I’m late with this, and I apologize. This year started off quickly for me and I hadn’t had the energy to look back at 2025. Since things were running smoothly and we had no financial issues, I just kept putting it off.
Not a good excuse, but it was the reality.
Here’s the state of the SQL Saturday chariticle foundation finances as of the end of 2025.
2025 Events
In 2025 we had a total of 28 events. This was down from 31 in 2024. Events are struggling a bit as the economy struggles. Microsoft continues to close offices, which makes space a challenge for many. A few events pushed from 2025 to 2026, so that accounts for some of the drop. We also continue to see more user groups ceasing operation, which is sad, but understandable given the economic conditions.
Sponsorship
We received $42,050 in sponsorship funds for the 2025 year. All of this money was sent to the events held during the year. Our banking costs were $181.94 covering the transfer fees for the funds.
Microsoft and AMD were our global sponsors for the year. We were unable to secure agreements with any others, which is disappointing. We will continue to investigate to see if any companies are willing to invest what is a relatively small amount for the exposure they receive.
The Corporate Status
As a corporation, we continue to do well in 2025 and finished the year in a strong financial position.
This year we received a few donations as well as advertising revenue. We also had very limited expenses. Here is a summary of our income and expenses for 2025. Amounts in USD.
| Income | Amount | Total |
| Donations | $1025 | |
| Total Income | $1025 | |
| Expenses | ||
| Corporate Hosting Fee | $150 | |
| Bank Fees | $181.94 | |
| Email Fees | $198.84 | |
| Total expenses | $530.78 | |
| Net Income | $494.22 |
Running SQL Saturday cost roughly $530 this year, a slight rise from the previous year. This is excluding volunteer time spent on the franchise, which is mostly time from me. Redgate supports me in this and I donate some after hours time as well. Most of the effort of running the corporation is spent in these areas:
- updating event pages with the latest information (only a few organizers submit PRs)
- managing invoices and money distribution to events
- working with Microsoft to negotiate contracts
- begging Redgate for PASS Summit tickets
This year we also had some movement in our online bank, Mercury, which was a hassle in trying to sort our the legal issuses with the bank and updating details in a few places for ACH transfers. I hope that this is the last time we have to do this, but it was a bit of a headache.
I do worry a bit about sustainability in the future if I am not devoting time to running the corporation, but I hope that I can find someone passionate about SQL Saturday who would want to take over some of the monthly administrative and communication tasks with organizers.
Board of Directors
No changes in 2025. We were considering this, but decided to let the rebrand take place. A number of directors thought it would be best to wait until the rebrand was complete before making any changes. We will revisit this later in 2026.
I don’t want to hold elections as they are a pain. What I am considering is having a few people volunteer to be a part of the board and let existing board meembers vote on them to change places with someone else. Comments/suggestions welcome.
A Strong 2026 Start
In 2025 we had 7 events up to, and including, the annual Jacksonville event. This year, in 2026, we have had 9, which is good. I don’t know if we’ll continue but so far the rest of the year looks good. Check out the schedule at either site:
Reminders
SQL Saturday is an independent US 501.c.3 corporation organized as a public charity. We are not owned by, or managed by Redgate Software. Redgate donated the brand to the corporation and gave us a grant to run events, but there is no oversight of the corporation. Redgate does maintain a permanent seat on the board of directors, currently occupied by Steve Jones, but has no more influence than any of the other members of the board.
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