ICANN Blogs

Read ICANN Blogs to stay informed of the latest policymaking activities, regional events, and more.

Final Proposed FY19 Operating Plan and Budget

21 May 2018
By Göran Marby

Today, we published the final proposed FY19 Operating Plan and Budget and submitted it to the ICANN Board for consideration at the meeting on 30 May 2018. This is an important step in the process to ensure transparency so that you – and the rest of the ICANN community – can see what exactly is sent to the Board before it is adopted.

I want to thank you for your comments and productive discussions on the budget. I was very pleased that we received over 185 comments through the public comment process, in addition to the many productive discussions we had, especially during ICANN61.

As a result of your feedback and comments, we've made a few suggested changes to the budget.

The Fellowship Program received an increase from 30 to 45 seats per meeting, based on your feedback. In addition, the ICANN organization will be seeking community feedback on the entire Fellowship Program in the next few months.

We heard your concerns about the reduced Community Regional Outreach Program (CROP) funding, and as a result, its funding for outreach is reinstated at $50,000.

We will also be progressively decreasing funding for the ICANN Wiki from $66,000 in FY19 to a commitment of $33,000 for FY20, based on your comments.

In addition, budget was reallocated for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and data protection and privacy in FY19, as it is prudent planning to anticipate increased expenses next year.

This year was the first time we merged the Additional Budget Request process with the Operating Plan and Budget process. In Document 2 [PDF, 621 KB] on page 26 you can see what additional budget items were approved.

We are also holding a webinar on 24 May at 14:00 UTC, where you can learn more about these changes and ask questions. Here is the link to join: https://participate.icann.org/finance/.

I encourage you to read the Executive Summary in Document 1 [PDF, 305 KB].

Thank you again for contributing your comments and feedback. It is a testament to the multistakeholder model in action.

Authors

Göran Marby

Göran Marby

Former President & CEO