The WordPress Foundation has published its recent board meeting minutes—the first time it has done so in its 14-year history—revealing that a surge in recurring donations since WordCamp US 2024 helped make its recent $100,000 donation to the Internet Archive possible.
The minutes from the October 17 meeting show the foundation’s cash balance at $264,680, up $44,560 compared to last year. Automattic-sponsored finance contributor Harmony Romo reported that since WordCamp US in September, there had been 48 new recurring donations, totaling $12,535. The foundation now has 174 active recurring donations, marking an increase of 40 over last year.
Romo recommended maintaining a $150,000 reserve, prompting director Matt Mullenweg, a WordPress co-founder, to move for approval of the $100,000 donation to the Internet Archive—the foundation’s second, following a $15,000 contribution in 2019.
The decision to publish the minutes comes after recent changes to the foundation’s trademark policy and public questions over its financial position after the Internet Archive donation was announced last week. While the foundation has previously shared financial reports on its blog, the published minutes offer the first-ever glimpse into the board’s discussions.
They also follow Mullenweg’s controversial keynote address at WordCamp US 2024, where he accused WP Engine of profitting off the WordPress project, kicking off a series of public attacks in recent weeks that led the hosting company to initiate legal action against Mullenweg and his company, Automattic.
The minutes address growing scrutiny on social media about the roles of board directors Mark Ghosh and Chele Chiavacci Farley. All three directors were present at last week’s meeting, joined by Automattic-sponsored contributors Isotta Peira, Sarah Glenn, and Romo.
During the meeting, the board also reviewed WordPress Community Support’s (WCS) financial position, which is up $667,076 from last year, mostly due to surpluses from WordCamp US and WordCamp Europe. Mullenweg requested a reduction in ticket prices and increased local marketing efforts to better balance future event budgets.
The board discussed strategies to reduce operational costs. Romo noted that Meetup.com fees, totaling $221,529 annually, were the largest overhead expense. She said GatherPress, a plugin contributors are working on to replace Meetup.com for event organizers, could cut costs by over 50% once implemented. Ghosh suggested a hackathon could help expedite the plugin’s development, given its potential for significant savings.
Programs overseen by the foundation also saw growth this year. The do_action initiative doubled its charity hackathons to eight in 2024, producing 21 nonprofit websites, while Learn WordPress saw the launch of “Learning Pathways,” providing curated courses tailored to various experience levels and interests. Of the 38,000 people registered for Learn WordPress, 12,687 have completed courses. Mullenweg requested that contributors focus on increasing completion rates, given the program’s two full-time sponsored contributors.
Mary Hubbard’s appointment as the new Executive Director of WordPress.org was also discussed. Starting this week, Hubbard will focus on 2025 educational programs, with support from dedicated community and contribution teams.
In other business, the board agreed to expand the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship to include WordCamp Europe and WordCamp Asia in 2025. The board also agreed to hold two meetings annually moving forward to ensure timely reviews of financials and tax filings.
The WordPress Foundation, founded by Mullenweg, aims to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through open source, GPL software. As well as protecting the WordPress, WordCamp, and related trademarks, it pursues a charter to educate the public about WordPress and related open source software.
