2018 Financials

In 2018, the WordPress Foundation and its subsidiary provided support and guidance for a total of 143 WordCamps and hundreds of meetup groups, organized by volunteers in communities all over the world. There were 43 WordCamp events in the US and 100 WordCamp events outside the US.

In 2016, the WordPress Foundation created a subsidiary, organized as a public benefit corporation, to provide a fiscal entity to support organizers of WordPress community events. This B-corp is named WordPress Community Support. We’ll report on both entities’ 2018 financials on this page.

WordPress Foundation

WordPress Foundation’s total revenue was $13,296, with donations making up $11,178 of this amount.

Expenses for the WordPress Foundation totaled $42,938. Major 2018 expenses include:

  • do_action charity hackathon grants $7,141
  • Charitable Contributions to other organizations $33,661
    • Internet Archive: $10,000 sent in 2018 and deposited by organization in 2019 (will be reported on 2019 financials)
    • Black Girls Code: $20,000 sent in 2018 and deposited by organization in 2019 (will be reported on 2019 financials)
  • Web services (file transfer fees): $1,090
  • Dues & Subscriptions $779
  • Kim Parsell Scholarship expenses $204

WordPress Community Support, PBC

The total revenue of the Foundation’s subsidiary B-corp, WordPress Community Support, was $‎4,631,214:

  • Sponsorship Income: $3,796,677 (81.9% of total revenue)
  • Ticket Sales $831,022 (17.9% of total revenue)

Expenses for WordPress Community Support, PBC totaled $4,486,658, as detailed below:

  • WordCamp expenditures: $4,075,193 (90.8% of total expenses)
  • Meetup expenditures: $192,019 (4.1% of total expenses)
    • Total Meetup.com dues: $151,221
    • Total Meetup Venue rental: $40,158
    • Total Meetup accessibility expenses: $640
  • WordPress.tv content production: $189,072 (4.2% of total expenses)
  • Operations: $411,465 (9.2% of total expenses)

As usual, major WordCamp expenses were concentrated in food & beverage and venue.

CategoryExpense% of total expense
Food & beverage, including after-parties and speaker events$1,944,79343%
Venue Rental$738,59016%
Event tees and other swag*$392,3998%
Audio visual services$138,9123%
International sponsorship grants**$209,6675%
Event accessibility$115,7403%
Printing & signage$113,0432%
Event supplies$12,534> 1%
Advertising$2,356> 1%
Furnishing$6,877> 1%

* Classified as advertising and promotion on tax documents.

** WPCS helped some 2018 WordCamps that didn’t use WPCS as their financial entity by forwarding corporate sponsorship payments from companies unable to send them money directly.

WordPress Community Support also supported the publishing of 1,845 videos from WordCamps held in 2018 to WordPress.tv by providing video camera kits to WordCamps. These kits include an HD camcorder, tripod, external microphone, SD cards, lavalier microphone, and a hard case for shipping.

The total expenditure of this program was $189,072:

  • Video Processing or Videography: $181,589
  • Video Kit Shipping: $7,483

Major operational expenses for WPCS included:

  • Bank Charges & Merchant Fees: $73,830
  • Dues & Subscriptions $11,946
  • Insurance: $10,035
  • Legal & Professional Fees: $81,595
  • Taxes & Licenses: $104,903
  • Exchange rate adjustments: $44,977
  • Centralized swag (such as lanyards) purchasing: $31,811