Reps/Council/Budget Review

Budget request Review for Mozilla Reps Program

Overview

In order to effectively support Mozilla Rep activities/projects around the world, a budget request SOP exists to evaluate and approve budget requests submitted by Mozilla Reps.

This SOP outlines:

• what selection criteria should be used to assess and approve a specific budget request
• who approves the budget requests
• what the different review stages of approval budget requests go through
• how funds are disbursed
• what follow-up strategy is employed to measure the success/failure of a funded activity/project

Assessment Criteria

a) Main focus areas

It is essential that clear criteria of relevance and success be established so that the ReMo Council can properly assess budget requests. It is important to consider the following questions when evaluating a budget request:

• How will the event or activity promote Mozilla’s mission?
• Does this opportunity represent a relatively small level of financial support that will have a large impact on others in the Mozilla community?
• Does the project empower other members of the community?
• How will Mozilla's financial support impact others both in Mozilla and in the larger user-community? Is the investment in the community being successfully leveraged?
• How measurable is the success of the event/activity and how easy is the follow-up ?

b) Disqualification of Budget Requests

Budget requests received less than 6 weeks before the targeted launch date of the event/activity in question will automatically be rejected. This 6-week “buffer” guarantees that each budget request undergoes the same thorough selection process.

Futhermore, the ReMo budget request SOP is open ONLY to Mozilla Reps. A person who is not a Mozilla Rep requesting a budget via the ReMo Budget Request SOP is automatically disqualified from the procedure.

c) Budget Reference Chart

The ReMo council examines budget requests against a reference chart detailing different types of events that have been organized in the past and how much they have cost, can help the Council make a decision on a specific budget request.

Budget Request Form

To request a budget, the following bugzilla form needs to be completed and submitted: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/form.reps.budget

Two-phased Selection/Approval Process

The selection/approval process can be divided into two distinct phases :
• preliminary “filtering”
• ReMo Council approves/rejects budget requests

a) Filtering phase :

William Quiviger and Pierros Papadeas will filter out those requests that are not considered relevant. All filtered requests are then passed on to the ReMo Council for review.

b) Bi-weekly ReMo Council budget approval/rejection :

Taking into account that not all members of the ReMo Council can be available every week, and to ensure that there is proper deliberation before a funding decision is made, the ReMo Council will assemble a rotating weekly selection-committee made up of at least 5 ReMo Council members (including 2 Mozilla staff) to review all budget requests in the pipeline and finalize approval.

Accounting Rules

The fund flow should comply with accounting rules.

A donation is usually an amount given to an established non-profit organization with an established charter and its own auditing processes. It is usually not linked to a specific project but just to partially support the overall goal of this organization.

Expenses covered must be related to an event/project as they occur, or once they have occurred.

In general, event-related expenses are covered once the event has occurred, besides advanced payment such as a portion of a proposal for a room, technical equipment rental, catering at the event. The remaining due amount is then paid just before the event, or upon receipt of a bill. In all cases such documents/offers should be formalized once the project has been approved with amounts/due dates and bank info so payments can be made accordingly.

In general, individual expenses are covered by paying back expense notes submitted with justification slips and bills, to cover individual travel, accommodation and food falling within pre-approved limits/guidelines. In some cases some of these expenses (travel, accommodation) could be directly paid to the service provider beforehand by Mozilla, which then provides the airline ticket or the hotel room to the individual. Food, taxi and other limited expenses are still reimbursed through an expense note.

Disbursement of Funds

Once a budget request has been approved, William Quiviger must contact the submitter to collect all documents issued by companies/individuals providing services for the event/project (such as cost estimates showing deposit required, proforma invoices etc…) with due dates and bank info (IBAN and BIC (swift code)). William will then plan wire transfers with Mozilla Accounting or payment by other means to these companies/individuals accordingly.

Tracking and Follow-up

The ReMo Council must regularly track the status of all pending budget requests and carry-out a follow-up of all projects whose budget requests have been approved. All this information must be available to the public on the Mozilla wiki.

a) Budget Request Tracking

All budget requests should be tracked based on 5 different statuses :

• Pending : budget request has been received and is undegoing initial review by William Quiviger and Pierros Papadeas
  
• Qualified : budget request fits all the selection criteria, and the selection committee has selected the request.
  
• Approved : budget request has been approved and signed off by ReMo Council, and the funded project is now in the process of disbursement
  
• Disbursing : payment process of submitted elements underway
  
• Paid : all elements in the budget have been documented for payment and all payments have been made.
  
• Rejected : budget request passed initial filtering phase, but was rejected by ReMo Council
  

The following information must be properly documented :

• Name of Mozilla Rep
• Community (if applicable)
• Country
• Project name and number
• Date Budget Request was submitted
• Date Budget Request was Approved
• Date funds were Disbursed
• Amount Requested

Contact

For any questions, suggestions or comments, please also contact William or Pierros.