Finances
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Sources of funding
Since its inception, UKCOD and its related projects have been funded by grants and donations from various sources, including government departments, charitable foundations, and private individuals.
In 2006, UKCOD established a subsidiary trading entity, mySociety Ltd, to manage commercial activity. UKCOD is the sole shareholder of mySociety Ltd and retains any surplus generated by it. The objective of mySociety Ltd is to generate commercial income to help UKCOD's project become self-sustaining.
General Funding
- Late 2003, Donation from a Dot Com philanthropist who asked for anonymity (£10,000). This was used to develop the idea of mySociety and hold our first call for proposals.
- Early 2004, UnLTD (£10,000). Grant to Tom Steinberg personally from UnLTD, to help him continue to develop the idea, and survive whilst waiting for grant funding to arrive.
- October 2004, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) (£196,000). mySociety and West Sussex County Council were jointly awarded a grant of £250,000 from the local –Government e-Innovations fund, (round 1), of which mySociety received £196,000. This was used to build WriteToThem.com , PledgeBank.com and HearFromYourMP.com.
- November 2006, ODPM (£140,000). Joint grant to mySociety and Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council from the e-Innovations Product and Markertisation strand of the Local e-Government Programme. The purpose of the grant is to help mySociety generate income streams to allow the first round sites continue without on-going public funding (in progress).
Project Specific Funding
- Pears Foundation (£10,000). PledgeBank London edition.
- Department for Constitutional Affairs Innovation Fund (£6,000). To develop TheyWorkForYou API.
- Department for Constitutional Affairs Innovation Fund (£6,000). Joint grant totalling £10,000 to build Neighbourhood Fix-it (now called FixMyStreet) in conjunction with the Young Foundation.
- Autumn/ Winter 2006, Omidyar Network ($100,000). One off-award to hire an outreach officer to promote PledgeBank in the USA.
- Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (£24,500). Grant to build a Freedom of Information Filer and Archiver (called WhatDoTheyKnow).
- Department for Transport (£4,500). Funding for first part of Isochronic Travel time maps work.
- Department for Transport (£21,385). Second part of Isochronic Travel time maps.
Other Income
As mentioned above, income generated by mySociety Ltd is payable to UKCOD, and will be used to continue its core projects and objectives. To date, a number of commercial versions of its site have been created.
- Autumn 2006, Petitions Website for 10 Downing Street. This is the most high profile of mySociety Ltd's projects to date, being a commercial contract for building and maintaining an e-petitions website. mySociety was paid £20,500 to develop the petitions site.
- Bespoke versions of mySociety sites. mySociety is also able to develop bespoke versions of its sites, including HearFromYourMP.com and Pledgebank.com. For example, commercial versions of Pledgebank have been developed for a large multinational telecoms firm, and for the Global Cool campaign group. If you would like to find out more about adapted versions of our sites, please contact us or see the mySociety Ltd homepage.
- Personal donations. Personal donations to support the activities of UKCOD and its project, whether one-off donations or regular payments, can be made via our PayPal donation button.
Summary
Since UKCOD was re-born as the primary host for mySociety in 2003, it has received approximately £500,000 in income and incurred around £400,000 in expenditure. mySociety is a virtual organisation, and so non-wage costs represent only around 5–10% of the entire total spend.