Cross Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds

The Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) was created to identify processes and mechanisms for allocating the proceeds of last-resort auctions of new gTLD strings where applicants in competition for a common string could not otherwise resolve ownership of the domain among themselves. The group's final report was submitted to the ACs and SOs for approval in May 2020. After approval from the ACs and SOs, the report was submitted to the ICANN Board on September 14, 2020 Maarten Botterman responded to the working group on behalf of the board on September 18, 2020, acknowledging the working group's efforts and describing the board's intended process.

Objectives and Recommendations

The working group's final report specified that the objectives of the program disbursing auction proceeds should be to:

• Benefit the development, distribution, evolution and structures/projects that support the Internet's unique identifier systems;
• Benefit capacity building and underserved populations, or;
• Benefit the open and interoperable Internet.

The final report provides three options for operationalizing these objectives, recommending that the board adopt either option A or option B, with a working group preference for the option A:

1. Create an internal department within ICANN dedicated to the allocation of auction proceeds;
2. Create an internal department within ICANN dedicated to the allocation of auction proceeds, which collaborates with an external nonprofit organization; or
3. Create new charitable entity (ICANN Foundation), functionally separate from ICANN org, which is responsible for the allocation of auction proceeds

The working group also considered a fourth option, which was to distribute funds to an existing nonprofit for allocation according to the rules and objectives established by ICANN. This option could be likened to a scholarship endowment, where the donors had control over the parameters of the award of the scholarship, but the endowed school would be responsible for managing the endowment. It was determined by the working group that that option would be unworkable.