Pandemic-induced savings helped ICANN’s 2020 financial results.
ICANN saved a lot of money in FY 2020 by holding its events virtually instead of in person.
ICANN published (pdf) its financial results for the 2020 financial year today. FY 2020 covered the 12 months ending June 30, 2020.
Total funding was $141 million and expenses were $126 million.
The numbers turned out better than originally expected because of Covid. The pandemic forced ICANN to hold its last two meetings of the financial year remotely, saving nearly $6 million. It begs the question if it makes sense to hold three expensive ICANN meetings every year.
Overall, expenses were $11.1 million (8%) lower than expected due to the virtual meetings, travel restrictions and lower personnel expenses. Hiring slowed because of the pandemic.
Revenue was $0.6 million higher than expected because of higher-than-forecasted domain name transaction fees.
