In an effort to be fiscally transparent to SSE members, our income and expenditures are summarized below. In addition, we are posting yearly financial reports that provide a more detailed summary of the Society’s income and expenditures.
View financial reports by year: 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023
Questions or comments should be directed to Courtney Murren, SSE Treasurer: treasurer [at] evolutionsociety.org.
SSE’s income derives from three sources: dues and donations from members; revenue from our journals (Evolution and Evolution Letters); and returns on our investments. The income from these sources can vary from year to year. However, typical proportions are shown in the figure to the left, with more than half of our income in recent history derived from journal revenue.
In December 2023, SSE had 3,577 members.
SSE’s journal income comes from its contract with Oxford University Press, the publisher of Evolution and Evolution Letters. This income includes royalties, profit sharing, and page charges. Publishing in society journals supports society activities.
SSE’s investment income comes from its endowment. The endowment is managed for SSE by Vanguard (transitioning to Mercer) and overseen by the Treasurer and a Finance committee. In February 2021, SSE adopted a formal investment policy that includes a policy on ethical investing. This policy was developed by the Treasurer and Finance and Policy committees and received council approval. To ensure that the endowment can continue to provide income to SSE in the future, a current component of the financial policy is to spend no more than 3% of the endowment’s average value over the previous 3 years. The finance committee reviews the policy on an annual basis. Read the 2024 financial policy here.
Expenditures can be divided into two major categories: non-discretionary and discretionary.
Non-discretionary expenditures are essential to the general functioning of the Society and represent approximately half of our annual expenditures. Without these expenditures, the Society would not be sustainable. Non-discretionary expenditures fall into two broad categories:
Operating costs (~⅔ of non-discretionary budget)
Publication and editorial costs (~⅓ of non-discretionary budget)
Discretionary expenditures are for activities that support SSE’s mission (“the promotion of the study of organic evolution and the integration of various fields of science concerned with evolution”), and represent the other approximate half of our annual expenditures. Most discretionary expenditures fall into one or more of the broad categories:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion expenditures
Education and Outreach expenditures
Public Policy expenditures
Award expenditures
Professional Development expenditures
