Funding Model Policy

This document sets out the IWF’s policy on membership subscriptions and was approved by the IWF Board in February 2010, following consultation with members.

General Principles

The following general principles apply:

There are three minimum entry levels of membership subscription: £1,000+, £5,000+ and £20,000+ p.a.
Membership subscriptions are determined using a “by sector and by size” approach.
Members that provide services in competing or complementary sectors will be classified into one of the industry sectors outlined below based on the primary business of the organisation.
Formal criteria for assessing subscriptions are defined where possible for the different sectors of membership, based on the size of a company and/or services offered.
Members are expected to increase their membership subscription as their businesses develop.
Best endeavours and good faith on the part of both a (potential) Member and the IWF are necessary to align subscriptions to this framework although a degree of flexibility is required due to the voluntary nature of membership.
The final decision on a company’s membership subscription rests with the Board.
Members will not be discouraged from contributing more than the minimum subscription, subject to Board approval.
The Board will regularly review the model and criteria to take account of changing costs and changes within the industry.

Specific Principles for Industry Sectors

The following principles apply to various industry sectors:

Internet Service Providers (ISPS)

Membership subscriptions for ISPs start at £1,000 p.a. and are capped at £40,000 p.a.
A sliding scale of tiered subscriptions applies to ISPs offering residential broadband connectivity, based on UK customer numbers, as illustrated below.

Number of Residential Broadband Customers	Annual IWF Subscription (£)
>4m	40,000
>3m	30,000
>2m	25,000
>1m	20,000
>500,000	10,000
>100,000	5,000
>10,000	2,500
<10,000	1,000

The UK customer base for both fixed and mobile broadband services is used to determine a member’s subscription fee.
Major infrastructure providers pay a minimum subscription of £20,000 p.a.
When there is insufficient data available to arrive at a subscription fee based on customer numbers and/or the ISP offers services in addition to or instead of internet connectivity, such as hosting, then the ISP is designated as ‘other’ within the sector until a critical mass is arrived at to carry out a comparative exercise. In these cases the IWF Executive negotiate a proportionate subscription fee, taking into account all relevant principles within these parameters, which is subject to approval by the Board.

Mobile Operators

Membership subscriptions for mobile operators start at £1,000 p.a. and are capped at £40,000 p.a.
A sliding scale of tiered subscriptions applies to operators offering mobile broadband services, based on UK customer numbers accessing the internet via the mobile network, as illustrated below.

Number of UK customers accessing the internet via the operators mobile network	Annual IWF Subscription (£)
>4m	40,000
>3m	30,000
>2m	25,000
>1m	20,000
<1m	5,000

The UK customer base for both mobile and fixed broadband services is used to determine a member’s subscription fee.

Filtering Providers

Membership subscriptions for filtering providers range from £1,000 - £5,000 p.a.
Filtering companies that require access to the IWF URL list pay an annual subscription fee of £5,000.
Filtering companies also pay usage fees for using the IWF URL list in their products and services.

Interactive Media sector

This includes companies that provide:

Community services (including social networking and photo-sharing services)
Editorial/aggregated commercial content (including broadcasters and publishers)
Online search tools
Newsgroups

Providers of community services, editorial/aggregated commercial content and/or online search tools pay a membership fee between £1,000 and £20,000 p.a.

Newsgroup providers pay an annual subscription between £1,000 and £3,500.

The IWF Executive may negotiate a proportionate membership subscription within these parameters, subject always to approval by the Board.

The relative size of the company proportionate to their involvement with online content is considered when determining subscription fees. For example, a company that provides multiple interactive services to users around the world will contribute more than a company with a single interactive service with international users, who will in turn contribute more than a company offering a single interactive service to the UK market.

Subscriptions are kept under review by the Board.

Diverse Sector

This includes companies that provide:

Content moderation services
Identity authentication services
Error resolution services
Aggregated mobile content
Datacentre facilities
Domain registry services

Membership subscriptions range from £1,000 - £20,000 p.a. The entry level subscriptions are:

£1,000 p.a. for small companies
£5,000 p.a. for medium-sized companies
£20,000 p.a. for large companies

The IWF Executive may negotiate a subscription fee within these parameters, subject always to approval by the Board.

Datacentres and domain registries pay an annual subscription fee of £5,000.

‘Other’ Sector

This includes:

Membership organisations (including trade bodies)
Companies in the financial sector

The IWF Executive may negotiate subscriptions with members who support the IWF solely for corporate social responsibility reasons, based on a common sense approach and subject to final approval by the Board.