Growth over time
Below are five tables showing how much Free Geek has grown over the years measured by five different criteria:
- the number of volunteers recording hours in the database
- the number of monitors received into the database
- the number of systems received into the database
- the total amount of donations (excluding monitor fees) recorded into the database
- the total amount of sales recorded into the database
All of these criteria are based on data entry in the database, and so poor data entry habits may have affected the results to some degree.
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% |
Note: Some of the 7% drop between 2005 and 2006 could have resulted from not recording monitors in the database as they came in. (That practice was laxly enforced as the year progressed.) However, the monitor fees recorded in the financial books indicated about a 4% drop in that income stream for the same time period.
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.