Financials

Kobo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization sustained financially through partnerships, service agreements, grants, and donations.

Donations from our users and private donors help keep KoboToolbox free, so we can continue to provide reliable, secure, and high quality data tools to users around the world—especially organizations in low-income countries. Make a donation today.

In 2021, 96% of our revenue was used to continue developing and maintaining KoboToolbox, so we can ensure high quality data collection tools remain accessible to everyone.

Revenue

Kobo depends on partnerships and service agreements as a main source of revenue. We work directly with organizations worldwide to find solutions to their data collection needs, including setting up organization-specific servers, professional user support, training sessions, and feature development. Through our collaboration with partner organizations, new features are added to the public KoboToolbox every year, helping to meet the needs of more organizations working in the field.

In 2021, 100% of operating revenue was from program services, including $520,779 in conditional contributions (88%) and $70,045 in service contract revenue (12%).

Expenses

In 2021, 96% of our operating revenue was spent on program expenses—that means ninety-six cents from every dollar in revenue went to developing and maintaining KoboToolbox. The remaining 4% of our revenue was spent on management and administration.

In 2021, 84% of Kobo’s operating expenses were costs for staff and contractors. Server hosting fees accounted for 12% of operating expenses. In addition, 4% were spent on professional services (including audits) and 1% on software and other functional expenses.

To learn more, view our nonprofit profile on Guidestar.

For more financial information, see our 2021 Audited Financial Report and Form 990.
Download 2021 independent audit report
Download 2021 Form 990