Fiscal Year 2007-2008

Adopted Budget:

Fiscal Year 2007—2008

17 May 2007
Updated 29 June 2007


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

This proposed fiscal year 2007-08 (FY 08) budget contains a description of the ICANN budgeting process for this upcoming year, the annual operating plan describing the outcomes that the organisation has set out to achieve, and an explanation of the revenue model and spending plan for the year. After public comment and follow-up discussions with constituency groups and the ICANN Board of Directors' Finance Committee, the budget was adopted by the ICANN Board in San Juan on 29 June 2007.

Planning Process

In accordance with ICANN’s planning cycle, ICANN developed its Strategic Plan during the first half of the 2006-2007 fiscal year (July – December). After community consultation, the current Strategic Plan (see: http://www.icann.org/strategic-plan/consultation-process-2006-07) was adopted in Sao Paõlo in December 2006. During the second half of the fiscal year, ICANN points its planning activities toward the annual Operating Plan and Budgeting, i.e., the one-year plan that works to accomplish the objectives set out in the three-year Strategic Plan.

The FY 2008 Operating Plan has been posted for community review since 22 March 2007 and approved by the Board Finance Committee in its scope. The following consultations have been conducted:

Operating Plan

A main element of the Operating Plan for 2006-2007 was a focus on projects. A key benefit of that approach was to better identify tasks, resources and deliverables of plan elements, as well as providing a proven management methodology for implementing them. In developing an Operating Plan this fiscal year, it was found that the sum of ICANN work could be better described by:

The 2007-2008 Operating Plan continues the project management approach, while explicitly identifying ongoing business activities of interest to the community. This plan identifies:

Activities: Specific deliverables or service elements provided by a functional area. (Example: IANA processing root zone change requests).

Standard/Metric: What the measure of success should be for that activity. (Example: Days to completion of a change request.) Due to the nature of the work, this standard or metric is often a qualitative statement of what ICANN intends to measure. ICANN will continue to identify quantitative measures for many of these activities over time.

Existing Work: Identifying specific initiatives under way that improve or add to an activity. (Example: significant formalization of the contractual compliance processes.)

New Work: Identifying initiatives in the new fiscal year that will improve or add to an activity. (Example: IANA work to coordinate delegation request reporting.)

Projects: Work and tasks that rise to the level of a project to address a particular activity area. (Example: Implementation of the anticipated consensus policy for designation of new top-level domains.)

The complete plan is presented twice, Organised from two different perspectives:

  1. The first plan presentation is Organised by ICANN functional area. This presentation aids understanding of how various activities are interrelated. Further, the interests of a particular constituency might fall within the domain of a specific ICANN function.
  2. The second plan presentation is Organised by strategic objective, mapped directly from ICANN’s strategic plan. This presentation shows how ICANN activities support ICANN’s strategic imperatives.

This plan was updated and revised based on community feedback received during and after the ICANN meeting in Lisbon. The plan was then costed to develop the annual expense budget that was submitted for approval at the ICANN meeting in San Juan. Obviously, there will be some iteration between the Operating Plan set of activities and projects and the ICANN Budget – projects and activities will be amended/dropped/tailored to ensure that the work provides an adequate return on investment and is adequately funded.

This Operating Plan intends to clearly: describe the totality of ICANN work in terms of business as usual and new projects, start to identify specific metrics, and enable better resource planning and budgeting. In preparing the 2008-2009 Operating Plan, it will be useful to review this approach in order to provide for continual improvement of the planning process.

Operating Plan Highlights

The Operating Plan includes a description of all of the ICANN work and is posted at http://www.icann.org/planning/. Comments to the plan or this budget can be posted to op-plan-0708@icann.org and viewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/op-plan-0708/.

The ICANN Operating Plan describes the measurable work objectives set out for the fiscal year. Several of these goals (or groupings) are of prime importance to ICANN’s mission and many constituency groups.

In past consultations, participating constituency groups have requested that ICANN prioritize its objectives or identify those of high importance. Therefore, based upon public feedback received during the past fiscal year and the request for prioritization, it is meaningful to describe some of the important aspects of the plan here.

Many familiar and high priority programs move into a key execution phase in FY 08, as seen in the descriptions below.

Contractual Compliance

The budget provides resources for ICANN to significantly augment contractual compliance actions, including the system for auditing registry and registrar performance for compliance by all parties to such agreements. ICANN published its compliance program at http://www.icann.org/compliance/.

The compliance program builds upon existing, constructive relationships with the registrar and registry communities. The elements of the program consist of:

An effective compliance program protects peer and client members of the Internet community by ensuring consistency of conduct across the registrar and registry communities.

Accountability and Transparency

Accountability and transparency is as area where ICANN aspires to be a global leader. A set of Management Operating Principles for accountability and transparency is under development. A report by One World Trust indicates that ICANN is transparent and accountable but can improve. The discussions of the Board are more transparent due to more timely and comprehensive minutes of Board meetings.

In the year ahead ICANN plans to complete the development of our operating principles after consultation with the community.

ICANN continues to develop and implement a communications plan that clearly explains our mission and communicates the activities and achievements as they relate to the company goals.

Translation

Translation of important documents and meeting proceedings are an important aspect of ICANN communications and transparency initiatives. Translation efforts support many or most of the project and operating plan initiatives described in the strategic and operating plans.

