The Annual Report regarding the IOFs finances for 2018 was approved by the IOF Council at its meeting in April, and has now been signed by the IOF Auditors. The accounts will be formally approved by the IOF General Assembly in 2020 and are now published on the General Assembly 2020 page here on orienteering.sport.
The financial result for the year was a surplus of 1 090 TSEK (106 TEUR at year-end SEK/EUR exchange rate) increasing from surplus 164 TSEK (16 TEUR) for the year 2017.
There has been a structural change in the IOF finances over the past few years and it may therefore be of interest to look at the finances from a perspective of 5 years, i.e. from 2014 to 2018.
Income 2014 to 2018
During the five year period income has increased 85% primarily due to new sources of income in TV rights, income from live streaming and sponsorships.
Income from membership fees and event sanction fees have remained more or less flat in absolute terms during the period. This is primarily due to changes in the event programs and new methods for calculating sanction fees for World Cup and WRE events. At the same time there has been an increase in the number of regional events.
Another significant change is a reduction in income from monetary grants following the move of the IOF Office from Finland to Sweden, however this has been made up by lower cost of services for the IOF Office in Sweden in expenditures.
Finally, 5% of the overall increase in income is due to the introduction of the Anti-Doping Fund and Athletes License. This money is used 100% for Anti-doping testing.
Expenditures 2014 to 2018
The IOFs costs have also increased during the period 2014 to 2018, by 75%. The major new cost is the cost of TV productions as the IOF has taken over responsibility for TV rights sales and production costs. With the introduction of live streaming there are also related costs which are new since 2014. The net effect of TV and Live Streaming is a surplus of approximately 45 TEUR.
Since the move of the IOF Office from Finland to Sweden the staff costs (which comprises salary costs, travel and meeting costs for the professional staff), have decreased by 16% in absolute terms and as a percentage of total costs. This is a result of cost saving measures carried out in 2016 and 2017. The fixed costs for the IOF Office (rent, telephone, accounting costs, etc) have also decreased 23% in absolute terms over the period.
The ability for the IOF to invest in development projects has increased from around 10 TEUR per year to 53 TEUR in 2018. This investment is primarily being made in global and regional development projects but also to a certain degree in development projects in the disciplines.
Communications and IT system investments and costs have also increased somewhat in absolute terms although this is slightly skewed by the increased investments made in the new IOF homepage (orienteering.sport) during 2018.
The cost of events has increased. The majority of the costs here are for event advising and related costs as well as awards and prize money for each event. One contributing factor to the increasing cost is the expansion of official regional IOF events, which is fully in line with the IOF strategic directions.
The costs of Anti-doping testing are equal to the income generated in the Anti-doping Fund.
Member services (which comprises costs for IOF memberships in stakeholder organisations, insurance, support for meeting attendance and meeting services), IOF Council representation and meeting expenses and expenses for international work are all at a similar level in absolute terms during the period.
Stable finances important for strategic activities
The structural change of the IOFs finances with new and additional income sources and lower fixed costs are important to create a long term stable platform for the IOF. The surpluses which have been generated in 2017 and 2018 have been used to improve the balance sheet of the federation, i.e. the equity and cash-flow have improved.
Looking forward it is important to continue to manage the finances to a surplus to continue to strengthen the overall finances. But it is also equally important to use the more stable situation to continue to invest in projects and activities in line with the Strategic Directions of the IOF.