In 2016, the WordPress Foundation and its subsidiary provided support for a total of 115 WordCamps and hundreds of meetup groups, organized by volunteers in communities all over the world. There were 48 events in the US and 67 events outside the US.
WordPress Foundation
In 2016, the WordPress Foundation created a subsidiary public benefit corporation, to provide a fiscal entity to support organizers of WordPress community events. This B-corp is named WordPress Community Support. We’ll report on both entities’ 2016 financials on this page.
WordPress Foundation’s total revenue was $3,038, with $2,914 in donations and $124 in royalties.
Expenses for the WordPress Foundation totaled $27,452.54:
- Dues & Subscriptions: $649.40
- Bank Charges: $1,402.98
- Legal & Professional Fees: $23,306.00
- AV equipment: $637.56
- Taxes & Licenses: $160.00
- Kim Parsell Travel Scholarship expenses: $1,296.60
WordPress Community Support, PBC
The total revenue of the Foundation’s subsidiary B-corp, WordPress Community Support, was $3,856,898:
- Sponsorship Income: $3,080,248.76 (79.9% of total revenue)
- Ticket Sales $776,649.44 (20.1% of total revenue)
Expenses for WordPress Community Support, PBC totaled $3,573,793, as detailed below:
- WordCamp expenditures: $3,091,330 (86.5% of total expenses)
- Meetup expenditures: $90,141 (2.5% of total expenses)
- WordPress.tv content production: $9,739 (0.3% of total expenses)
- Operations: $382,584 (10.7% of total expenses)
As usual, major WordCamp expenses were concentrated in venue and food & beverage.
| Category | Expense | % of total expense |
| Food & beverage, including after-parties and speaker events | $1,533,294.92 | 50% |
| Venue rental | $541,193.37 | 18% |
| Audio visual services | $388,626.92 | 13% |
| Event tees and other swag* | $309,157.10 | 10% |
| International sponsorship grants*** | $114,239.91 | 4% |
| Printing & signage | $81,257.18 | 3% |
| Event supplies | $67,489.56 | 2% |
| Furnishing | $12,040.54 | > 1% |
| Event accessibility | $26,305.12 | > 1% |
| Travel scholarships** | $2,703.96 | > 1% |
| Advertising | $15,021.08 | > 1% |
* Classified as advertising and promotion on tax documents.
** The WordPress Foundation occasionally pays travel expenses for commit-level contributors who require financial assistance to travel to WordCamps and speak.
*** WPCS helped some 2016 WordCamps that didn’t use WPCS as their financial entity by forwarding corporate sponsorship payments from companies unable to send them money directly.
WordPress Community Support also supported the publishing of 1,841 videos from WordCamps held in 2016 to WordPress.tv by providing video camera kits to WordCamps. These kits include an HD camcorder, tripod, external microphone, SD cards, lavalier microphone, and a hard case for shipping.
The total expenditure of this program was $9,739:
- Video Processing or Videography: $4,719
- Video Kit Shipping: $5,020
Major operational expenses for WPCS included:
- Bank Charges & Merchant Fees: $71,355
- Insurance: $9,662
- Legal & Professional Fees: $12,576
- Taxes: $288,966