The FY 08 budget calls for translation expenses of $469,000. While this spending is significant, actual ICANN translation initiatives will exceed this dollar value. Translation is also accomplished economically (and with technical expertise) by engaging members of the ICANN community, Board and staff to assist with specific tasks. In that way, ICANN plans to meet community expectations regarding this important facet of ICANN operations and communications.

Automate IANA Execution

IANA is in the process of automating many of its administrative functions, including submission and processing of requests for root zone changes, protocol and parameter requests, and reporting of performance metrics. This is an ongoing process with several key milestones already completed.

Automation of IANA processes increases IANA's productivity and enables IANA to better fulfil service level commitments for its stakeholders. Benefits include more efficient processing, standardized and routine request management, and, through analysis of performance, identification of areas where processes can be streamlined and improved. Additionally, by automating much of the administrative elements of IANA's processes, staff resources can be devoted to more complex projects and processes.

IANA will re-evaluate staffing needs and adjust staff resources accordingly as key administrative and processing activities are partially or fully automated.

New gTLD Process

The development of a process and policy for the introduction of new gTLDs (generic top-level domains which are central to fostering choice and competition in the provision of domain registration services, and as such, are critical to the promotion of ICANN's core values) is moving to a new phase of execution. The questions to be addressed in the implementation of a new gTLD strategy are complex and draw on technical, economic, operational, legal, public policy and other elements. Many stakeholders in the global Internet community will be interested in participating in the implementation of the strategy, and ICANN is committed to facilitating their participation and involvement.

The process for the introduction of new gTLDs must be robust in form, timely and predictable to administer, and scalable to accommodate the numbers and variety of potential applications. The global nature and complexity of the project have direct bearing on the program’s start-up and recurring costs. ICANN anticipates a significant investment in the project, in year one, to create the gTLD program office.

The new gTLD process costs are intended to be fully self-funded and off-set by the application fees. It is anticipated that first-round costs will be significant due to one-time start-up expenses and that subsequent rounds will be less expensive to administer. Start-up costs include, but are not limited to: recruitment of new employees to staff the gTLD program office, professional services fees associated with production of the applicant request for proposal (RFP), development of the objections filed/dispute resolution model, retention of resources to conduct technical and business/financial reviews, and recruitment costs associated with the creation of an independent panel or series of panels to provide adjudication services around dispute resolution and string contention.

A significant component to start-up costs is the creation and implementation of a communications strategy, across many different languages, to announce and promote the first round to the global Internet community. ICANN will incur media costs when it publishes applications following conclusion of the application window. If ICANN is to foster a geographically diverse representation of service providers on the Internet, it first must communicate and educate them about the gTLD process.

The aforementioned information refers to the implementation component of the new gTLD project. Regarding policy development, a draft final report will be posted later this month that will further facilitate discussion of the gTLD policy development process, including discussions with other ICANN SOs and ACs. The report, along with an implementation report prepared by staff, will be available for public comment and discussion at ICANN's San Juan meeting in June. The final steps in this policy development process include consideration and approval of the final report by the GNSO Council, and subsequent consideration and approval of a Board Report by ICANN's Board.

Deployment of Internationalised Domain Names

Internationalised domain names (IDNs) are domain names represented by local language characters. Such domain names could contain characters with non critical marks as required by many European languages, or characters from non-Latin scripts (for example, Arabic or Chinese). While IDNs are available at the second level under established top-level domains (such as .info, .net, .se and .de) ICANN's IDN Program contains a set of projects that focuses on enabling the introduction of IDNs at the top level. This will make the entire domain name string available in local characters.

It is important that the Internet evolve to be more accessible to those who do not use the ASCII character set. However, these Internationalisation efforts must be accomplished through standards that are open, non-proprietary, and fully compatible with the internet's existing end-to-end model, as well as preserve globally unique naming in a universally resolvable public name space.

In order to accomplish this goal, the IDN Program plan is comprised of several projects that are moving into a new phase of execution.

Technical tests - after successful completion of a laboratory test that was developed to determine the viability of Internationalised top-level names in the DNS showed that no negative effect was measurable on the replication of the DNS in the laboratory environment, ICANN will move ahead with their plan to work with other entities to insert the A-labels version of Internationalised TLDs into the root zone. The laboratory test will be replicated in the live facility. Furthermore, end users will be asked to evaluate the response of commonly used software applications to domain names with the entire domain name string in local characters.

Policy - coordinate and support policy development with all interested constituency groups and advisory committees, including the ccNSO, GAC, and GNSO. Coordination among these groups have been determined necessary to make sure that IDN TLD policy development is accomplished in a coherent fashion.

Guidelines - revision of the IDN Guidelines that have been used by TLD registries for introduction of IDNs at the second level under the respective TLDs, to include guidance for top level usage. The guidelines will continue to evolve, and eventually will result in Best Current Practice guidance for all TLD registries.

SSAC - initiated a study of security and stability concerns regarding the deployment of Internationalised TLDs. In supporting this effort ICANN is providing staff support for the urgent need to have this study finalized and its results available for any necessary work needed before Internationalised TLDs are ready for deployment.

