The Symbol Syndicate

What it reported doing in 2022

Most of 2022 was spent in finding the organizations voice and defining its mission; building the organization's brand identity; learning the rules and ropes with regards to a non-profit organization; setting up internal structure and operations; maintaining two cryptocurrency clients (NIS, for the NEM blockchain; and Catapult, for the Symbol blockchain); product improvements; and improving general education and awareness. At this time, the organization has six defined programs. Education and Awareness (shortened to Education): A program centered around increasing the general awareness of our products, and improving public education for emerging technologies. We also define any social media activity, assets, or asset creation not directly related to fundraising as education and awareness. Research: A program centered around high-quality research and data-driven reports. Research may be (but has not yet been) requested by a donor, a university, or another organization; or it may be internal research we undertake. All research created and undertaken with this program is available publicly, or will be available publicly (once completed and presented in accordance with our usual quality standards). Products: A program centered around development, design and maintenance of high quality open-source products used by the general public, such as cryptocurrency wallets or trading infrastructure. We define a product as anything that has a defined consumer - that is, a human or AI user that ingests our product in order to perform a specific function. Client: A specialized program for the development, design and maintenance of cryptocurrency clients, networking clients, and other types of clients as defined by the client-server model. Due to the specialized nature of this software, this is considered a separate program to the products category.Tooling & Infrastructure: Any software or scripts for small tools and infrastructure that the public may use in collaboration or connection with products produced by the organization (either our organization, or another), but software that does not have a large enough scope to be defined as a product. An example could be a Python script that helps the general public collect and correctly categorize their cryptocurrency transactions for reporting purposes to their local tax agency, and outputs these transactions in a format to be ingested by Lukka (a third party software used in partnership with the IRS for ingestion of cryptocurrency reporting). Other (Program): Any other program that does not yet have a defined category - usually experimental. Generally, the work byproduct of these programs is not public by default, as the result may not meet our quality standards and not be fit for general public consumption in its current form.Key Accomplishments for 2022 include: Education and Awareness: We created digital avatars (2D art, character sheets, and in some cases 3D models) and a CC0-licensed t-shirt series to recognize key contributors in open-source and cryptocurrency communities, rewarding their work in non-financial, creative ways. We also continued to develop and refine the organizations brand identity and voice.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 37.9%; rating input score 38
• Program expense ratio: 76.7%; rating input score 77
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 50.6%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.02; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 2.7%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: Limited
• Revenue growth: Limited
• Asset growth: Limited