Finances
The eco Group (eco e.V., eco Service GmbH and DMA GmbH) was able to close the year 2023 with a consolidated small surplus of 12,600 Euro compared to the prior total budget.
In particular, the very positive development of sponsorship revenue contributed to this and enabled us to clear significantly higher receivables from previous years, totalling 180,000 Euro. The originally planned budget for this was 100,000 Euro.
Additionally, our membership initiative “Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany” achieved slightly higher revenues than initially planned, totalling 170,000 Euro.
The following table shows the financial results of the eco Association results:
Profit and Loss for the Financial Year 2023
| eco e.V. | Actual Value 2023 | Share in per cent | Actual Value 2022 | Change from the preceding year in per cent | Plan 2024 | Share in per cent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | |||||||
| Member fees | 2,081,621 | 40.1% | 2,081,621 | 0.7% | 2,091,350 | 48.4% | |
| CSA | 949,065 | 18.1% | 908,628 | 4.5% | 1,072,316 | 24.8% | |
| Event revenue | 29,815 | 0.6% | 29,333 | 1.6% | 92,500 | 2.1% | |
| Funding proceeds | 1,746,147 | 33.4% | 1,817,109 | -3.9% | 859,857 | 19.9% | |
| Other revenue* | 411,179 | 7.9% | 498,289 | -17.5% | 207,744 | 4.8% | |
| Total revenue | 5,232,356 | 100.0 % | 5,334,980 | -0.5% | 4,323,767 | 100.0 % | |
| Costs | |||||||
| Personnel costs | -2,925,718 | 53.0% | -2,805,169 | 4.3% | -2,642,276 | 60.6% | |
| Further education costs | -13,454 | 0.2% | -11,718 | 15.0% | -39,750 | 0.9% | |
| External service providers | -1,117,909 | 20.2% | -1,134,485 | -1.0% | -464,629 | 10.6% | |
| Travel costs | -129,368 | 2.3% | -108,141 | 2.0% | 32,308 | 4.7% | |
| Administrative costs | -365,331 | 6.6% | -428,726 | 15.0% | 140,122 | 8.9% | |
| Marketing/Projects | -406,512 | 7.4% | -528,312 | -23.1% | 35,000 | 6.6% | |
| Business Enabling | -288,111 | 5.2% | -300,599 | -4.2% | 1,706,038 | 5.4% | |
| Other** | -223,824 | 4.1% | -170,461 | -31.3% | 52,800 | 1.3% | |
| Depreciation and amortisation | -53,968 | 1.0 % | -64,301 | -16.1% | 55,810 | 1.0% | |
| Total costs | -5,524,194 | 100.0% | -5,551,910 | -0.5% | -4,363,607 | 100.0% | |
| EBIT | –291,837 | -216,930 | 34.5% | -39,840 | |||
| Taxes | -13,855 | -29,235 | -52.6% | 0 | |||
| Net profit/loss for the year | -305,692 | -246,165 | 24.2% | -39,840 | |||
| Neutral income | 1,926,186 | 6,542,141 | -70.6% | 0 | |||
| Neutral expenditure | -1,926,486 | -6,542,141 | -70.6% | 0 | |||
| Net profit/loss for the year after GXFS | -305,992 | -246,165 | 24.3% | -39,840 |
** Other costs: e.g. value adjustments of open items, disbursed costs, etc.
So far, eco has presented the financial figures as an income and expenditure statement. However, from 2023 onwards, the figures will now be reported as a profit and loss statement.
In 2023, eco was able to gain a total of 66 new members and increase membership fees by 0.7 per cent to 2,096,150 Euro. Revenue from the CSA (Certified Senders Alliance) also increased significantly by 4.5 per cent to 949,065 Euro.
However, the development of membership fees and service revenues could not compensate for the decline in funding, which took place primarily due to the timed expiration of two projects. At 1,746,147 Euro, funding revenues were around 3.9 per cent below the previous year’s level.
As in previous years, additional revenues included monetized benefits in kind, reimbursement of advanced costs, and allocated personnel costs. Furthermore, it included revenue from the “eco External Data Protection Officer” service, which also managed to generate a small margin in the 2023 financial year.
Overall, the eco Association recorded a decline in revenue of just under 1.9 per cent compared to the previous year. In particular, the 4.3 per cent increase in personnel costs and the urgently needed adjustment of outstanding receivables worth 160,000 Euro meant that eco could only reduce its costs by 0.5 per cent. Once again, travelling expenses rose significantly, although in the year under review this was primarily due to project-related reasons. Administrative costs, which consist of office space costs, vehicle costs, insurance, ITC, as well as expenses for financial accounting, tax consultants and legal services, were significantly reduced by 15 per cent in 2023. This took place particularly due to the reallocation of rental space within the affiliated companies.
Expenditures for marketing & events consisted of event costs, sponsorship costs, representation costs and public relations costs. The other expenses included the advanced and value adjustments (160,000 Euro) on outstanding receivables.
Neutral revenues and expenses correspond to the transitory items in the Gaia-X Federation Services (GXFS) funding project.
In 2023, we worked intensively on automating and improving internal processes and, as one examplar of those efforts, we introduced a new billing tool at the turn of 2023/2024, which will simplify our invoicing and, in particular, the dunning process.
eco still anticipates a deficit in the 2024 budget – not least due to the 89 cancellations by member companies, some of which will not take effect until 2024. However, this deficit should be significantly lower than in the 2023 year under review.
Fortunately, eco Service GmbH was pleased to close the year 2023 with a significant surplus of 54,127 Euro, following a negative result in 2022.
