Act in BlueDot’s best interest: how we do expenses
BlueDot’s expense policy is just 5 words. This is how and why it works.
TL;DR
Our entire expense policy: Act in BlueDot’s best interest.
For business expenses, we have no spending categories, no caps on individual spend, and no budget approval process.
Team members are trusted to spend the company’s money on whatever’s best for the mission. When making spending decisions, we value our time at $10/minute.
Tax and charity law add a small amount of process. Some business expenses need a one-line note or receipt.
Wellbeing and commuting are paid for using dedicated company cards with yearly limits. Spending on these cards is reported to payroll as taxable compensation, and BlueDot pays the associated tax.
All business spending is visible and reviewed, including mine. A few bad decisions are expected, and team members get feedback quickly. A pattern of bad financial judgement is still treated as a performance issue.
Most orgs impose strict rules on spending
If you work at a normal organisation, you probably can’t spend money on whatever you think is best for the company, without having to jump through a bunch of hoops.
Most orgs have rules for how much you’re allowed to spend within specific categories, e.g. “max $2k for a laptop” and “max $200/night for a hotel”. A friend of mine who worked in government made decisions about billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. His laptop took 15 minutes to switch on and the screen was tiny.
Most orgs also have strict approval processes, where spending below $100 might be auto-approved, but you need your manager to approve an expense between $100 and $5k, and a member of the leadership team to approve anything above that.
And of course, you need to provide receipts for everything. Better take a photo of your $5 coffee receipt and email it to the finance team, or else!
Most orgs don’t trust their staff to make wise financial decisions, especially junior staff. They’re worried about someone doing something crazy, a nosy journalist writing a hit piece about their extravagant spending, or Bob in finance embezzling the company’s money to fund his gambling addiction. Executives impose rules and processes that control their team’s behaviour and block actions they disapprove of.
The costs of controlling spending
Slowing down decision-making
Most organisations are bottlenecked in some capacity by “executive time”. Executives can minimise the extent to which they’re a bottleneck by providing the organisation and its people with clarity on their mission and strategy, and the resources and authority they need to execute on that strategy.
When an organisation’s executives block spending decisions until they’ve signed off on them, the org’s ability to make large expenses becomes a function of how many submissions the executives can review, instead of how many large expenses the organisation should make. This results in team members sitting around waiting to take action, instead of doing things that further the organisation’s strategy.
Disempowering staff
When employees are forced to justify why they want to spend $300 on a hotel, or $1,000 on a flight, it tells them they’re not trusted by leadership to make these kinds of decisions.
And when expenses above a specific threshold have to go through an arduous process, it creates an artificial ceiling on how much money team members believe they can spend, and therefore how ambitious they can be with their work. Even if a team member finds a cost-effective way to spend large amounts of money, they might discard the idea because it’s just not worth the hassle of going through multiple chains of approval.
Wasting team time
I hate receipts. Our original expense policy meant we had to submit receipts for all spending, including small expenses like a $5 coffee. This annoyed me so much that I decided to just pay for coffee with my own money instead, even though coffee during work hours is a normal business expense.
We value each team member’s time at $10/minute. Forcing them to spend 3 minutes submitting a receipt for a $5 coffee increases that coffee’s cost to BlueDot from $5 to $35. And to what benefit? The primary consequence of this policy is to annoy team members and waste their time, with minimal oversight benefits.
Our expense policy: Act in BlueDot’s best interest
Since 2024, our expense policy has been just 5 words: Act in BlueDot’s best interest.
All BlueDot team members are empowered to spend BlueDot’s money on whatever they think is most impactful for our mission. We trust team members to make sensible financial decisions, to evaluate whether or not a specific expense is a good use of the capital we’ve raised, and to be as ambitious as possible in pursuit of our mission to build the workforce that protects humanity.
Staff don’t need budget approval from me, or anyone else, before making a business expense of any amount. Large card transactions may trigger an identity check inside our finance/banking app, but this is a security control, not spending approval.
When a team member asks me “Dewi, what is the budget for this event I’m running?”, I tell them what our current bank balance is, and I remind them that our expense policy is to act in BlueDot’s best interest.
This policy is pretty radical. However, it’s helped us create a fast-moving, high-autonomy culture, where each team member knows they’re trusted to do what’s right for our mission.
A few examples of this policy in action:
Within weeks of our new Head of Growth joining, he’d spent >$100k on YouTube sponsorships.
Last year, a team member noticed that people in our community needed small amounts of fast cash to unblock their next steps. They stepped up to fix this, figured out how to do so legally, and we’ve since made >$1M in rapid grants.
Rapid grants paved the way for the >$2.5M we’ve made so far in career transition grants, a program that also started with a team member noticing an important problem and just fixing it.
