Finances
The 2024 financial year turned out better for eco Association than originally anticipated, meaning that the association was even able to show a slight surplus at the end of the fiscal year.
This successfully completes the turnaround from the deficit years of the association.
In particular, revenues from the Certified Senders Alliance (CSA) developed particularly well, rising by 19.5 per cent to a total of €1,134,460. Likewise, eco’s event revenues showed an above-average increase of 174.6 per cent compared to the previous year.
This is largely attributable to the CSA Email Summit, which was held very successfully in 2024.
The following table shows the financial results of the eco Association results:
Profit and Loss for the Financial Year 2024
| eco e.V. | Actual Value 2024 | Share in per cent | Actual Value 2023 | Change from the preceding year in per cent | Plan 2025 | Share in per cent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | |||||||
| Member fees | 2,036,325 | 41.0% | 2,096,150 | -2.9% | 1,978,000 | 47.6% | |
| CSA | 1,134,460 | 22.9% | 949,065 | 19.5% | 1,097,539 | 26.4% | |
| Event revenue | 81,861 | 1.7% | 29,815 | 174.6% | 30,000 | 0.7% | |
| Funding proceeds | 1,371,986 | 27.7% | 1,746,147 | -21.4% | 876,070 | 21.1% | |
| Other revenue* | 336,137 | 6.8% | 411,179 | -18.3% | 175,034 | 4.2% | |
| Total revenue | 4,960,769 | 100.0% | 5,232,356 | -5.2% | 4,156,643 | 100.0% | |
| Costs | |||||||
| Personnel costs | -2,648,856 | 53.5% | -2,925,718 | -9.5% | -2,548,240 | 61.6% | |
| Further education costs | -31,290 | 0.6% | -13,454 | 133% | -35,418 | 0.9% | |
| External service providers | -1,008,738 | 20.4% | -1,117,909 | -10% | -635,666 | 15.4% | |
| Travel costs | -102,915 | 2.1% | -129,368 | -20% | -154,479 | 3.7% | |
| Administrative costs | -395,210 | 8.0% | -365,331 | 8% | -432,469 | 10.4% | |
| Marketing/Projects | -279,336 | 5.6% | -406,512 | -31.3% | -137,400 | 3.3% | |
| Business Enabling | -231,338 | 4.7% | -288,111 | -19.7% | -115,086 | 2.8% | |
| Other** | -200,889 | 4.1% | -223,824 | -10.2% | -48,460 | 1.2% | |
| Depreciation and amortisation | -55,329 | 1.1% | -53,968 | 2.5% | -31,684 | 0.8% | |
| Total costs | –4,953,900 | 100.0% | -5,524,194 | -10.3% | -4,138,900 | 100.0% | |
| EBIT | 6,869 | -291,837 | -102.4% | 17,743 | |||
| Interest and similar income | 51,527 | ||||||
| Taxes | -44,122 | -13,855 | 218.5% | -15,000 | |||
| Net profit/loss for the year | 14,274 | -305,692 | -104.7% | 2,743 | |||
| Neutral income | 1,722,311 | 1,926,186 | -70.6% | 0 | |||
| Neutral expenditure | -1,722,311 | -1,926,486 | -70.6% | 0 | |||
| Net profit/loss for the year after GXFS | 14,274 | -305,992 | -104.7% | 2,743 |
** Other costs: e.g. value adjustments of open items, disbursed costs, etc.
In 2024, eco gained 45 new members, whose membership fees amounted to just under €92,000. However, this increase could not compensate for the cancellations from the previous year, so that membership fees fell by 2.9 per cent overall to €2,036,325.
Due to the expiry of two funding projects in 2024, funding revenues at €1,371,986 were also around 21.4 per cent below the previous year’s level.
As in previous years, additional revenues included monetised benefits in kind, reimbursement of advanced costs, and allocated personnel costs. Furthermore, it included revenue from the “eco External Data Protection Officer” service, which also managed to generate a small margin in the 2024 financial year.
Overall, the eco Association recorded a decline in revenue of just under 5.2 per cent compared to the previous year. Despite higher investments in staff training, eco was able to reduce its costs by 10.3 per cent. This development can be attributed, among other aspects, to the reduction in expenses for marketing & events as well as external service providers, which were less utilised due to the expiry of the two funding projects. Additionally, the lower utilisation of transfer payments (Business Enabling) and the optimisation of travel booking processes had a significantly positive impact on the eco Association’s overall costs.
The administrative costs, which consist of office costs, vehicle costs, insurance, IT & communications, as well as costs for financial accounting, tax advisors and legal services, increased by 8 per cent compared to the previous year due to repair work on eco’s office spaces.
Expenditures for marketing & events consisted of event costs, sponsorship costs, representation costs and public relations costs. The other expenses included the advanced and value adjustments (€73,400) on outstanding receivables.
Despite the cancellation of 81 membership companies – some taking effect only in 2025 – eco anticipates a positive result in the 2025 budget plan.