IDNA Protocol – the protocol that was initially developed in 2003 is currently under revision. In supporting the initiatives and proposals made forward within the IETF ICANN will provide staff support to assist in the continued work necessary to finalize the revision of the protocol.

IDNs are only one piece of the Internationalisation of the domain name system. Other areas that ICANN supports but are not within ICANN's mandate or mission include: local content, development of Internationalised applications, support, outreach, coordination, and establishment of global partnerships particularly in areas where ICANN does not hold the expertise nor has the mandate to require compliance with the IDN implementation structures.

To accomplish these goals, it will be necessary to add two full time staff members as well as some expert consultancy.

Organisation Reviews

As part of ICANN’s ongoing commitment to its evolution and improvement, the Board approved a comprehensive schedule for independent review of ICANN’s structures, as well as of the Board.

The schedule that was agreed to at the Sao Paõlo ICANN meeting is as follows:

The reviews are intended to ensure an independent examination of the role and operation of key elements of ICANN. As with the first two independent reviews, which were completed for the GNSO Council and the GNSO, these reviews will be conducted in an objective manner by independent evaluators, under guidance from the Board on each review’s terms of reference, and with the opportunity for public comment on the results of the reviews.

As specified in Article IV, Section 4 of ICANN’s Bylaws, the “goal of the review, to be undertaken pursuant to such criteria and standards as the Board shall direct, shall be to determine (i) whether that Organisation has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure, and (ii) if so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness.” The results of these reviews shall be posted for public review and comment, and shall be considered by the Board not later than its second scheduled meeting after being posted for 30 days. Consideration by the Board includes the ability to revise the structure or operation of the Nominating Committee by a two-thirds vote of all members.

ccTLD Accountability Framework Execution

Since February 2007, ICANN has been formalizing its relationship with ccTLD managers through either an accountability framework document or an exchange of letters, thereby replacing the sponsorship agreements. In the first 12 months of the program, ICANN formalized its relationship with 20 ccTLD managers. Those ccTLDs with whom ICANN has a relationship represent well over 50% of the world’s ccTLD registrants. As part of the continuation of this exercise, ICANN will:

Rationale and key changes from the initially posted Budget

ICANN has evolved its business planning process over time to allow for significant community consultation in the creation of its Operating Plan and annual budget. ICANN continues to look for ways to improve the planning process, and is in discussion regarding several improvements for future planning cycles.

Consultation Input/Comment

Summary feedback from consultations includes:

  1. Ensure that ICANN can make information available in multiple languages. Fund a stated translation policy.
  2. Response: ICANN will not have a fully detailed translation policy and framework available at the close of the FY 08 budget process. Instead, an initial framework will be in place, with specific actions planned to bring in appropriate expertise to help develop a comprehensive framework. In the meantime, ICANN has already started to translate more documents (including the budget document itself in six languages). ICANN will allocate an additional $200K as compared with the originally posted budget, to increase budgeted funds for translation from approximately $270K to approximately $470K.

  3. Review the revenue forecast to ensure it is appropriate, and consistent with market trends.
  4. Response: ICANN has reforecast FY 07 revenue, and considered best available information for FY 08. Based on these projections, and an adjustment to miscellaneous categories affecting income (investment income, bad debt reserves), ICANN has increased the revenue forecast for FY 08 to approximately $49.4MM from the originally forecast $46.6MM.

  5. Consider per transaction fee reductions in the context of significant actual reserve fund contributions in FY 2007, and planned for FY 2008.
  6. Response: ICANN’s current projections are that in FY 07, ICANN will add about $11MM to the reserve fund, and end the year with about $22MM in liquid funds. Projections for FY 08 are that reserve fund contributions would be in the $5MM-$7MM range. ICANN strives to apply the following general principles:

In consultation with the Board Finance Committee and through constituency consultations, Registrar transaction fees will be discounted from the adjusted level of $.22 in FY 07, with a further discount to a level of $.20.

  • Ensure that there is appropriate administrative support for constituencies. Consider funding travel to outreach meetings or some ICANN meetings.
  • Response: ICANN’s constituencies are comprised of volunteers. To make their work more efficient, it is important to ensure that there is appropriate administrative support. During the course of the year, ICANN staff will work with various constituencies to monitor needed support, and provide funds for additional support (from the budget contingency if necessary). Additionally, questions were raised about the possibility of expanding travel support for constituency members in some cases. Need for support beyond that proposed in the current budget will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and funded from the contingency if necessary. This should be an area for specific review during FY 08 when planning for FY 09.

  • Consider the appropriate level of the reserve fund. Is one year still the right objective for ICANN?
  • Response: This question will be answered through thorough analysis undertaken during FY 08, and presented to the Board for consideration. When this question was raised, staff took an initial look at some public information to determine whether the current one year reserve policy met a basic reasonableness test, and it does. The ICANN Board has taken a public position on this: "...as part of the approval of the 1999-2000 budget, the Board stated: "It is the intention of the ICANN Board to create a reserve account of at least one year's operating expenditures, to be funded over several fiscal years."

    Quoting Goodman and Company’s May 2005 non-profit newsletter, Non-profit Agendas: "There are no hard and fast rules as to what amount should be set; but some experts say that an Organisation should have at least three to six months’ worth of operating expenses in its “rainy day” fund. In reality, every Organisation requires a different amount — a large not-for-profit may be able to keep one to two years’ worth of operating expenses in the reserve; smaller Organisations may be able to set aside only six months’ worth."

