R7: A predictable system for member fees

Introduction

The current system for membership fee calculation in FYEG is, as stated in
FYEG’s Internal Rules of Procedure (IRP) that:

“Each full MO shall pay an annual membership fee to FYEG. This Membership fee
shall correspond to 1 % of the total incomes of their previous year’s realized
budget with a minimum of 50 EUR for the EU and European Economic Area (Iceland,
Liechtenstein and Norway), Switzerland and the United Kingdom and 25 EUR for all
other European countries. [...]”

We propose to change the model for how FYEG membership fees are calculated with
the goal of making membership fees more predictable and less fluctuating from
year to year.

The goals of the new system should be that:

1. Similar to today, bigger MOs pay a higher fee, proportional to their
   budget

2. FYEG’s revenues from member fees stay at the same level (approx. 32 000 €
   in 2024) so as to not impact the federation’s total budget.

3. Membership fees are predictable from year to year so temporary project
   grants and such typically won’t affect the membership fee.

Background

The far-right is growing stronger across Europe and several countries have now
elected right-wing governments, some of which have cut down on funding for civil
society organizations. This means that civil society receives less funding and
is becoming more dependent on non-governmental sources of income like
fundraising and project grants from independent foundations. The consequence of
this is that the budgets of civil society organizations vary more from year to
year depending on what project grants are approved and the success of
fundraising.

An important aspect of an increased reliance on project grants, is that the
means from project grants are often tied to a certain project and not allowed to
be used for anything else (e.g. putting 1% aside for an increased FYEG member
fee the next year).

We feel that it could benefit the member organizations to pay a membership fee
that is stable from year to year, instead of having to revise how much is spent
on FYEG on a yearly basis, despite it being a higher fee than it is today for
some MOs. This would ensure MOs can budget an adequate amount of money for the
FYEG membership fee and overall make it easier to calculate the budgeting and
communicate it to the members within each MO.

Importantly, we strongly supportthe idea that bigger member organizations should
pay a higher membership fee. We also believe that the total level of FYEGs
revenues coming from membership fees should stay at approximately the same
level. However, the purpose of this proposal is that the fee shouldn’t vary too
much from year to year. Our suggestion is therefore to introduce a step-based
model, where the fee increases incrementally as a member organization’s budget
increases.

The model we propose

The model we propose has incremental increases to the membership fee as the
budget of a MO increases.

We suggest keeping the lowest level to 50 € for countries within the European
Economic Area (EEA) , and 25€ for countries outside the EEA.

Note that the levels in the table below should only be seen as an illustration
of what the model could look like. Our proposal (see below) is to delegate to
the executive committée to decide on suggested levels of the fees, and to then
let the FYEG general assembly of 2025 make the final decision.

Budget(Total income from the realised budget of the previous year): < 5000 €

Membership fee: 50 €

Discount: 25 € for countries outside European Economic Area with a budget <5000
€

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Budget: 5 000-10 000 €

Membership fee: 75 €

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Budget: 10 000-15 000 €

Membership fee: 125 €

----

Budget: 15 000-20 000 €

Membership fee: 175 €

----

Budget: 20 000-50 000 €

Membership fee: 350 €

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Budget: 50 000-100 000 €

Membership fee: 750 €

----

Budget: 100 000-200 000 €

Membership fee: 1 500 €

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Budget: 200 000-400 000 €

Membership fee: 3 000 €

----

Budget: 4000 000-600 000 €

Membership fee: 5 000 €

----

Budget: > 600 000 €

Membership fee: 7 000 €

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Are there organisations that already use this model to calculate membership
fees?

Yes, there are a few organizations that already use this model to calculate
membership fees. An example is LSU - The National Council of Swedish Children
and Youth Organisations. The model was introduced more than ten years ago with
the goal of it being just and predictable for all member organizations. (You can
read more about it here; the text is in Swedish but you can look at the table to
get the gist of what a similar model could look like for FYEG.)

We propose: