Growth over time

Below are five tables showing how much Free Geek has grown over the years measured by five different criteria:

1. the number of volunteers recording hours in the database
2. the number of monitors received into the database
3. the number of systems received into the database
4. the total amount of donations (excluding monitor fees) recorded into the database
5. the total amount of sales recorded into the database

How to read the tables

In each table there are three columns.

Year (first column)

The year the data was recorded in the database.

(second column, labeled according to category)

The count or total dollar amount for the year.

Diff (third column)

The amount of change (growth) over the previous year, for example 113% in 2006 (donations) reflects an amount that is 13% larger than the year 2005. The first year that the difference is recorded is generally not a very useful number. A number less than 100% indicates an actual shrinking number.

Volunteers recording hours

Year	Volunteers	Diff
2000	63
2001	658	1044%
2002	826	126%
2003	1145	139%
2004	1576	138%
2005	2049	130%
2006	2003	98%

Monitors received

Year	Monitors	Diff
2000	749
2001	3473	464%
2002	3522	101%
2003	5499	156%
2004	9187	167%
2005	12786	139%
2006	11938	93%

Systems received

Year	Systems	Diff
2000	543
2001	4124	759%
2002	4709	114%
2003	8444	179%
2004	14117	167%
2005	17849	126%
2006	19613	110%

Donations in dollars

This excludes monitor fees.

Year	Donations	Diff
2000	$50.00
2001	$7,724.33	15449%
2002	$14,092.80	182%
2003	$29,067.20	206%
2004	$77,201.83	266%
2005	$85,348.40	111%
2006	$96,257.41	113%

Sales in dollars

Year	Sales	Diff
2000
2001	$2,086.90
2002	$30,218.78	1448%
2003	$60,941.27	202%
2004	$98,190.69	161%
2005	$156,779.83	160%
2006	$224,665.56	143%

What this tells us

All of these measuring sticks show that Free Geek has grown over the years. In general the rate of that growth has dropped each year from the previous one but each year is larger than the last. However, in the case of volunteers the number actually fell slightly between 2005 and 2006 (mostly it remained flat). And in the case of monitors received the number fell a little more sharply between 2005 and 2006. We might want to look more closely at the volunteer situation and decide if more volunteers are needed (and where). We may want to anticipate the effects of a drop off in monitor related income and costs on the organization.