    Other documents pointed to appropriate level of reserve funds from between a few months to two years. ISOC’s goal is a one year reserve: "For a non-profit Organisation the size of ISOC to operate to sound accounting principles, we should have a minimum of 6 months of operating expenses in unencumbered cash reserves as part of our net asset balance (and management’s goal is to have 12 months)."

    See Financial Report at http://www.isoc.org/isoc/reports/ar2005/

    While these data points indicate that ICANN’s reserve policy isn’t unreasonable, further research and analysis will be performed in FY 08 to determine if it is most appropriate.

  • With the change in scale of ICANN meetings, and with reduced reliance on local hosts, has ICANN considered changes to the meeting structure? What is the cost/benefit for the current structure? Would it make sense to change the meeting rotation or frequency? Charge for admission?
  • Response: ICANN is continually reviewing the approach and efficacy of the meetings structure, and both Board and staff have placed additional emphasis on meeting effectiveness. During FY 08, the meetings team will specifically consider some of the questions and recommendations posed during the budget process.

  • Present data to various constituencies and the community as a whole in ways that make the data more informative, open and transparent.
  • Response: During the FY 08 Operating Plan and budget process, significant efforts were made to produce improved data summaries and extensive detailed data. Some constituencies would like to see data that is viewed as directly related to their ongoing work. Consultations were held in San Juan to discuss and clarify this further.

    At an ICANN-wide level, there is always a desire to tie specific operating plan projects or initiatives with a total cost. As approved by the Finance Committee, in the next planning cycle, ICANN will combine Operating Planning and budget formulation. This combination is intended to provide better visibility into cost and a longer period of time for budget review by the community.

    While full time-based accounting is out of scope for what ICANN would consider for the immediate future, it should be possible to provide total cost estimates for some of the most significant ICANN programs. Also, ICANN staff intends to benchmark some aspects of financial performance to outside entities, to provide better insight to the community.

    Budgeting for the Operating Plan

    The ICANN budget is directly tied to the totality of the amended Operating Plan, and it is anticipated that all of the listed activities, new work and projects can be accomplished with this proposed budget.

    Since the Operating Plan captures the objectives set out in ICANN’s Strategic Plan described above, all spending can be categorized within the major headings of the Strategic Plan. In the following chart, “Other Expenses” represents Board and staff administration, Information Technology, Legal, Facilities and other.

    Alternatively, all spending is allocable by the objectives set out in ICANN’s mission statement:

    As described in the published Operating Plan, the budget was created giving specific consideration to each of the areas of key focus included in the plan. Resources in the form of staff and funding for outside service, travel, meeting, administrative costs (including equipment, logistics and other purchases), and capital equipment were identified and earmarked.

    Expense growth of $6.9MM in the budget has been driven by the highest priority initiatives which are listed below. While none of these initiatives are new to ICANN, in FY 08, they are scheduled to begin a new phase of execution.

    Initiative

    Spending*

    gTLD Start-up

    $1,647K

    Outreach - Fellowship & ALAC

    $1,068K

    IDN

    $988K

    IANA Automation

    $735K

    Compliance

    $831K

    Legal - major initiative support

    $708K

    Registrar Data Escrow

    $536K

    Economist/Market Analysis

    $400K

    Total

    $6,913K

    * Includes capital, as appropriate

     

    Taking into account that these numbers include no overhead allocation, this $6.9MM increase essentially explains the increase in budget for this coming year. Additionally, further resources have been directed towards areas that have direct benefit to ICANN constituencies by improving efficiencies and decreasing costs in internal functions. In particular, there are absolute spending decreases in several support functions:

    Budgeting for Ongoing Operations and Increasing Activity Levels

    In addition to this focus on key implementation efforts , ICANN must also sustain ongoing operations. Those ongoing efforts sustain regular operations such as providing IANA services, and the registrar and registry liaison functions. Ongoing operations also provide administrative support for project work and infrastructure. These efforts include rent, utilities, technical support, and connectivity.

    These efforts, and the resources required to sustain them, continue to grow. For example, the numbers of gTLD registrars and registries continue to increase, as do the ICANN activities providing services to them. The present policy development process to introduce new TLDs will ensure that ICANN requirements to support this DNS segment will continue to grow.

    In addition, ICANN supports an increasing number of policy development efforts of significant complexity. Examples of policy work that is currently supported and continues to grow are: the New gTLD PDP, the Registry Contractual Conditions PDP, IDN GNSO working group, the joint ccNSO-GAC IDN policy development work, the working group on reserved names, the working group on protection of intellectual property rights, the Whois PDP, the implementation of the Whois policy on conflict of National Laws, and anticipated conclusion of policy development advice concerning the WIPO recommendations. The policy development support group is also supporting the ICANN Organisational review processes described above.

    The regional liaison group continues increased outreach activities in an economical manner where several regional representatives are working globally without the expense of establishing regional offices.

    ICANN will continue to monitor and publish metrics that affect its workload. This is particularly important as ICANN grows in resource expenditures to ensure that expenditures are made in an effective, economical manner.

