> About W3C Membership > Membership Fees > April 2007

From 2007-04-01 to 2008-09-30, the annual Membership fee for an organization is the product of a Base Fee and a Multiplier, that is:

       Membership Fee = Base Fee * Multiplier

As stated in the W3C Member Agreement, the initial Membership term is three years and, during that time, the Membership Fee for an organization does not change. A history of W3C Membership Fees is available.

Determination of Currency

Each organization pays Membership fees in one of three currencies, depending on the country where its headquarters are located. W3C uses multiple currencies to offset some of the vagaries of currency exchange rates, which vary more often than W3C changes its fees. This means more predictability for Members (when establishing their budgets) and more predictability for the W3C staff -- almost all of the Member fees that are received in a given currency are also spent by the W3C staff in that same currency.

Hallway discussion during W3C Technical Plenary Week 2005

US Dollars, Euros, and Japanese Yen were chosen as the three currencies in light of the locations of the three W3C Host institutions: MIT, ERCIM, and Keio University.

The currency for a given country is determined as follows:

• In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa: EUR
• Japan and Korea: JPY
• All other countries: USD

Determination of Base Fee

The Base Fee for a given country is determined as follows:

• In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa: 65,000 EUR
• Japan and Korea: 7,300,000 JPY
• All other countries: 63,500 USD

Determination of Multiplier

The Multipliers in the table below are determined by these factors:

• Country where Member's headquarters are located
• Type of organization: for-profit or other types
• Member's annual revenues. In the table below, Revenue refers to annual gross revenue, as measured by the most recent audited statement, expressed in the currency associated with the country of the Member's headquarters.

To promote diverse Membership, W3C offers lower Membership fees for organizations in some countries, based on a World Bank classification of country income. This resource defines four categories of countries: high income countries (HIC); upper middle income (UMC), lower middle income (LMC), and low income (LIC). The World Bank revises their categorization each year on 1 July. The changes take effect in W3C fee calculations on the following 1 January.

During the first three years of an organization's membership, if the World Bank classification of a country changes, that change does not change the annual membership fee for that organization. Any country classification changes will affect the annual membership fee for an organization in the fourth and subsequent years of membership.

The Upper Limit used in the table that follows is defined to be, for each currency:

• 51,000,000 EUR
• 5,750,000,000 JPY
• 50,000,000 USD

Note: The currency relationships of the Upper Limit approximate the currency relationships of the fees themselves.

Membership Fee Multiplier Table