70,000 USD does seem like a lot, which is why many of our users may be surprised to find out that in 2015, the OTW will need 75,000 USD just to replace old servers and expand capacity! The OTW’s annual budget for 2014 is 221,863.44 USD, and 70% of that goes directly to servers, collation, and staff development for AO3. The remaining 30% of our 2014 budget funds Fanlore, Legal Advocacy, Open Doors, and Transformative Works and Cultures; covers administrative costs; allows for outreach and membership development (such as our thank you gifts and shipping); and provides opportunities for professional development and training for personnel. All of these things help the OTW protect and celebrate fans and fan culture.
I find it amazing that people think that’s a lot of money to ask. It’s incredibly expensive to fund such heavily used and non ad supported websites, and that before anyone even gets paid for their work. I am definitely donating what I can to this drive, and I hope if you have a few dollars spare and benefit from Archive of Our Own, or any of their projects you will consider donating as well.
I donated a bit this year and I hope those of you who can will consider doing the same. I spend at least a half hour on AO3 everyday and I wish I could give them more to keep it beautifully ad free.
Are you kidding me? 70,000 is NOTHING. That is insanely low for running such an amazing service, not to mention such a highly trafficked website. This amount would be considered a low to middle wage for a starting web developer. That’s one developer. For one year.
Please, please think about the level of service that web apps and other tools like AO3 provide and SUPPORT THEM. It’s staggering, and they deserve ten times this level of funding, which would still be a VERY low operating budget for a site of this scale.