    Capital Budget

    In FY 08, ICANN is adopting a formal capital budget (as approved by the Board Finance Committee). This is a standard accounting practice, and allows the financial statements to better reflect actual business expenses over time, particularly when there are periodic large capital expenses.

    As indicated in the table below, most of these capital items are related to improving ICANN's infrastructure. Among these are significant investments in a storage area network and backup software, to improve efficiency and as an important step towards disaster planning. Additionally, there is funding to replace an out-grown phone system. Further L-Root expansion and an amount for furniture and fixtures related to ICANN's likely facility move.

    Significant additional capital items were deferred until FY 09. Among these are replacement of end-of-life financial system and a document management system.

    Major Capital Items

    DNSSEC hardware (IANA)

    $54K

    Data Centre Relocation

    $160K

    Storage Area Network (SAN)/Backup

    $303K

    Avaya Phone System (timed with move)

    $120K

    Web-based project management software

    $17K

    Inquiry processing system

    $80K

    Due Diligence Software

    $25K

    L Root

    $650K

    Furniture/Fixtures (new office)

    $182K

       

    Total

    $1,591K

    Proposed Revenues

    ICANN's fee structure will remain consistent with that of the last fiscal year. Increases in total revenues will derive primarily from growth in the domain name space and fees accruing from the negotiation of the .NET agreement.

    gTLD Registrar Fees

    Registrar-Level Transaction Fees

    In previous fiscal years, the fee per transaction has been $0.25. Initially, ICANN proposed the same fee for fiscal year 2007-08 with the recognition that the registrars and ICANN agreed to a $0.03 discount in fiscal year 2006-07. After reviewing revenue projections, and considering several comments, this budget proposes a $.05 discount for FY 08, or a fee of $.20 per transaction. These projections are based upon recent transaction levels and growth rates . In three of the past four five quarters, transaction volumes fell or remained essentially flat. Each "transaction" will be defined as one-year domain registration increment caused by a successful add renewal or transfer command. Consistent with previous years, domains deleted within the “add or auto-renew” grace periods will not be charged a transaction fee (however, see the restrictions on per-registrar fee forgiveness described below).

    The per-transaction fee will continue to be charged for each one-year increment of every transaction (e.g. at a $.25 fee level, the fee for a three-year renewal will be US$0.75), and registrars will continue to have the option to "defer" payment of the fees for the years beyond one for each transaction.

    Per-Registrar Fees

    Per-registrar fees will also continue at current levels in the aggregate. Each ICANN-accredited registrar will continue to pay a fixed fee of US$4,000, plus a per-registrar variable fee totalling US$3.8 million divided among all registrars. The per-registrar fee is based upon the validated concept that ICANN expends the same quantum of effort in providing services to a registrar regardless of the size of that registrar.

    Depending on registrar size and activity, some registrars will continue to be eligible for "forgiveness" of two-thirds of the standard per-registrar variable fee. The criteria for eligibility for partial forgiveness will be as follows: the registrar must have fewer than 350,000 gTLD names under its management, the registrar must not have more than 200 attempted adds per successful net add in any registry, and it must not have more than five percent (5%) of added names deleted during the add-grace period from any registry that offers an add-grace period.

    Thus far, in fiscal year 2006-07, 136 registrars (representing 15% of all registrars) were granted forgiveness out of 433 registrars that applied for forgiveness. The applications of the remaining 297 were rejected.

    gTLD Registry Fees

    Fees from gTLD registries are described in detail in the accompanying budget schedule and notes. These fees continue to grow in proportion to the total of ICANN funding even as ICANN continues to explore additional sources of funding.

    In fulfilment of its obligation to develop alternate sources of revenue, ICANN has proposed the implementation of registry-level transaction fees. Transaction fees will serve to increase ICANN revenues and enable revenues to grow in proportion to growth in the DNS.

    ICANN has signed agreements with .NET, .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, .ORG, .PRO, .ASIA, .CAT. .JOBS, .MOBI, .TEL, .TRAVEL, and .TEL registries. These agreements call for per-transaction fees. Importantly, ICANN’s agreement for the operation of the .COM registry contributes significantly to the ICANN budget through a fixed fee arrangement.

    ccTLD Contributions

    Many ccTLDs have expressed support of the ICANN model and the understanding of the value that model provides. There have also been expressions that a consistent structure by which the ccTLD provide fees to ICANN must be developed. Mechanisms for funding are determined by the ccTLDs, through the ccNSO. The ccNSO recently published guidelines recommending that where a ccTLD manager wishes to contribute to the funding of ICANN it should do so using a self banded model presented in the report http://ccnso.icann.org/announcements/announcement-09mar07.htm.

    ICANN has completed agreements in the form of accountability frameworks with 29 ccTLDs. In addition, ICANN has agreements with 13 other ccTLDs. Most of these agreements specify contributions to be paid to ICANN. In consideration of the contributions model and agreements executed, ICANN has increased the expectation of contributions receipts for this period by 20% over the current fiscal year. It is expected that the contributions structure will be fully implemented in the upcoming months and, as a result, contributions receipts from ccTLDs will grow in the upcoming fiscal years.

