2025-2026 Budget Transparency Report

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+---
+title: GraphQL Foundation Budget Report, 2025-2026
+tags: [foundation]
+date: 2026-03-20
+byline: GraphQL Foundation
+---
+
+# GraphQL Foundation Budget Report
+
+The primary mission of the GraphQL Foundation is to ensure that the GraphQL community is able to focus on the continued evolution of the specification and reference implementations.  We accomplish this through a number of core activities, some of which are directly related to hosting and administering core projects, and others through growing and engaging the user community.  Our budget is created and approved by our member companies via the Governing Board.  As part of our commitment to transparency, we are publishing the first-ever GraphQL Foundation Budget Report and will continue to do so regularly into the future.
+
+All figures are expressed in USD.
+
+Link to Budget Summary Spreadsheet: [GraphQL Foundation 2025-2026 Budget Summary](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xwvaIrSyKPbxjG9o6MDh-tQBnajJPuiBBFdWi-A8lSY/edit?usp=sharing)
+
+## 2025 Summary
+
+We ended 2025 having spent 2.9% ($17,729) more than forecast.  Details below.
+
+### What we learned
+
+**Event forecasting is a challenge**.  GraphQLConf 2025 underperformed in terms of sponsorship and attendance numbers.  Thanks to the conservative budgeting by the Linux Foundation’s Events team, we also came in significantly under budget, which balanced out the ledger.
+
+**Carryovers are not ideal**.  The GraphQL Foundation is not a bank and should ideally not carry a large surplus year-over-year.  This is because our funds are meant to be invested into our community!  Our carryforward has progressively and appropriately shrunk over time; we are ending the year with $189,180 in the bank, a modest decrease from 2024’s figure.
+
+**Successful year for Developer Grants**.  Continuing the previous point, we awarded more grant money this year than ever before.  These investments are at the heart of the GraphQL Foundation’s mission and should be celebrated.
+
+### Spending by category
+
+Our budget is grouped into five different sections:
+
+#### Community engagement and marketing
+
+We spent $387,883.  The biggest line item, by far, was GraphQLConf 2025.  This category also included “swag”  and social media management software.
+
+#### Legal
+
+We spent $213 on trademark maintenance.
+
+#### General & administrative
+
+This amounted to $36,682, attributable to finance, accounting, compliance auditing, taxes and governance support.
+
+#### Staff, travel, and board
+
+We spent $102,895 in this category.  Nearly all of this went to Program Management services provided by the Linux Foundation and our Community Gardener, Graphile. LF Program Management takes care of back-of-house functions like conference coordination and membership management, while our Community Gardener manages various GraphQL Specification Project initiatives, including the main specification, GraphQL.js, GraphiQL, and countless other responsibilities that ensure the health of the technical project and support the mission of the Foundation.   A small portion was allocated to fund staff travel to GraphQLConf.  
+
+#### IT infrastructure and staff
+
+We spent $73,595 in this category, which includes typical IT infrastructure expenses such as hosting as well as our Developer Grant Program. The Developer Grant Program awarded $18,000 in grants in 2025 to community members who made meaningful improvements to GraphQL technical projects. Take a look, and consider applying for 2026!
+
+### Revenue
+
+The GraphQL Foundation’s budget is drawn from member dues, conference sponsorships, conference attendee registration fees, and carryover from previous years.  The GraphQL Foundation collected $219,667 in dues this year.  We took in $187,910 in sponsorship and conference pass sales.  We also had a $382,871 carryover from 2024.
+
+## 2026 Budget
+
+We are planning for $266,382 of expenditures and anticipating $211,000 of revenue, which will leave us with $133,798 to carry forward into 2027\.
+
+See the linked spreadsheet for a line-by-line breakdown.  Our priorities this year are cutting administrative costs, right-sizing the conference, and adding new streams of funding for the Community Working Group, Ambassadors, and Locals to leverage.  We believe this will create new sources of content, engagement, outreach, and education for our community.
+
+### Themes and priorities
+
+**A lean, smart budget**.  This year’s plan reduces overall spending without compromising on our mission.  Despite outlying fewer expenditures, we are still able to hold our marquee event, invest in grants, and even introduce a new funding stream to our community.
+
+**Investment in our most engaged contributors**.  The GraphQL crowdfund is not a new platform but it hasn’t been very active since it was created.  A lot has changed, though!  2025 brought us a new Community Working Group, GraphQL AI Working Group, and the Ambassadors Program.  By expanding the surface area of the GraphQL project, we are inviting more contributors into the fold and magnifying the potential impact of our most engaged community members.  The planned crowdfund block grants are there to support members of the community to be able to direct investment into areas that will support the mission of the GraphQL Foundation.  Examples include boosting our YouTube presence, swag orders for acknowledging community contributions to technical working groups, and other tactical expenses.  A charter will be necessary so that there is a common understanding of what expenses would be appropriate for this fund.
+
+**Meta’s investment makes a big difference**.  We were able to get this budget together in this shape thanks to the knowledge that Meta would be providing an incredible amount of support for GraphQLConf.  The GraphQL community is so grateful for your investment.  Thank you to everyone at Meta who is making this happen!
+
+## Making an impact
+
+Supporting the GraphQL community is a valuable service.  Consider joining the GraphQL Foundation, read more [here](https://graphql.org/community/foundation/).  We would like to thank our current [members](https://graphql.org/community/foundation/members/) for their continued investment in our mission.  Consider [sponsoring GraphQLConf 2026](https://graphql.org/conf/2026/#sponsors).  Donations to the [GraphQL Crowdfund](https://crowdfunding.lfx.linuxfoundation.org/projects/graphql) help fund initiatives from the Community Working Group and our GraphQL Ambassadors initiative.
+
+We are grateful for our community and hope this report serves the ecosystem well.