Annual Budget Process

The Foundation’s annual goals are prepared in August and reviewed and approved by the board of directors at the September board meeting. In conjunction with goal development, the CFO & Leadership Team draft departmental and consolidated budgets that reflect the organization's priorities for the upcoming year. Please click here for additional details related to the budget and AOP process within our Accounting Manual. Once complete, the budget is reviewed by the Finance Committee and presented and approved by the GTLF board of directors at the December board meeting.

In order to minimize revenue risk associated with the budget, management shares key goals and funding needs with our two primary funders as early as possible. Note that both funders are represented on the foundation’s board. The funding request process is as follows:

  1. For the Sijbrandij Foundation, a high level estimated budget is prepared and provided in advance of their foundation’s September board meeting with a specific request for the following year’s funding needs. Similarly, if the funding request is directed to the Sijbrandij Family Office (in lieu of the Foundation), that request will be reviewed and approved by the family prior to the our December GLTF board meeting.
  2. For GitLab, Inc, a funding request is provided to their CFO, or other GitLab board representative, in conjunction with the GTLF budget approval in December. That funding request consists of a one-page document outlining the approved summary budget with narrative explanation for variance over prior years. An annual commitment of 163,556 shares (gifted in 4 quarterly increments) is expected based on the promised gift of 1,635,545 shares awarded over 10 years, announced when the company went public. That annual gift is reviewed and discussed at GitLab’s audit committee in March and then taken to the governance committee for final approval. While this approval occurs after the start of our fiscal year, funding risk is mitigated by the fact that there is a strong relationship between GitLab, Inc and GitLab Foundation, with constant and ongoing stewardship.

Due to the fact that a portion of our revenue budget is gifted in stock rather than cash, there are inherent revenue fluctuations based on market variability of the stock. For that reason, multiple budget scenarios are prepared and approved, as follows:

  1. Scenario A (baseline) - GitLab shares based on an average of prior 4 quarters gift price (this scenario is reviewed and approved at the December BOD meeting)

Alternative Scenarios (reviewed and approved by Finance Committee at the Q1 meeting usually held in late March)

  1. Scenario B (low range) - 80% of Scenario A
  2. Scenario C (high range) - 110% of Scenario A

The baseline scenario and overall budget range (low to high) is approved by the GLTF BOD at the December board meeting. The alternative detailed budgets are reviewed and approved by the Finance Committee in Q1 of the budget year. This review is done in conjunction with the budget reconciliation process (p. 15), which determines the amount of budget surplus or deficit is expected to “roll over” from the prior year. This budgetary rollover information is helpful in the development of the alternative plans. At each quarterly finance committee meeting (particularly the Q2 review meeting), a determination will be made regarding the budget scenario that GTLF will be held accountable to.

FY26 Budget

February 1, 2025-January 31, 2026

Budget: $25,524,196

FY25 Budget

February 1, 2024-January 31, 2025

Budget: $23,653,730

FY24 Budget

February 1, 2023-January 31, 2024

Budget: $17,400,00