    Regional Internet Registries

    With the execution of the MoU between the NRO and ICANN, it was expected that the RIRs would release fees that have been held in escrow. The RIRs renewed that commitment at the ICANN meeting in Lisbon and acted on it in May,

    In fiscal year 2004-05, based upon discussions with an RIR representative, ICANN budgeted RIR contributions equal to 10% of the previous year’s budget. The predicted contributions of $823K represented a 54% increase over the previous year's budget. In fiscal years 2005-06, 2006-07 and now in 2007-08, ICANN has asked for the same amount.

    Finally, it is important to note the RIRs provide funding to ASO meetings, staff support for the ASO, and travel and attendance at the ICANN meetings.

    Alternate Sources of Revenue

    Sound business planning dictates that ICANN continue to develop alternate sources of funding in order to provide a more robust revenue base. Specifically, these sources should include the ccTLDs, the RIRs, new gTLDs, and other interested parties.

    ICANN expects some impact from these sources during the upcoming fiscal years. As revenues increase from new sources, fees accruing from existing substantial contributors, such as the registrars will be reduced.

    Investment Income

    ICANN expects to receive investment income from the investment of the operating reserve fund it recently established.

    Sources and Uses of Revenue

    As described above, sources of ICANN revenue continue to evolve and increased diversification is sought. This budget’s revenue sources are described by:

    Uses of those revenues include:

    Additional details regarding uses of revenue, with respect to expenses, are described by:

    FY 2007-2008 Revenue Projection

     

    Jul-Sep '07

    Oct-Dec '07

    Jan-Mar '08

    Apr-Jun '08

    Total FY08

    Notes

     

         

     

     

     

    gTLD Registrar Revenues

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Transaction Based Registrar Fee ($.25)

    $ 5,440,964

    $5,821,831

    $ 6,404,014

    $6,115,834

    $2,378,2643

    (1)

    Transaction Fee Discount ($.05)

    ($1,088,193)

    ($1,164,366)

    ($ 1,280,802)

    ($1,223,167)

    ($4,756,528)

    (1)

    Transaction Based Registrar Fee (net)

    $4,352,771

    $4,657,465

    $5,123,212

    $4,892,667

    $19,026,115

    (1)

    Variable Registrar Support Fee

    $950,000

    $950,000

    $950,000

    $950,000

    $3,800,000

    (2)

    Registrar Application Fees

    $18,750

    $18,750

    $18,750

    $18,750

    $75,000

    (3)

    Annual Registrar Accreditation Fees

    $1,022,682

    $310,726

    $678,771

    $687,821

    $2,700,000

    (4)

    Deferred Transaction Fees 2004-05

    $0

    $22,500

    $51,800

    $42,000

    $116,300

    (5)

    Deferred Transaction Fees 2005-06

    $83,000

    $95,000

    $117,000

    $82,000

    $377,000

    (6)

    Deferred Transaction Fees 2006-07

    $150,000

    $160,000

    $175,600

    $150,000

    $635,600

    (7)

    Subtotal: Registrar Revenues

    $6,577,203

    $6,214,441

    $7,115,133

    $6,823,238

    $26,730,015

     

    Registry Revenues

     

     

     

     

     

     

    gTLD Registries

    $4,633,014

    $4,839617

    $5,156,923

    $5,022,585

    $19,652,139

    (8)

    IP Address Registries

    $205,750

    $205,750

    $205,750

    $205,750

    $823,000

    (9)

    Subtotal: Registry Revenues

    $4,838,764

    $5,045,367

    $5,362,673

    $5,228,335

    $20,475,139

     

    ccTLD Registry Revenues

     

     

     

     

     

     

    ccTLD Registry Fees

    $55,000

    $57,000

    $350,000

    $116,000

    $578,000

     

    ccTLD Voluntary Contributions

    $0

    $0

    $611,000

    $611,000

    $1,222,000

     

    Subtotal: ccTLD Fees & Contributions

    $55,000

    $57,000

    $961,000

    $727,000

    $1,800,000

    (10)

    Investment Income

    $316,250

    $330,000

    $343,750

    $357,500

    $1,347,500

     

    Less Bad Debt or Bad Debt Allowance

    ($229,419)

    ($226,336)

    ($268,776)

    ($255,571)

    ($980,102)

    (11)

    Total Revenues

    $11,557,798

    $11,420,472

    $13,513,780

    $12,880,502

    $49,372,552

     

     

    Notes:

             

     

     

    (1)

    $0.25 less assumed $.05 discount per transaction; gross fee remains consistent with 2006-07

     

    and assumes conservative growth in number of registrations

     

    (2)

    Pending gTLD registrar approval: assumes same fee as previous year

     

     

    (3)

    Based upon 30 accreditation applications

     

     

     

    (4)

    Based upon reduction to approximately 695 registrars

     

     

     

    (5)

    Deferred transaction revenue for 2004-05

       

     

     

    (6)

    Deferred transaction revenue for 2005-06

       

     

     

    (7)

    Deferred transaction revenue for 2006-07

       

     

     

    (8)

    Projected fees from each gTLD registry

       

     

     
     

    gTLD Registry

    Amount

    Comment

       

     

     

     

    .com

    $8,000,000

    per agreement with VeriSign

     

     

    .net

    8,964,909

    transaction based fees per agreement

     
     

    .org

    1,003,730

    transaction based fees; pending conclusion of on-going negotiations

       

     

