Executive Committee Summary Records Summary Record of 71st meeting of the Executive Committee – 21 June 2023

Aug 23, 2023 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

71st meeting of the Executive Committee

21 June, 2023, Washington, DC

 

  1. The Executive Committee held its 71st meeting on 21 June 2023. The meeting took place in person on the margins of the ICANN 77 meeting in Washington, D.C. with remote participation enabled the following participants: Amrita Choudhury (chair), Markus Kummer (chair emeritus), Nigel Hickson (Treasurer), Anriette Esterhuysen, Chris Mondini, Flavio Wagner, Amado Espinosa, Fiona Asonga; Jennifer Chung and Kelvin Truong (Secretariat). A quorum was established for the meeting, with six of the nine Executive Committee members taking part.

 

  1. The Agenda was adopted as circulated, and the summary record of the 70th meeting is pending approval if no comments or corrections are received on the IGFSA EC mailing list before 21 June 2023.

Recognition of change of executive director to IGFSA

  1. The Secretariat and Markus Kummer (Chair Emeritus) introduced the context regarding the response to the Tides Foundation (Google). Markus Kummer explained the complex background requirements from the Tides Foundation and application. He further noted that the query sent to the IGFSA Accountant regarding the change of IGFSA chair and explained that the minutes of the 2022 General Assembly noting the change should be sufficient. It was remarked that the minutes of the 2022 General Assembly cannot be approved by the Executive Committee, but rather it will be approved by the IGFSA members at the 2023 General Assembly, however this document may fulfil the requirement for the recognition of change of executive director to IGFSA.

 

  1. The treasurer noted that one of the requirements for the Tides Foundation grant is to report on spending and noted IGFSA EC should look into increasing funding where there may be gaps. There was a discussion on spending of IGFSA funding and it was noted that one of the ways IGFSA can take up is the funding gap from the IGF Secretariat NRI grants and Parliamentarian track. It was noted that IGFSA should also look at current activities and whether funding levels should be increased for the NRIs and Youth Initiatives as these are year around events that need funding.

New proposals for IGFSA funding

  1. There was a suggestion to look to retain an outside source to create marketing material for a marketing report. There was also a suggestion to set aside funding for professional marketing material targeted at different groups to broaden the IGFSA donor base. There was a further suggestion to retain an outside source to produce a professional annual report. Anriette Esterhuysen volunteered to oversee the process to retain an outside source and work with the Secretariat to make information available for the report. The IGFSA EC agreed to set aside up to 10k USD to produce an annual report.

 

  1. The Secretariat mentioned that the IGF Secretariat has a shortlist and a long list of NRIs who have requested funding from the IGF Secretariat grant. This list has been shared with the IGFSA Secretariat and where there are those who do not end up receiving the IGF Secretariat grants, IGFSA would be able to look into stepping in to fund the NRIs.

 

  1. Funding request updates
  • Youth IGF Benin – Working with focal point and Accountant to get funding sent
  • Youth IGF Nepal – appears on the IGF Secretariat grant list

The following are awaiting eligibility checks process with the IGF Secretariat

  • Ghana Youth IGF
  • Youth LAC IGF
  • Tanzania IGF
  • Mauritius IGF

 

Crowdfunding walk-through

  1. Kelvin Truong from the IGFSA Secretariat gave a brief overview of the crowdfunding platforms available. It was noted that previously there has been a demo done for give.asia for the previous EC however it was not taken up as there was no consensus on how best to deploy the crowdfunding campaigns. It was noted that most of the platforms do take a commission, sometimes as high as 4%. There is also the payment gateway, and IGFSA has a Stripe Account with NGO status which allows IGFSA to use a reduced rate of 1.2% as opposed to 2.9% and this is currently being used as the mechanism to receive membership dues and donations to IGFSA. Some considerations IGFSA can look into would be fundraising goals, fund matching and whether sub-campaigns would be opened up for NRIs themselves under a potential IGFSA main account. There were questions on whether crowdfunding platforms issue tax documentation or tax deductible certification for donors and it was also noted that IGFSA donors would be global so any such documentation would not be tailored to each juridisction. Whether there are certain platforms that work better or are more popular for particular regions. Finally, there was some concerns raised whether sub-campaigns would create liability for IGFSA as an organization. There was discussion on whether crowdfunding would ‘compete’ with the larger traditional donors and it was noted that it would be a complementary item in addition to broadening donor base.