Kevin Wilson, ICANN’s Chief Financial Officer, made a post on ICANN’s blog yesterday saying the organization would provide more thorough financial information from now on. This is something that has long been asked for by the domain community, considering that ICANN is a not-for-profit organization that should protect the interests of domain name owners. In the past, it was often unclear or difficult to find out what ICANN was spending its money on and where that money came from. To supply the wants of the domain community, ICANN has now made more additions to its website.
First of all, it has added a Dashboard not too long ago, where you can see summarizing graphics of financial data and expense reports. Displayed on the dashboard are unaudited financial information. The graphics do not provide lots of detailed information, but they’re a good first stop for a summary of the organization’s revenue and expenses.
More detailed information on ICANN’s finances can be found on its Financial Information page, including general financial information, current year financial information and historical information for each year from 1999 up to the current fiscal year. In the first section you will find, for example, ICANN’s disbursement policy, its investment policy and travel support guidelines. The second section provides documents about the organization’s current fiscal year, such as its strategic plan, operating plan and budget. The historical information are basically structured in the same way.
In his blog post, Mr. Wilson points out that the operating plan and budget are put out to public comment. Furthermore, it is possible to raise questions about both the plan and the budget during all ICANN meetings.
I think it is good to see ICANN making it easier for the domain community to learn about ICANN’s finances and to comment on ICANN’s budgets and plans. I’ve only had a chance to go through the information rather quickly, so I can not yet say whether the information are sufficient. If you think ICANN should be more open in its communication of finances and business strategies, I suggest that you post a comment on this issue on ICANN’s website, including the comment section below Mr. Wilson’s blog post.
You may recall that ICANN has been heavily criticized for having put several million dollars in risky investments which later depreciated by more than $4 million. ICANN still makes it difficult for outsiders to learn more about this specific investment decision, at least from my point of view, so this is something where I see room for improvement. If this loss is only on paper and hasn’t been realized yet, what are the chances that the invested sum will be recovered? What exactly are the stocks and bonds ICANN invested the money in? These are just two questions I would like to be answered. So far, I haven’t found any information on this on ICANN’s website. If they are there, it will be much appreciated if you can provide a link or tell me more about it.
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