     

           
     

    .biz

    302,510

    transaction based fees per agreement

       

     

             
     

    .info

    550,398

    transaction based fees per agreement;

       

     

             
     

    .museum

    500

    per existing agreement (new agreement will not materially affect revenue)

     
       

     

     

         
     

    .coop

    5,000

    per existing agreement (new agreement will not materially affect revenue)

     
       

     

     

         
     

    .aero

    5,000

    per existing agreement (new agreement will not materially affect revenue)

     
       

     

     

         
     

    .name

    55,000

    per existing agreement (new agreement will not materially affect revenue)

     
       

     

     

         
     

    .pro

    121,900

    per existing agreement

     
       

     

           
     

    .travel

    79,816

    sTLD agreement approved; fixed and transaction based fees

     
     

    .jobs

    38,544

    sTLD agreement approved; fixed and transaction based fees

     
     

    .mobi

    450,000

    sTLD agreement approved; transaction based fees

     
     

    .cat

    24,832

    sTLD agreement approved; fixed and transaction based fees

     
     

    .tel

    50,000

    sTLD agreement approved; transaction based fees

     
     

    Total gTLDs

    $19,652,139

             

    (9)

    RIR fees same as budgeted last year

       

     

     

    (10)

    Projects (approximately) 20% growth in fees received from ccTLDs pending

     
     

    completion of ccNSO developed fee plan

       

     

     

    (11)

    Allowance for non-collection of payments in certain areas

     

     

    That portion of Uses of Revenue that are Expenses can be described by:

    Additional detail regarding expense spending is provided by:

    Proposed Budget Schedules and Notes

     

    2006-2007 Approved Budget*

    Year-End Total Projection

    Difference Projection to Budget

    Proposed 2007-2008 Budget

    Difference Budget to Budget

    Difference Budget to Projection

    See Notes in Text

    EXPENDITURES

               

     

    Staff Full-Time at Year-End

    89

    86

    (3)

    107

    18

    21

    (1)

    Base Expenditures

               

     

    Personnel

    $13,264

    $13,264

    0

    $17,797

    $4,533

    $4,533

    (2)

    Professional and Technical Services

    7,404

    6,733

    (671)

    9,303

    1,699

    2,570

    (3)

    Board Meetings & Other Travel

    6,200

    5,639

     

    (561)

    7,637

    1,437

    1,998

    (4)

    Administrative & Systems

    3,256

    2,961

    (295)

    6,233

    2,977

    3,272

    (5)

    Capital Expenditures

    510

    510

    0

    1,591

    1,081

    1,081

    (6)

    Subtotal: Base Expenditures

    $30,634

    $29,107

    ($1,527)

    $42,561

    $11,927

    $13,454

     

    Other Expenditures

               

     

    NomCom

    192

    192

    0

    219

    27

    27

    (7)

    Ombudsman

    339

    339

    0

    449

    110

    110

    (8)

    Subtotal: Other Expenditures

    $531

    $531

    0

    $668

    $137

    $137

     

    Total Expenditures

    $31,165

    $29,638

    ($1,527)

    $43,229

    $12,064

    $13,591

     

                 

     

    Base Revenues

               

     

    gTLD Registrar Revenues

               

     

    Transaction Based Registrar Fee (net)

    $14,617

    $17,980

    $3,363

    $19,026

    $ 4,409

    $1,046

    (9)

    Variable Registrar Support Fee

    3,800

    3,800

    0

    3,800

    0

    (0)

    (10)

    Registrar Application Fees

    90

    285

    195

    75

    (15)

    (210)

    (11)

    Annual Registrar Accreditation Fees

    640

    3,156

    2,516

    2,700

    2,060

    (456)

    (12)

    Deferred Revenue

     

     

     

    1,129

    1,129

    1,129

     

    Subtotal: Registrar Revenues

    $19,147

    $25,221

    $6,074

    $26,730

    $7,583

    $1,509

     

    Registry Revenues

               

     

    gTLD Registries

    14,032

    15,308

    1,276

    19,652

    5,620

    4,344

    (13)

    IP Address Registries

    823

    823

    0

    823

    0

    0

    (14)

    Subtotal: Registry Revenues

    $14,855

    $16,131

    $1,276

    $20,475

    $5,620

    $4,344

     

    ccTLD Registry Revenues

               

     

    ccTLD Registry Fees

    300

    619

    319

    578

    278

    (41)

     

    ccTLD Voluntary Contributions

    1,200

    881

    (319)

    1,222

    22

    341

     

    Subtotal: ccTLD Contributions

    $1,500

    $1,500

    0

    $1,800

    $300

    $300

    (15)

    Miscellaneous/Investment Income

    40

    264

    224

    1,348

    1,308

    1,084

     

    Less: Bad Debt Allowance

    1,560

    1,912

    352

    980

    (580)

    (932)

    (16)

    Total Revenues

    $33,982

    $41,204

    $7,222

    $49,373

    $15,391

    $8,169

     

    Contribution to Reserve

    $2,817

    $11,566

    $8,749

    $6,144

    $3,327

    ($5,422

     

    * In April 2007, the Board approved a revised budget for FY 2006-07 which was $188,000 higher than the amount originally approved in June 2006. Allocations among line items were also made to reflect changes in priorities.

