UBports Foundation and financial transparency
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Firstly, I would like to make it clear that I have absolutely no reason to doubt the sound management of the funds available to the Foundation.
However, transparency about the use of financial resources is a basic good practice that is widely respected by foundations and other not-for-profit organisations.
Let's take two examples from the field of free software:-
The Document Foundation, which steers the development of LibreOffice and has served as a model for the status of the UBports Foundation. Financial data is published regularly:
https://www.documentfoundation.org/financials-and-reports/ -
PostmarketOS, a very small organization, which began fundraising in earnest only two years ago, has already published its financial data twice: https://postmarketos.org/blog/2025/03/17/pmOS-budget-and-financial-update/
The UBports Foundation has existed from memory for more than five years and the UBports community for nearly eight years.
So I think it's high time we corrected this oversight to show consideration for current donors and encourage many other potential donors by giving them visibility of the foundation's actions.
All of this with my great admiration for what has been achieved by the foundation and, more broadly, the community.
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@libremax As the Foundation is a charity we have to deal with the German government which can take time. The Finances for 2021 are signed off and done 2022 is underway now with the German government.
I don't see any issues with making these available as they become ready. I will look into it and post back here to start with. -
@Lakotaubp Thanks for your quick reply and your following steps in that direction.
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@lakotaubp Please, where are the financial statements available? I would like to get some idea about how much it takes to make a system like this. To be able to compare it to other projects. What are the operating costs, development costs, how many people does it take?
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@matejrokos Please don't expect the foundations money to reflect development cost for Ubuntu Touch. Most development work is done by volunteers who don't get payed.
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@matejrokos As Danfro says our financial reports will not reflect all the cost you seem to need to compare us with other OS and development.
We do get the vast majority of development through our wonderful community volunteers as with much else that powers UBports Foundation and Ubuntu Touch.
Then there is the fact we are a registered charity with the German Authorities so the reports may not be as you might be used too.
Still they can be made available when signed off by the German Authorities. Hopefully when a few technical issues are resolved that will not be to long. -
@Lakotaubp @danfro I understand the difference. Any numbers will help me get a better understanding and overall picture of the mobile linux economy. That is currently my goal. Do you have any estimation how much time volunteers spend developing UT and what is their source of funding? I guess this varies a lot for each developer and per feature / problem. Still, any estimation would help.
