The Perl and Raku Foundation by the Numbers
This morning I gave a short presentation to the TPRF board about fundraising. As part of my slides I figured I’d have Claude fetch the IRS filings of TPRF (Yet Another Society) and make a fancy graph. I was inspired by the articles written by Makoto Nozaki. If you only have time to read one of us, do yourself a favour and read Makoto’s articles rather than this low effort puff piece.
- Things I’ve Learned Serving on the Board of The Perl Foundation
- Board Reflections: Continued Experiences with The Perl Foundation
- Understanding the Financials of The Perl and Raku Foundation (TPRF)
- Understanding TPRF’s Finance, 2026 Edition
#Yet Another 25 Years
While Makoto has thoughtful insights into this data, the best you’ll get from me is a bit of surface level stuff, but you can totally click on the chart, so there’s that.
Data table: yearly revenue, expenses and net assets
| Year | Contributions | Program service revenue | Other revenue | Total revenue | Expenses | Net assets (end of year) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | $76,437 | $25,137 | $1,840 | $103,414 | $75,494 | $39,073 |
| 2002 | $184,033 | $25,767 | $1,453 | $211,253 | $204,254 | $46,072 |
| 2003 | $121,338 | $47,258 | $3,774 | $172,370 | $154,729 | $63,713 |
| 2004 | $18,105 | $36,834 | $4,525 | $59,464 | $66,755 | $56,422 |
| 2005 | $98,823 | $38,227 | $4,300 | $141,350 | $94,822 | $102,950 |
| 2006 | $60,474 | $75,402 | $2,843 | $138,719 | $142,754 | $98,915 |
| 2007 | $55,021 | $55,637 | $6,364 | $117,022 | $144,558 | $71,379 |
| 2008 | $227,594 | $64,914 | $2,223 | $294,731 | $185,786 | $180,324 |
| 2009 | $108,165 | $62,020 | $4,816 | $175,001 | $130,774 | $224,551 |
| 2010 | $42,445 | $54,685 | $7,049 | $104,179 | $147,972 | $180,758 |
| 2011 | $90,764 | $22,442 | $9,912 | $123,118 | $81,228 | $221,245 |
| 2012 | $260,931 | $38,450 | $9,787 | $309,168 | $224,304 | $307,512 |
| 2013 | $40,147 | $133,026 | $6,656 | $179,829 | $225,687 | $261,654 |
| 2014 | $224,479 | $75,569 | $459 | $300,507 | $228,413 | $333,748 |
| 2015 | $194,539 | $67,323 | $393 | $262,255 | $267,745 | $328,258 |
| 2016 | $270,517 | $52,422 | $334 | $323,273 | $213,589 | $437,942 |
| 2017 | $263,876 | $41,721 | $376 | $305,973 | $222,754 | $521,161 |
| 2018 | $149,330 | $35,338 | $433 | $185,101 | $241,462 | $464,800 |
| 2019 | $132,364 | $32,934 | $370 | $165,668 | $169,041 | $461,428 |
| 2020 | $69,828 | $12,909 | $286 | $83,023 | $104,323 | $440,127 |
| 2021 | $63,200 | $7,510 | $170 | $70,880 | $107,471 | $403,536 |
| 2022 | $68,847 | $7,548 | $106 | $76,501 | $137,809 | $342,665 |
| 2023 | $24,395 | $15,903 | $1,144 | $41,442 | $181,655 | $200,215 |
| 2024 | $69,911 | $16,581 | $353 | $86,845 | $188,037 | $101,524 |
| 2025 | $205,421 | $10,196 | $219 | $215,836 | $195,740 | $121,620 |
One thing I have been able to add is the toggle to account for inflation. That helps keep everything in perspective.
As I understand it, while some of TPRF’s funding has been for grants for Perl 5 and Perl 6 (Raku), a good deal has also been around conferences, which were quite popular at one point. They were very affordable, quirky and fun. There was likely already some taper in conference sponsorship before 2020 but COVID-19 didn’t help. You can see that new funding drops off sharply in 2020 and doesn’t start to make a recovery until 2024. What happened that year, you may ask? Well, that was the year I was asked to help out with the foundation’s fundraising. Pats self on back.
I haven’t brought any genius to the table, but I’ve tried to be persistent and to be creative in finding new funding opportunities. I have learned a lot along the way, particularly from Stuart J Mackintosh who has been a huge help when meeting with prospective donors. I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised when the 2026 filing comes out. The foundation has had some lean years, but we are working hard to be in a better position to support the Perl and Raku communities.
I’m always looking for new possibilities. Please reach out if you would like to become a donor or if you can make an introduction to someone who can, or even someone who knows someone who can. Or someone who knows someone who knows someone. You can see where I’m going with this. Let’s keep funding Open Source Software. In the current climate, it’s more important than ever.
† Source: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. The "2025 dollars" button adjusts the chart for inflation using the BLS consumer price index (CPI-U, series CUUR0000SA0). The table below the chart shows the amounts as originally reported. BLS skipped October 2025 because of the federal government shutdown, so its 2025 average covers the other 11 months. ↩︎