    Notes to Fiscal Year 2007- 08 Expense and Revenue Projections

    1. The fiscal year 2007-08 budget calls for a final staff size of 107 by the end of the fiscal year. This represents an increase of twenty-one positions beyond that budgeted in the previous fiscal year. Incremental staffing will address key initiatives and “business as usual” operational requirements as described below. Additionally, new staff will fulfil the requirements described in the succession plan – a key section of contingency planning.
    2. Under the revised Organisational structure, key new positions in each functional area include:

  • This line item represents the costs associated with the personnel changes detailed in Note (1). Not all positions will be filled for the full 12 months. They will be filled in accordance with a planned growth model to ensure all efficiencies can be employed. Note that positions are considered full-time (except where noted) staff positions even though they may, in the interest of economy, be filled by contract personnel.
  • This line item increased due to the outsourcing of services described in the Operating Plan. It also includes litigation expense. ICANN is presently involved in several suits. The amount budgeted for this line item has increased in relation to last year’s budget and actual expenses. Additionally, ICANN is engaging the services of independent review panel services, limited public relations services, and other consultants who will be engaged if the effort is required and if their engagement represents real cost savings as compared to the expense of utilizing staff.
  • This line item includes budget for ICANN meetings, Board travel and staff travel. ICANN meetings are expected to be more costly due to an anticipated increase in the fraction of funding from ICANN to decrease reliance on regional sources. Also included are ICANN attended or sponsored meetings as indicated in the operating plan. ICANN has included a provision to provide some assistance to selected volunteer members of the ICANN community who could not otherwise attend task force or other ICANN meetings. Travel assistance will be provided on a case-by-case basis only after the trip request is evaluated and deemed to have a value-added component for ICANN and the community.
  • These costs, a major component of ICANN expenses, are forecasted to include moving expenses related to relocation of ICANN’s offices, as well as significant resources for translation. A reason for the significant increase this year is that this item now includes L-root, other Tech Ops support costs, and a company wide contingency of approximately 5%.
  • Capital purchases include acquisitions of equipment over $10,000 per item. This includes upgrades to IANA DNSSEC .ARPA implementation, furniture, fixtures and telephone equipment for the new ICANN offices, re-location of non-root server functions to off-site facilities in compliance with ICANN contingency improvements, root server upgrades, storage area network backup, a complaint management system and project management software.
  • The Nominating Committee again is charged this year with filling certain seats on the ICANN Board of Directors and advisory committees. The present committee will meet face-to-face twice during the fiscal year. (I.e., the successor committee will also meet during the same fiscal year.) In addition to these travel costs, the amount budgeted will cover administrative costs, e.g., teleconferences, documentation distribution, advertising for candidates and administrative support.
  • The ICANN Ombudsman was established in accordance with the bylaws. The Ombudsman makes monthly reports to the ICANN Board regarding work to date. This money funds the direct costs associated with this office. Indirect costs are funded separately by ICANN.
  • This year's budget holds constant with last fiscal year’s $0.25 transaction fee and an anticipated discount of $.05 per transaction. Transaction based fees are fees paid through the registrar for new registrations, renewals or transfers. The budget assumes conservative growth in the number of registrations.
  • This year's budget holds constant from last fiscal year the $3.8MM fee to be divided on a per registrar basis. While certain ICANN expenses related to supporting registrars are based upon the number of transactions (i.e. the size of the registrar), many costs are essentially equal for all registrars regardless of size (i.e. aspects of a contractual compliance program). Therefore, ICANN will allocate $3.8 MM to registrars on a per registrar basis. Given the present number of registrars, that fee is estimated to be $4,300 per registrar annually. If the number of registrars drops, as forecasted in some areas, the fee will increase. If there are, say, 600 gTLD registrars at the time of invoicing, the fee would be $1,583 for that quarter ($6,333 annually). As described earlier in this document, a portion of the fee can be forgiven if certain conditions are met.
  • ICANN continues to experience a significant number in registrar applications and related fees. However, it is anticipated that the number of accreditation applications will be reduced in FY 2007-08. Accreditation applications for this budget year are estimated at 30 accreditation applications.
  • Fixed accreditation fees will remain constant ($4,000) and for accreditation to all registries. It is anticipated that the number of accredited registrars will be reduced in FY 2007-08.
  • gTLD revenue is described in detail in notes to the Revenue table above. Looking forward, ICANN is undertaking several initiatives to increase revenues in this area in the long term: designation of new TLDs, deployment of IDNs, completion of the sTLD round, and negotiation of gTLD renewals.
  • Projected IP Address registry revenue is held constant with that planned in the current fiscal year.
  • ICANN believes significantly more revenue should be generated from the ccTLDs than has been realized in the past. This goal reflects a 20% increase in revenue beyond the previous year. Additional revenue will be based on successfully communicating the real value provided by ICANN services. ICANN has staff whose central purpose is to communicate and execute agreements with ccTLDs in order to stabilize relationships and revenue across this global community.
  • "Bad debt" has been decreased reflecting the anticipated impact of enhanced collection procedures in FY 2007-08.
  • Three Year Rolling Budget Summary

    This summary compares fiscal year 2005-06 actual revenue and expenses with those projected in 2006-07 and budgeted in 2007-08.