While the recently departed GNOME Foundation executive director was described in a summer statement as having "drafted a bold five-year strategic plan for the foundation, entered into two major financial sponsorship agreements with GIMP and BlackPython Devs, authored the first grant proposal that will enable the foundation to apply for additional grants, significantly improved our financial operations, and implemented a break-even budget to preserve our financial reserves."It turns out that's not enough. The GNOME Foundation today announced some new cost-cutting measures for the project overseeing the open source GNOME desktop.
The GNOME Foundation Board of Directors announced tonight that they have had to "make some difficult decisions to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the Foundation."
Among those tough decisions were having to cut staff, laying off the creative director and director of community development.
The GNOME Foundation is also conducting business adjustments in the areas of event organization and representation, marketing campaigns, fundraising events, and graphic design.
GNOME's travel expenses will also be affected. As part of the GNOME Foundation update, the travel reduction announcement is as follows:
On the positive side, important events such as LAS, GNOME.Asia and GUADEC will not be affected. They also received funding to maintain current levels of outreach internship participation. Externally sponsored projects and infrastructure/operational costs remain the responsibility of the Foundation.
These cost-cutting measures were taken because "we raised less money than expected last year." The action is required for the fiscal year from October 1, 2024 to October 30, 2025, due to the foundation's reserve policy. More details about the GNOME Foundation’s current financial situation will be released in the coming weeks.
For more details, please check at foundation.gnome.org.