#ao3 donations

[wander-wren]

every once in a while i like to poke my head into "anti [x]" tags just to see what the other side thinks. recently i was looking through "anti ao3" and found a really funny post claiming that ao3 is not anticapitalist, but actually the Definition Of Capitalism, bc it relies on volunteer labor while supposedly having the money to pay a staff.

oh, honey.

but i am not going to make unsubstantiated claims on the internet, no, and this gives me an excuse to look at ao3's whole budget myself, which i've been meaning to do for a while. these numbers are taken from the 2022 budget post and budget spreadsheet.

ao3's total income for 2022, from the two donation drives, regular donations, donation matching programs, interest, and royalties was $1,012,543.42. less than $300 of that was from interest and royalties, so it's almost all donations. and that's a lot, right? surely an organization making a million dollars a year can afford to pay some staff, right?

well, let's look at expenses. first of all, they lose almost $37,000 to transaction fees right away. ao3 and fanlore (~$341k and ~$18k, respectively) take up the biggest chunks of the budget by far. that money pays for, to quote the 2022 budget post, "server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses."

in some years, otw also pays external contractors to perform audits for security issues, and for more servers to handle the growing userbase. servers are expensive as hell, guys. in 2022, new server costs alone were $203k.

each of their other programs only cost around $3,000 or less, and otw paid around $78k for fundraising and development. wait, how do you lose so much money on your fundraising?? from the 2022 budget post: "Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, and the tools used to host the OTW’s membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors."

then the otw paid an additional $74k in administration expenses, which covers "hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication, management, and accounting tools."

in case you weren't following all of that math, the total expenses for 2022 come out to $518,978.48. woah! that's a lot! but it's still only a little over half of their net revenue. weird. i wonder what they do with that extra $494k?

well, $400k of it goes to the reserves, which i'll get to in a second. the last $93k, near as i can tell, gets rolled over to the next year. i'll admit this part i'm a little unsure about, as it's not clear on the spreadsheet, but that's the only thing that makes sense.

the reserves, though are clear. the most recent post i could find on the otw site about it were in the board meeting minutes from april 2, 2022: "We’re holding about $1million in operating cash that is about twice the amount of our annual operating costs. There is another $1million in reserves due to highly successful fundraisers in the past. The current plan for the reserves is to hold the money for paid staff in the future. It’s been talked about before in the past and we’re still working out the details, but it’s a rather expensive undertaking that will result in large annual expenses in addition to the initial cost of implementation."

woah....they're PLANNING to have paid staff eventually! wild!

so let's assume, for easy numbers, that the otw currently has $1.5 million in reserves. before we even get to how to use that money, let's look at the issues with implementing paid staff:

deciding which positions are going to be paid, because it can't be all of them

deciding how much to pay them, bc minimum wage sure as hell isn't enough, and cost of living is different everywhere, and volunteers come from all over the world

hiring staff and implementing new systems/tools to handle things like payroll and accounting

making sure you continue to earn enough money both to pay all of the staff and have some in reserves for emergencies or leaner donation drives

probably even more stuff than that! i don't run a nonprofit, that's just what i can think of off the top of my head.

okay, okay, okay. for the sake of argument, let's assume there is a best-case scenario where the otw starts paying some staff tomorrow. how much should they be paid? i'm picking $15 an hour, since that's what we fought for the minimum wage to be. by now, it should be closer to $20 or $25, but i'm trying to give "ao3 is capitalism" the fairest shot it can get here, okay?

ideally, if someone is being paid to help run ao3, they shouldn't need a second job. every job should pay enough to live off of. and running a nonprofit is hard work that leads to a lot of burnout--two board members JUST resigned before their terms were up. what i'm saying is, i'm going to assume a paid otw staff is getting paid for 40 hours of work a week, minimum. that's $31,200.

at $400,000 per year, the otw can afford to pay 12 people. that's WITHOUT taking into account the new systems, tools, software, etc they would have to pay for, any kind of fees, etc, etc.

oh, and btw, if you're an american you're still making barely enough to survive in most places, AND you don't have universal healthcare, vision, or dental. want otw to give people insurance, too? the number of people they can pay goes down.

it's. not. possible.

a million dollars is a lot of money on the face of it, but once you realize how MUCH goes into running something like the otw, it goes away fast.

just for reference, wikipedia also has donation drives every year. wikipedia, as of 2021, has $86.8 million in cash reserves and $137.4 million in investments. sure, wikipedia and ao3 are very different entities, but that disparity is massive. and i should note that if you give $10 to wikipedia they don't give you voting rights, i'm just saying.

by the way, you may have noticed that i didn't mention legal costs at all here. isn't one of otw's big Things about how they do legal advocacy?

yes, it is. they have a whole page about that work. and i can't for the life of me find a source on otw's website (and i'm running out of time to write this post, i'll look harder later), but i am 90% sure i learned before that most, if not all, of otw's legal work/advice/etc is done pro bono. i've also seen an anti-ao3 person claim their legal budget is only $5k or so, but they didn't have a source. but keep in mind that if they don't have a legal budget, all the numbers above stay the same, and if they do, there is even less money available for paid staff.

you can criticize ao3 and the otw all you want! there are many valid reasons to criticize them, and i do not think they're perfect either. but if you're going to do so, you should at least make sure you can back up your claims, bc otherwise you just look silly.

