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I think we need to wait for further details. RPi has been structure as a for profit company owned by the charity for a long time. This IPO may result in a huge

I think we need to wait for further details. RPi has been structure as a for profit company owned by the charity for a long time. This IPO may result in a huge amount of money for that charity. It also doesn't say how much of a stake their selling. The charity may retain the majority share and so continue to have control along with a vast capital reserve to continue doing what they're doing plus a lot more.

mytailorisrich 5y ago
The for-profit company has been raising money from investors in order to finance growth. I'm sure that an IPO would result in the charity getting cash but the aim does not seem to be that. Now, the good thing is of course that the accounts of the foundation are public [1]. I am not impressed that only about 10% of their income goes to "charitable activities". [1] https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1129409&subid=0 https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/chari...
- cinntaile 5y ago
  Under expenditures it has raising funds as 90% of the cost. Raising funds for what?
  - my123 5y ago
    Cost of production/R&D of the Raspberry Pis.
    - cinntaile 5y ago
      That makes sense I guess. The rest going to charity is pretty good then.
    - mytailorisrich 5y ago
      My understanding is that this is what Rapsberry Pi Trading Ltd does.
      - my123 5y ago
        The accounts as shown by that side are consolidated, and include the trading subsidiary.
- mywittyname 5y ago
  10% of their income is likely the majority of their profits, which are probably in the neighborhood of 10-15%.
  - mytailorisrich 5y ago
    A charity does not make any profit. The point being that, approximately, for every £10 that they get through donations or any other source, £9 goes to costs and £1 to actual charitable activities. Personally I would not donate to such a charity.
    - SirSourdough 5y ago
      How does the fact that RPi produces a physical product factor into this? If I contribute money to a charity that distributes that money directly to people in need, then I expect a high portion of that money to go to charity, but I don’t know that that is a fair expectation when most people “donate” to RPi by buying a low margin physical product. It’s not a pure charitable contribution to buy a Pi. But maybe I don’t understand how the costs are broken out between the foundation and RPi Trading.
    - gchadwick 5y ago
      > for every £10 that they get through donations or any other source, £9 goes to costs From the accounts I linked they received a bit over £3.5m in donations that year (they're listed in two different places one around £400k the other around £3.1m I don't know why they're accounted differently), spending £7.8m on charitable activities that same year. So in a sense they're managing to double their donations via their profitable trading to generate money for charitable activity spending.
- gchadwick 5y ago
  If you spend a few minutes digging into the accounts (https://static.raspberrypi.org/files/about/RaspberryPiFoundationReport2020.pdf https://static.raspberrypi.org/files/about/RaspberryPiFounda...) this appears to have a reasonable explanation. The other 90% gets classed as 'fund-raising', what is actually is is money going into raspberry pi trading. rpi trading made a profit of around £10m which goes back as income into the charity and has mostly been spent on charitable activities. I'm not an accountant and don't have time to go over the details to check but it appears that the charity gets all sales income. This then goes to the trading arm to pay for its expenses, leaving a profit which goes straight back to the charity. The majority of which is being spent on their charitable activities, which moderate sums presumably being kept back to aid reserve building. Trading exists to make the charity money, money the charity then spends on its charitable aims.
  - mytailorisrich 5y ago
    Your explanation does not make sense. If the commercial subsidiary is here to make them money then it should appear under "income", not "expenditure", and it probably does just not explicitly in that pie chart (it's probably under 'other' or 'other trading activities'). Expenditure is what the charity spends its money on, that is, costs (offices, personel, fund-raising activities, etc) and charitable activities. Anyone donating to a charity wants as much money as possible going to charitable activities. We could look at another charity to compare. Off the top of my head, a famous one I know is Crisis (homeless charity) [1]: Record shows 50%+ of income spent on charitable activities, which does make Raspberry Pi Foundation's numbers look quite unimpressive. [1] https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/3974328 https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/chari...
    - gchadwick 5y ago
      The explanation comes from the accounts I linked to which give more details than the pie chart. > If the trading arm is there to make them money then it should appear under "income", not "expenditure" It does see page 15 (PDF page 17), the foundation lists an income of £71,436,388 from 'Other trading activities', if you follow the note (3) it clarifies that this is entirely from rpi trading. A bunch of money then goes on to expenditure to cover the trading arm's costs. Which are indeed substantial as it's an engineering organization with lots of production to pay for along with staff salaries and other R&D costs, these are broken down in note 6, page 28 (PDF page 30). The profit the trading arm makes then comes back to the foundation which is shown in note 5, page 27 (PDF page 29) as 'other income' So yes it is a little complex, you've got the flow of revenue coming into the foundation, out to trading then back in again but it doesn't look like there's any untoward going on. Simply the charity is taking the strategy of running a profit making company to fund its charitable activities.

