activities organized by Mozilla communities across Europe. The aim of this document is to shed light on and provide a clear understanding of :
• what selection criteria should be used to assess and approve a specific budget request
• who approves the budget requests
• what the different review stages of approval budget requests go through
• how funds are disbursed
• what follow-up strategy is employed to measure the success/failure of a funded project
Background
Mozilla Europe works very closely with Mozilla communities across Europe, all driven by a passion to promote free Mozilla software, its by-products and push the Mozilla Project forward.
Mozilla community efforts revolve around two areas : internal community events and promotional activities. Mozilla Europe is regularly approached by community members who want to organize events or design activities, but which require funding to cover their costs. Primarily to cover the costs of venue rental, technical equipment rental, catering at the event and swag. In some instances, community members may request funding to cover travel and accommodation costs.
Until now, no specific process to evaluate and approve budget requests had been established.
Mozilla Europe has mostly been funding community intiatives on an informal case by case basis, generally based on the trust and confidence that Mozilla Europe has built over the years working closely with communities.
Mozilla Europe expects to see a significant jump in community budget requests in 2009, mainly due to the fact that the Mozilla’s Community Marketing Guide will be published in Q1. It is therefore more important than ever to establish a clear and detailed budget request process to better tend to the needs of the Mozilla communities in Europe and assist them in pushing the project forward.
Assessment Criteria
a) Main focus areas
It is essential that clear criteria of relevance and success be established so that Mozilla Europe can properly assess budget requests. It is important to consider the following questions when evaluating a budget request:
• How will the event or activity promote Mozilla’s mission?
• Does this opportunity represent a relatively small level of financial support that will have a large impact on others in the Mozilla community?
• Does the project empower other members of the community?
• How will Mozilla Europe’s financial support impact others both in Mozilla and in the larger user-community? Is the investment in the community being successfully leveraged?
• How measurable is the success of the event/activity and how easy is the follow-up ?
b) Community Marketeers who are new to Mozilla Europe
As the community grows, Mozilla Europe is increasingly approached by new members of the community whom we have never had contact with. When these potential community marketeers approach us with a budget request, Mozilla Europe should request basic background information of the person and when possible looks for referrers to conduct a reference check, based on the reference check designed for Mozilla Community Giving Program (see https://intranet.mozilla.org/CommunityProgram/SelectionProcess/ReferenceCheck)
c) Disqualification of Budget Requests
Budget requests received less than 6 weeks before the targeted launch date of the event/activity in question will automatically be rejected. This 6-week “buffer” guarantees that each budget request undergoes the same thorough selection process.
Budget Request Form
The updated form (Mozilla_EU_Budget_Request_Form v1.0.doc) is the form to be used by the community starting in January 2009. It can be downloaded here. Once filled out, it should be sent to William Quiviger (william at mozilla dot com)
Three-phased Selection/Approval Process
The selection/approval process can be divided into three distinct phases :
• preliminary “filtering”
• shortlisting by Selection Committee
• Mozilla Europe board approves/rejects budget requests
a) Filtering phase :
William Quiviger is the key contact person for communities in Europe. He receives all budget requests by email and filters out those requests that are not worth reviewing. All filtered requests are then passed on to a bi-weekly Selection Committee.
b) Bi-weekly Selection Committee selection/rejection :
To ensure that as many people as possible are brought into the process and that the funding decision is perfectly aligned with Mozilla’s mission, Mozilla Europe assembles a rotating bi-weekly selection-committee made up of 3 Mozilla staff based in Europe or members of Mozilla Europe designated by its board to review all budget requests in the pipeline and finalize approval. All selected budget requests must then be passed on to the Mozilla Europe board.
c) Mozilla Europe Board approval/rejection :
Each selected budget request must be reviewed and signed off by the Mozilla Europe board during each monthly board meeting.
Accounting Rules
The fund flow should comply with accounting rules.
A donation is usually an amount given to an established non-profit organization with an established charter and its own auditing processes. It is usually not linked to a specific project but just to partially support the overall goal of this organization.
Expenses covered must be related to an event/project as they occur, or once they have occurred.
In general, event-related expenses are covered once the event has occurred, besides advanced payment such as a portion of a proposal for a room, technical equipment rental, catering at the event. The remaining due amount is then paid just before the event, or upon receipt of a bill. In all cases such documents/offers should be formalized once the project has been approved with amounts/due dates and bank info so payments can be made accordingly.
In general, individual expenses are covered by paying back expense notes submitted with justification slips and bills, to cover individual travel, accommodation and food falling within pre-approved limits/guidelines. In some cases some of these expenses (travel, accommodation) could be directly paid to the service provider beforehand by Mozilla Europe, which then provides the airline ticket or the hotel room to the individual. Food, taxi and other limited expenses are still reimbursed through an expense note.
Disbursement of Funds
Once a budget request has been approved, William Quiviger must contact the submitter to collect all documents issued by companies providing services for the event/project (such as cost estimates showing deposit required, proforma invoices etc…) with due dates and bank info (IBAN and BIC (swift code)). William will then plan wire transfers or payment by other means to these companies accordingly.
Tracking and Follow-up
Mozilla Europe must regularly track the status of all pending budget requests and carry-out a follow-up of all projects whose budget requests have been approved. All this information must be available to the public on the Mozilla wiki.
a) Budget Request Tracking
All budget requests should be tracked based on 5 different statuses :
- Pending : budget request for community marketing project has been received and is undegoing initial review by William Quiviger
- Qualified : budget request fits all the selection criteria, and the selection committee has selected the request.
- Approved : budget request has been approved and signed off by Mozilla Europe board, and the funded project is now in the process of disbursement
- Disbursing : payment process of submitted elements underway
- Paid : all elements in the budget have been documented for payment and all payments have been made.
- Rejected : budget request passed initial filtering phase, but was rejected by Selection Committee or Mozilla Europe Board
The following information must be properly documented :
• Name of Recipient
• Community
• Country
• Project name and number
• Date Budget Request was submitted
• Date Budget Request was Approved
• Date funds were Disbursed
• Amount Requested
Contact
To send a budget request to Mozilla Europe, please fill out the Budget Request Form and send it to Willam Quiviger [william at mozilla dot com]
For any questions, suggestions or comments, please also contact William.