Having been set up in a scrappy and fast way, both grant programs now follow well-defined processes for evaluating and deciding on grants.
The culture that enables this policy
We forked this policy from Netflix after reading the book No Rules Rules. If this policy was catapulted into any random organisation, I expect it would result in far greater costs than benefits.
Success with this policy relies on a range of factors, including:
Strategic clarity. Team members must understand the organisation’s mission and strategy, and their own responsibilities, so they can reason about what “act in BlueDot’s best interest” implies for them.
High talent density. Each team member needs to be smart and mission-driven enough to make sensible financial decisions. They need good judgement.
Feedback culture. Team members need to give and receive high-quality feedback. If someone’s behaviour isn’t in line with what’s best for the mission, they learn about it fast from their colleagues, so they can improve.
Downside minimisation. Some spending decisions could harm the organisation’s reputation with customers and funders, or could break the law and threaten its ability to operate. Team members should consider the magnitude of the downside risk associated with specific spending decisions, and seek additional feedback when it’s high.
The rest of this post provides guidance for BlueDot team members and for leaders at other organisations who are considering a similar policy. None of this is legal or tax advice. This policy isn’t part of anyone’s employment contract, and we can change it at any time. It describes how things work at BlueDot as of August 2026. Tax and payment mechanics vary by country.
Different types of spending
BlueDot US is a 501(c)(3) charity, and must comply with IRS rules.
BlueDot UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), with 501(c)(3) equivalency determination. It must comply with UK tax rules and operate consistently with its 501(c)(3) equivalency determination, which imposes similar constraints to the US entity’s.
This policy does not imply that BlueDot staff can spend BlueDot’s money on their weekend hiking trip to Yosemite, or to learn how to fly a plane, or to fix the dishwasher in their house. Aside from a team member’s compensation package, BlueDot’s money cannot be used for personal benefit.
The unconstrained “act in BlueDot’s best interest” policy applies only to business expenses. Taxable benefits have separate limits, and are described below.
Business expenses are the costs incurred in direct pursuit of BlueDot’s mission (e.g. marketing a program, paying a contractor, buying a work laptop).
Personal expenses are whatever you spend your own money on for your own purposes (e.g. paying household rent, going on holiday, buying clothes).
Taxable benefits are personal expenses that BlueDot covers as part of someone’s compensation. Our recurring wellbeing and commuting benefits are paid for using dedicated company cards with yearly limits. Relocation is paid as a one-off amount through payroll.
A heuristic to differentiate between business expenses and personal expenses: If someone else took over your job tomorrow, would BlueDot still need to pay this cost? If so, it’s probably a business expense.
If you’re unsure how to classify an expense or which card to use, ask the Ops team.
Business expenses
BlueDot’s most important asset is our team, and time is our scarcest resource.
When deciding whether to make a business expense, value your time at $10/minute. This is a simple rule of thumb, not a claim about your salary or the exact value created by every minute of your work. We set it high because a small amount of overspending is less costly than slowing the team down.
This approach doesn’t come naturally to frugal, impact-oriented people. For example, throughout 2021, I spent my evenings and weekends building a campervan, because I didn’t want to spend money on rent. In hindsight, this was a huge waste of my time.
You don’t need to calculate this precisely. If a legitimate business expense will save us a lot of time, default to spending the money.
Here are some things you might spend money on (all considered “business expenses”):
A high-performing laptop, monitor, ergonomic chair, noise-cancelling headphones, or whatever you need to work effectively, both in the office and at home.
Software and AI tools that make you work faster.
Team meals, coffee and snacks at the office or during the workday, food while travelling for work, or an occasional team dinner out.
When attending a work event, the ticket and transportation costs associated with getting there, and a good hotel either side of the event. Pay more for good transport, e.g. pay for Uber Comfort or extra legroom on a flight, so you can work as you travel and/or perform well when you arrive.
A course, book, or job-related coaching that makes you better at your job.
And here are some things that aren’t considered business expenses, and therefore aren’t covered by this policy:
Personal activities, e.g. a hobby class, a weekend trip, tickets to a show, or fixing/improving your house.
Costs from the personal portion of a work trip, e.g. if you stay three extra days after a work trip for a personal holiday, you pay for those nights yourself.
Food delivery while working from home or a meal out by yourself, unless you’re travelling overnight for work.
Your regular commute to the office. This isn’t a BlueDot business expense, but BlueDot covers it through a yearly allowance on your dedicated company commute card.
Personal wellbeing costs, such as gym memberships, meditation apps or therapy. These aren’t BlueDot business expenses, but BlueDot covers them as a taxable benefit through a yearly allowance on your dedicated company wellbeing card.