#ao3 #otw #anti ao3 #bc i want them to see this #otw board #ao3 discourse #ao3 donations #wren wrambles #that post was so unserious i died #if it was more recent (its from mid-july) i wouldve replied directly maybe #but i didnt want to drag the body of a 6-note post into the light OR attack the op directly so #also! if i misunderstood something pls let me know im doing my best

[jezebel06]

Ao3 Donation

Yesterday, after logging into my Ao3 account, I of course saw they were having one of their bi-annual drives and decided to contribute. I set it up as a recurring yearly payment. Now, as a fandom vet who used what was once twitter until Elon Musk got his grimy hands on it and dubbed it 'X', I know there's a bunch of Anti-Ao3 people who disparage donating while using the damn site! I also frequent the Ao3 reddit so I've seen it discussed and I'm ready to give in my two cents. "why donate to Ao3 when you could donate to (insert cause here)?" How do you know people aren't doing both? I'm a woman, LGBTQ+, Animal lover, and have a husband with depression and heart-failure. Can you guess where I might toss a few when possible? Or what I might share even when I can't if I run into a donation link? I am also however, anti-censorship and a fandom nerd. Therefore, I believe OTW dose important work too. This year, the choice cause for those attempting to shame drive participants is Palestine, but remember when it was people affected by the Covid pandemic and essential workers? My husband caught covid, had a heart attack, and was in a coma for a while (this is how the aforementioned heart-failure). I was not allowed to see him. During this time, it was insanely hard to get out of bed and, as an essential worker, go to work. Ao3 has helped me through some incredibly tough spots and personal life tragedies including this one. This one though is why I'm tired of seeing anti-posts. You clearly don't even care one iota about the people affected by the cause you claim. If you did: You would support it without shaming over a hobby these very same people might engage in. Its also incredibly hypocritical btw to do this while using the site. They cost money to run. Have you ever spent a single dime on any kind of recreation yourself? Unless your answer is 'no', you don't have a leg to stand on even without the above when it comes to telling anyone how to spend their money. ENOUGH VIRTUE SIGNALING! THANKS!

#ao3 #ao3 donations #anti ao3 #pro ao3

[ghostlycrowncherryblossom]

Whenever ao3 donation drive comes around I go into the tumblr tag for it and block every ao3 anti who appears there. It's free blocklist period for me 😂

#ao3 #ao3 donation #ao3 donations

[adharastarlight]

one of my favourite things is the ao3 donations, like I just this second went on ao3 and out of their 50k goal? they have $212,902.69 (hehe 69)

so you know, over 4x their goal

and people dare say fanfiction isnt valid, my gods

#its incredible #gotta love ao3 #ao3 #fanfiction #ao3 donations

[pansextastic]

I am pleased to announce that I am officially a voter and donar to ao3!!!

I'm very happy to play a role in helping this amazing website stay up and save all our work!

#fanfiction #the beatles #fanfic #beatles fan #ao3 fanfiction #sexy #george harrison #ringo starr #john lennon #paul mccartney #ao3 kudos #ao3 link #ao3 fanfic #ao3 donations #ao3 stuff #ao3 author #ao3 beatles #ao3 comments #ao3 fic #writers on ao3 #ao3 update #read on ao3 #ao3 tips #ao3 works #ao3 writer #ao3 feed #ao3 account #ao3 bookmarks #ao3 community #ao3 enhancements

[catgirl-catboy]

The question is not if you personally want to donate to ao3 or not.

The question is would you prefer to see a(n optional) donation banner at the top of the screen once a year, or the ao3 team putting ads and making money off your fanfic.

I know which one I’d prefer.

#ao3 discourse #pro ao3 #ao3 donations #archiveofourown #ads #advertizing

[nickelouschloride]

It's that time again and it's only been

~3 MINUTES

I'm so proud.

#ao3 #ao3 donations #ao3 never change #love this for them #e

[wallflowers-garden]

never before have i wanted to donate to ao3 as much as i do now

*throws college tuition*

#ao3 #ao3 down #ao3 donations #fanfic #fandom #fanfiction

[dont-know-how-this-works]

Genuine question: is there a way to donate to ao3 outside of their donation drives?

