View source for Wikimedia budget

===Reserves===

*How predictable is income? 
*How predicable are expenses? Estimate chance of unexpected increase in expenses (several servers have to be replaced, have to start paying bandwidth) .
*What is the ability of the board to quickly tap new revenue sources if the need arises? 
**Existing donors giving more?
**Help from another foundation?
**Creditors willing to postpone payments?
**Assets available to sell on short notice?
**Available lenders? Line of credit with SunTrust?
*Possible cutbacks: planned non-essential expenses. 
*How risk-tolerant is the Foundation?

Rule of thumb: always have 3 to 6 months of reserves. Then keep level of reserve in check and reevaluate on a quarterly basis. Leave this amount in savings and/or safe investment account and only tap it when needed. The Board must determine the amount of the reserve. It is difficult to get in trouble with the IRS for having too large of a reserve . The IRS is mainly concerned with how money is spent. The foundation must, however, still balance the wishes of the donors that their money is being used. 

Need to form a budget committee from the board, headed by treasurer (who should not dominate the process). This will require expansion of the board or at least the addition of an appointed financial officer, controller, and other interested people (a tech person is absolutely needed in order to estimate future server needs). In larger organizations officers are responsible for this and are challenged by the board (checks and balances).