Funding
In 2016, L214 had a total budget of 760,000 euros, which allowed it to employ 17 people. In 2017, according to its co-founders, the association has financial resources totaling 5.2 million euros, including 3.2 million euros in membership fees from its 30,000 members (a number of members that has doubled compared to 2016).[3][4]
In November 2017, the association received an exceptional donation of 1.14 million euros from the Open Philanthropy Project foundation. This organization, managed and funded by American billionaires Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, aims to financially support animal welfare (protection associations and research on cultured meat), justice and research on artificial intelligence. This donation follows a canvassing of the association by the foundation. Several projects were submitted: the improvement of standards in poultry breeding, the vegetalization of food on campuses and the perpetuation of L214 (creation of jobs and increase in salaries). In reaction, several deputies, from the French political party Les Républicains tried to set up a commission of inquiry to expose the financial networks of L214.[3][5][6]
In November 2018, according to the association's treasurer, 90% of L214's funding comes from donations. The remaining 10% comes from the sale of derivative products (250,000 euros), the collection of royalties and interest from savings (several tens of thousands of euros). Among the 34,000 donations (which represent a total sum of 3,841,000 euros), 124 come from companies, foundations or associations.[5]
The association received 5.9 million euros in donations in 2020, 700,000 euros in legacies, for an operating budget of less than 5 million, and almost 7 million euros in reserves.[7]
Work conditions
The association has raised from 12 employees, including 3 permanent contracts, in 2015 to 74 employees, including 63 permanent contracts, in 2021, despite the departure of one employee out of five (15 people) between the beginning of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. The reasons given by former employees to justify these departures are of several kinds: "regular burn-outs, forced departures, heavy workloads, accusations of moral harassment, but also relative blindness to issues of sexist and sexual violence". The chain of repeated fixed-term contracts is also highlighted.
In 2018, staff representatives requested that a protocol for the prevention of psychosocial risks at work be put in place. In 2019, only 13 of the 69 employees at the time considered conflict management within the association to be satisfactory.
Equal pay was introduced in 2020: all employees received 2,025 euros net, with a 150 euros bonus if they lived in the Paris urban area.
In 2021, L214 was questioned by several activists about the lack of reaction to sexual violence within the association, or even trying to cover it up. Several cases of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape were thus brought to the attention of the management, without the presumed authors (activists and former employees of L214) being worried at the time.[7][8]