Taxable benefits
Taxable benefits are personal expenses that BlueDot covers as part of your compensation package. We offer taxable benefits because we want to encourage some types of personal expenses (e.g. things that improve your wellbeing), and to make joining the BlueDot team more attractive to top talent.
The taxable benefits policy cannot be unconstrained in the same way as our business expense policy, because that would enable team members to arbitrarily increase their own salary.
Our recurring benefits come via two annual allowances:
Wellbeing allowance: $10k/yr. This covers anything that keeps you physically and mentally well, including but not limited to gym sessions, therapy, coaching, and physio.
Commute allowance: $5k/yr. This covers getting to and from work by whatever mode suits you, including but not limited to Uber, transit passes, parking, and bike or e-bike costs.
You get two dedicated benefit cards (most likely in Ramp), separate from your business card: a wellbeing card and a commute card. Spend directly from the relevant card.
There’s nothing to submit: no claims, no reimbursement forms, no fronting your own money and waiting for payroll.
These are still taxable benefits. BlueDot treats spending on these cards as taxable compensation. Each quarter, whatever you actually spent on these cards is reported to payroll as income. BlueDot pays the associated tax on top, so your take-home pay isn’t reduced.
Fine print
Limits reset on 1 January each year and unused amounts don’t roll over. In the year you join BlueDot, your allowances are prorated for the remaining calendar months, including the month you start.
Receipts or notes aren’t needed for benefit-card spending. The card limit is the control. We don’t review which gym, therapist or other provider you choose. The receipt rules in “Preventing penalties” only apply to business expenses.
If your card is declined by a legitimate provider, message the Ops team.
Relocation
Relocation is also a taxable benefit, but it’s paid as a one-off lump sum rather than through a Ramp card.
If you’re moving to San Francisco to join BlueDot, we’ll pay you an $18k relocation allowance through payroll. BlueDot will pay the associated tax, so you’ll receive this amount after tax. Use it for whatever your move requires, such as temporary accommodation, a relocation adviser, a guarantor service or a deposit.
We also encourage you to take as much time as you need off from work to complete your housing search.
How to pay
For business expenses, default to your company card. Ramp automatically adds receipts sent by email. You only need to add a receipt or note when required under “Preventing penalties”.
If someone is invoicing us for work, such as a contractor, facilitator or creator, direct them to the invoice form. BlueDot pays these invoices by bank transfer so the Ops team can collect the required contractor details and process the payment correctly.
If your card won’t work for whatever reason, such as for a large bill or an invoice with payment terms, forward the invoice to finance@bluedot.org. It will automatically appear in Ramp for the Ops team to pay.
Mitigating risks
Preventing penalties
If you accidentally make a personal expense on your business card, tell the Ops team and repay it as soon as possible. We require repayment within 120 days.
For some business expenses, we require a one-line note and/or receipt within 60 days, so that the expense is properly documented for tax purposes. We’re building AI agents to automate most of this.
For expenses under $75:
If the purpose is obvious, such as Zoom or AWS, nothing is needed.
If the purpose is ambiguous, such as Uber, a restaurant or Amazon, add a one-line note.
For expenses of $75 or more, and all hotel expenses:
If the purpose is obvious, attach the receipt.
If the purpose is ambiguous, add a one-line note and attach the receipt.
Preventing disaster
If a team member’s company card was stolen and it didn’t have any security controls, a thief could spend a large amount of BlueDot’s money. This would be quite bad.
Large transactions trigger an identity check inside our banking app. An admin confirms that the person making the purchase owns the card.
This is a security check, not budget approval. The admin is not deciding whether the intended purchase is a good use of money.
Preventing abuse
Team members will sometimes make financial decisions that I believe aren’t in BlueDot’s best interest. This is the nature of having such a permissive policy, and it’s a price we’re willing to pay for speed, trust, and ambition.
All business spending is visible to leadership and the Ops team, and are reviewed regularly. My spending as CEO is also shared with the board. If a decision seems off, including whether someone spent too much or too little, we ask for more information, share feedback, and help calibrate what’s sensible.
In practice, this is rare: team members default to seeking feedback before large decisions. Only a pattern of bad financial judgement, or something flagrantly not in BlueDot’s best interest, is treated as a performance issue.
Taking action and learning is better than not taking action. Team members will make mistakes, and our feedback culture will help them learn from them.
Want to work in a team that operates like this?
This expense policy is rare, especially in the non-profit and impact-focused world. We believe it helps us move faster, be more creative, and feel more ownership over our work.
If you believe you’re already working in the most impactful place you could be, but that your organisation would be more impactful if it had this expense policy, send this blog post to your leadership team.
And if you’re looking for a new and impactful role, apply to join BlueDot! We’re always looking for exceptional people, and we’re growing fast.