The OA Board of Trustees has unanimously approved a US$1,825,450 balanced budget for OA world services for the upcoming fiscal year from January 1 to December 31, 2026. The 2026 budget represents a 10.9 percent decrease in revenue and spending compared to the 2025 budget.
A Draw on Prudent Reserve
Notably, the board has approved using $178,600 of OA’s prudent reserve to help fund 2026 operations. After having cut $259,000 in expenses earlier in the budgeting process, the board determined any further cuts would impact our primary purpose to carry the message to the compulsive eater who still suffers and decided instead to draw on the prudent reserve.
A Call to Strengthen Our Seventh Tradition
The 2026 budget reveals recent trends impacting our Seventh Tradition: decreased contributions to the World Service Office, decreased literature sales, and rising costs for print literature and other necessary expenses.
The board encourages the entire OA Fellowship to do their part to help reverse these trends in 2026, and the board treasurer has been working to improve financial reporting and transparency. OA members can now view the 2026 OA World Service Budget Overview, budget overviews for previous years, annual audit reports, and quarterly and annual contributions reports. Find them all in the Document Library under the category “Seventh Tradition.”
About the World Service Budget
OA’s annual budget supports our World Service Office in Rio Rancho, New Mexico USA, where a staff of thirteen full-time and one half-time special workers (Tradition Eight) maintain operations that serve the Fellowship as a whole, including:
- Publications
- Translations
- Warehouse and shipping
- Member services
- Find a Meeting database and websites
- Digital communications
- Accounting and administration
- Contracting other professional services
The budget also funds:
- World Service Convention
- World Service Business Conference
- OA Board of Trustees, including the trustees’ work with their respective regions
For the past sixteen years, OA annual world service budget has fluctuated between $1.75 and $1.93 million. It is funded by Seventh Tradition contributions from OA members, groups, and service bodies; sales of OA literature; and event registration fees.