As others are saying, we should donate to help prevent/help with future downtimes and I want to donate while I remember as I know I've happened to miss the last couple of drives

#ao3 #ao3 is down #ao3 donations

[mckiwi]

The donations on AO3 are insane. Within the span of about 10-15 minutes, they’ve gotten the entire $50k they asked for…

Fic readers are crazy. Glad I’m one of them.

#ao3 #ao3 donations #fan fic

[formerly-evil]

To anyone who donated to Ao3 please know that I love you, I hope you always catch your train/bus, may your pillow always be cold, I hope you will always find pretty clothes in your size, may all your flowers thrive and nothing you cook burn ❤️ Thanks for keeping my favorite place alive, I cannot donate myself but I’m glad so many people did. You are all wonderful and I wish you all the happiness

#just in case there appears some drama about it #or some hate #i wanted to put out my own grateful positive message #it’s always so cute to see how much they have surpassed their goal #i always open ao3 to see the fundraiser is already double than the original goal and counting #and it’s like #❤️❤️ #thank you people #ao3 #archive of our own #ao3 donations

[rehaliahdrarys]

I love seeing AO3 exceed their donation goal in a matter of hours every time the banner appears but what I love even more is that someone made sure the amount ended with 69 cents and no one has changed it since

#ao3 #ao3 donations

[unpopularfanopinion]

It’s so much fun watching these people try to rail about Ao3, either about the content host there. Or complaining that a site that has millions of users and visitors everyday manages to raise 250k in less than a day(Seriously you idiots, think about it for two seconds, if every Ao3 user donated just 1 dollar they would likely get 10 times their goal amount)

And as for content, there’s really nothing on Ao3 that you can’t also find in public libraries or book stores.  Do these people go and demand that these places pull books from their shelves.

I can just see each and every Ao3 hater at a school board meeting, holding up a copy of Heartstopper or Gender Queer screaming and crying about the vile “child porn” being so readily available to teenagers. Because heaven knows we can’t let <i>teenagers</i> know about sex or sexuality before they hit the magical age of 18 when everyone knows the switch for sexual interest just flips on.  And any exposure to sex/sexuality before that age is inherently harmful to teens and proof of evil and sin (this is all sarcasm if you can’t tell)

Still is rather fun watching all of their impotent rage as they tilt against the windmill, knowing that they must live miserable, hate filled lives if they feel the need to spend so much energy on a website centered around people having fun, and sharing things that make them happy.

#Ao3 #Ao3 discourse #Ao3 donations #the Ao3 haters will never win

[bunny0980]

I can’t wait for ao3 donations to go back online cus you just know they’re going to make 20k in 10 seconds after this it’s gonna be fun refreshing the page

#ao3 funny #ao3 down #ao3 donations #humor

[gingerswagfreckles]

i get so annoyed at all those posts that guilt ppl for donating to ao3 like UGH i love how ao3 will raise 200,000 dollars in a day 🤑💵🤯meanwhile those personal donation posts will go around and not meet their goals 🙄🤔😬 smh really shows u where people’s priorities lie!!! 😒👀🙃

like uuuuuh ok do u think it maybe has something to do with the fact that ao3 gets over 50 million visitors daily meanwhile those donation posts are seen by like 65 people???? perhaps???

#gingerswagfreckles #ao3 #ao3 donations #ao3 donation drive

[gvtted-ratz]

AO3 has released their finance spending today. They collected US $207,088.91 during this donation drive. Here is a comment we have responded to if anyone was wondering on why ao3's spendings are: not much in the legal parts, promotion, and why it cannot be a "free social media like normal influences" use. If you would like to see more on their expenses, breakdowns on purchases, etc, here is the link to their: official post.

We are happy AO3 has collected more than their goal and can keep our works alive. We hope everyone enjoys their fics for the many days to come.

Under the cut, we have written out what our comment was for those who can't read or see the picture.

Commenter:

I can't believe it takes half a million to run this site every year (with how little improvement/development actually goes into this site)… and legal fees are a drop in the bucket compared to 'promotion/outreach'… why not just use free social media like normal influencers? You don't need to go to conventions (flights, hotels, booths, etc.).

gvtted-ratz:

Ao3, in a way, is a free site for fanfics and works, just like a library is with history and books. The "little improvement/development" is quite a lot. According to the actual report here, "47.2% of the OTW's expenses go towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses, as well as costs..." The filtering system is very nice here and hard to find in other places. Legal fees would be for those lawsuits. "Legal's expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary.." So this is only for when it is needed. The people who work on this site dedicate much of their time to keep it running. Conventions help with the donating and spread the word of AO3's dedication to keeping fan fiction alive and protected. A "free social media" site would not work for this extensive library of literary fan works/original works. We hope this helps. (We are not part of OTW but thought we could help answer your question).

#gvtted ratz post #ao3 #archive of our own #archive of my own #ao3 donations #ao3 stuff