mytailorisrich 5y ago

The for-profit company has been raising money from investors in order to finance growth. I'm sure that an IPO would result in the charity getting cash but the aim does not seem to be that. Now, the good thing is of course that the accounts of the foundation are public [1]. I am not impressed that only about 10% of their income goes to "charitable activities". [1] https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1129409&subid=0 https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/chari...

cinntaile 5y ago
Under expenditures it has raising funds as 90% of the cost. Raising funds for what?
- my123 5y ago
  Cost of production/R&D of the Raspberry Pis.
  - cinntaile 5y ago
    That makes sense I guess. The rest going to charity is pretty good then.
  - mytailorisrich 5y ago
    My understanding is that this is what Rapsberry Pi Trading Ltd does.
    - my123 5y ago
      The accounts as shown by that side are consolidated, and include the trading subsidiary.
mywittyname 5y ago
10% of their income is likely the majority of their profits, which are probably in the neighborhood of 10-15%.
- mytailorisrich 5y ago
  A charity does not make any profit. The point being that, approximately, for every £10 that they get through donations or any other source, £9 goes to costs and £1 to actual charitable activities. Personally I would not donate to such a charity.
  - SirSourdough 5y ago
    How does the fact that RPi produces a physical product factor into this? If I contribute money to a charity that distributes that money directly to people in need, then I expect a high portion of that money to go to charity, but I don’t know that that is a fair expectation when most people “donate” to RPi by buying a low margin physical product. It’s not a pure charitable contribution to buy a Pi. But maybe I don’t understand how the costs are broken out between the foundation and RPi Trading.
  - gchadwick 5y ago
    > for every £10 that they get through donations or any other source, £9 goes to costs From the accounts I linked they received a bit over £3.5m in donations that year (they're listed in two different places one around £400k the other around £3.1m I don't know why they're accounted differently), spending £7.8m on charitable activities that same year. So in a sense they're managing to double their donations via their profitable trading to generate money for charitable activity spending.
gchadwick 5y ago
If you spend a few minutes digging into the accounts (https://static.raspberrypi.org/files/about/RaspberryPiFoundationReport2020.pdf https://static.raspberrypi.org/files/about/RaspberryPiFounda...) this appears to have a reasonable explanation. The other 90% gets classed as 'fund-raising', what is actually is is money going into raspberry pi trading. rpi trading made a profit of around £10m which goes back as income into the charity and has mostly been spent on charitable activities. I'm not an accountant and don't have time to go over the details to check but it appears that the charity gets all sales income. This then goes to the trading arm to pay for its expenses, leaving a profit which goes straight back to the charity. The majority of which is being spent on their charitable activities, which moderate sums presumably being kept back to aid reserve building. Trading exists to make the charity money, money the charity then spends on its charitable aims.
- mytailorisrich 5y ago
  Your explanation does not make sense. If the commercial subsidiary is here to make them money then it should appear under "income", not "expenditure", and it probably does just not explicitly in that pie chart (it's probably under 'other' or 'other trading activities'). Expenditure is what the charity spends its money on, that is, costs (offices, personel, fund-raising activities, etc) and charitable activities. Anyone donating to a charity wants as much money as possible going to charitable activities. We could look at another charity to compare. Off the top of my head, a famous one I know is Crisis (homeless charity) [1]: Record shows 50%+ of income spent on charitable activities, which does make Raspberry Pi Foundation's numbers look quite unimpressive. [1] https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/3974328 https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/chari...
  - gchadwick 5y ago
    The explanation comes from the accounts I linked to which give more details than the pie chart. > If the trading arm is there to make them money then it should appear under "income", not "expenditure" It does see page 15 (PDF page 17), the foundation lists an income of £71,436,388 from 'Other trading activities', if you follow the note (3) it clarifies that this is entirely from rpi trading. A bunch of money then goes on to expenditure to cover the trading arm's costs. Which are indeed substantial as it's an engineering organization with lots of production to pay for along with staff salaries and other R&D costs, these are broken down in note 6, page 28 (PDF page 30). The profit the trading arm makes then comes back to the foundation which is shown in note 5, page 27 (PDF page 29) as 'other income' So yes it is a little complex, you've got the flow of revenue coming into the foundation, out to trading then back in again but it doesn't look like there's any untoward going on. Simply the charity is taking the strategy of running a profit making company to fund its charitable activities.