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IETF Administration LLC 2026 Draft Budget
- Jay Daley IETF Executive Director
19 Dec 2025
The IETF Administration LLC has prepared its draft budget for 2026 and now seeks community feedback.
The IETF Administration LLC 2026 Draft Budget is made up of the following:
Key assumptions
- Internet Society (ISOC) contribution as per our agreement
- IETF 126 Vienna & IETF 127 San Francisco meetings will use the inflation adjusted registration fees
- The additional communications support employee agreed in 2025 is included
- Investments rate of return is 2.7% over the year, as confirmed with our investment advisors
- Up to 2.5% inflation reflected in staff and 3.0% for some contract costs
Summary
| 2026 Draft Budget | 2025 Budget | Variance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Meeting Revenue | $ 9,455,661 | $ 9,149,340 | $ 306,321 |
| Meeting Revenue | $ 4,552,153 | $ 4,474,293 | $ 77,860 |
| Revenue | $ 14,007,814 | $ 13,623,633 | $ 384,181 |
| Operating Expenses | $ 7,822,956 | $ 7,071,604 | $ (751,352) |
| Meeting Expenses | $ 5,547,707 | $ 4,978,805 | $ (568,902) |
| Expenses | $ 13,370,663 | $ 12,050,409 | $ (1,320,254) |
| Net Income | $ 637,151 | $ 1,573,224 | $ (936,073) |
Key changes from 2025 budget
Budget changes
- Investments
- The budget for Investment income is higher due to using 2.7% vs. 2.2%, as advised by our investment advisers. This is an increase of $232,320
- Other Income Items
- ISOC endowment matching has decreased as 2025 included the $1m ARIN donation match and donations in 2025 were lower
- ICANN grant revenue released as the conditions of the grant are met
- Interest income has increased due to investing our working capital in a money market vs a bank savings account.
- Meetings:
- Sponsorship revenue budgeted decreased slightly due to lower Diversity/Inclusivity and Sustainability sponsorships expected.
- Meeting venue costs are significantly higher, but travel costs have decreased.
- Secretariat costs increased due to the re-allocation of the contract costs between cost centers.
- Administration:
- Inflationary increase in all wages at a maximum of 2.5%.
- Additional communications support personnel added
- Legal services increased due to subpoena support costs
- IETF Trust/IPMC:
- Request for budget funds from the IPMC increased 11% from the prior year
- Tools:
- No additional staff budgeted for 2026 but increase in costs due to market comparison exercise and one change from part-time to full-time.
- Additional contractor costs for the ICANN grant work in H1 2026.
- Depreciation increase budgeted in 2026 reflects the depreciation on the Cisco donated equipment, which is $306,168 per year.
Presentation changes
- Capex is no longer shown as a separate summary line in the table above as that duplicates the figure in the "capitalisation adjustment" line.
Community feedback
Community feedback on the budget is welcome and should be made either privately to the LLC Board and IETF Executive Director at llc-feedback@ietf.org or to the administrative discussion list admin-discuss@ietf.org. Please provide any feedback before January 9th 2026.