Agreement: Collective Finances
Context
This agreement defines how Enspiral handles money as a collective, specifically the funds in the accounts of Enspiral Foundation Ltd (“the Foundation”). Our goals are to ensure legal compliance, financial solvency, and operational reliability, make financial flows across the network as transparent as possible, and direct significant resources to discretionary funds to be decided through democratic participatory processes.
Income
The Foundation’s funds come from the following sources.
Venture Contributions
Enspiral ventures make voluntary financial contributions, usually on a monthly basis. Half a Venture’s contribution goes toward fixed costs and reserves, and half is allocated to Discretionary Funds through Cobudget. Ventures can opt for their funds to be added to their Venture’s Cobudget account, to be split equally among nominated individuals, or the venture may specify exact allocation amounts, to fund projects of their choice.
Contributor Contributions
Individuals in the network make a financial contribution to the Foundation, representing their choice to remain an Enspiral Contributor. The baseline amount is $230 (ex GST) to Enspiral Foundation for management and overhead around contributors, including ops contract (optional $90 for a google apps account). This subscription can be paid weekly, monthly or annually. Contributions to cobudget are optional and at the contributor’s discretion.
Variable Contributions
The real time Variable Contribution process allows people to contribute to Enspiral Foundation and participate in Enspiral’s Collaborative Funding process.
This process also allows existing Enspiral contributors to give more funds to Enspiral Foundation above and beyond the subscription. See more description on the Variable Contributions page
Other Income
The Foundation is a charitable entity not intended to bear commercial risk. However, from time to time other activities (such as serving as a fundholder for grants and projects) can result in income directly to the Foundation. Approval for such transactions is at the discretion of the Board. The Board and the people involved in bringing in the income agree how to distribute any resulting income between Normal Reserves and Discretionary Funds (via nominated users in Cobudget). These decisions and transactions are reported on the Financial Transparency page of the Handbook (as described below).
Expenditure
Money flowing through or held by the Foundation falls under the following categories.
Fixed Costs
Regular monthly financial commitments for expenses such as essential professional services and tools used by the network. Anyone is welcome to propose changes to fixed costs (which are reported in the Enspiral Handbook, see below). Formal approval of such requests requires a standard decision from Enspiral Members.
The Board is required to regularly review fixed costs and the aim is to keep these expenses as lean as possible. The Board is permitted to adjust fixed costs by up to 10% within a 12-month period without seeking approval from the network.
Discretionary Funds
We use a collaborative funding process through Cobudget to manage our discretionary funds. People get money to spend in the collaborative funding process through making Contributor and Venture contributions, half of which is allocated to them in Cobudget to fund projects they would like to support (the other half goes to fund Fixed Costs and Reserves). As a collective, we all share the responsibility to decide where to spend our resources, what to focus on, and what financial risks to take in pursuit of achieving our mission.
Emergency Fund
These funds cannot be spent except by the approval of the Board, and should only be accessed in exceptional circumstances. The amount in the Emergency Fund is determined by the Board (guideline is 3 months of Fixed Costs). The Board can replenish or increase the Emergency Fund as a priority ahead of other budget categories. Any use of the emergency funds or adjustments of the amount of emergency funds must be announced to the network in a timely manner.
Normal Reserves
Any funds not explicitly in Discretionary Funds, the Emergency Fund, or committed to another specific project are considered Normal Reserves — the savings in the Foundation’s bank accounts. These are used to pay for replenishing the Emergency Fund, or for special initiatives and larger projects.
Anyone is welcome to propose to spend Normal Reserves for a specific purpose. Approval of such requests requires a standard decision from Enspiral Members. Normal Reserves offer an additional cushion for unexpected expenses, and enable different possibilities that come from a large number of people making collective decisions about larger amounts of money (as distinct from individuals making a series of decisions about smaller amounts of money, which is our approach for Discretionary Funds).
Contracted work with Enspiral Foundation
Money can only change hands between Enspiral Foundation Limited and a party/parties when there is a Formal Agreement that has an end date for review.
Formal Agreement means an agreement that is between Enspiral Foundation Limited and named secondary party/parties that is signed and dated by legal signatories from each of the parties.
Collaborative Funding
We make collective decisions about spending discretionary funds with a transparent and democratic processes called collaborative funding using software called Cobudget.
- All Enspiral contributors are invited to use Cobudget, and are welcome to raise bucket ideas.
Those holding money in Cobudget decide what buckets they want to contribute funds to at their discretion. - Payments from the Foundation for buckets are only made upon completion of work, reporting of the outcome, and receipt of an invoice from the payee.
- Funded buckets must be completed within in 90 days, or else they will be cancelled. Catalysts and bucket sponsors can agree to variation and reasonable extensions to this time limit.
- If cancelled after being funded, a bucket’s funds are sent to Normal Reserves.
- For a bucket to move forward for funding, it must be clear who specifically will be responsible for delivering the work.
- People carrying out work funded through Cobudget are expected to perform to the best of their abilities, and clearly communicate about their progress and the bucket outcomes.
- Bucket funders are expected to use their funds responsibly, stepping beyond self-interest to make decisions on the basis of what’s best for the network as a whole.
Reporting
The Board is responsible for keeping up to date a Financial Transparency section of the Enspiral Handbook, which covers:
- Overview of revenue (Contributions and Income)
- Emergency Fund (current level and any expenditures)
- Normal Reserves (current level and any expenditures)
- Breakdown of current Fixed Costs
- Overview of discretionary spending (Collaborative Funding)
Enspiral Foundation Ltd participates in quarterly venture reporting, which includes financial information.