Donations to No More Panic - a breakdown

[nomorepanic]

I have been asked to inform members about the donations I receive to help fund NMP.

This is a totally accurate breakdown for this year. I have no reason to make the figures up.

The cost of the server that hosts NMP is £106 a month so as you can see below, sometimes there are not sufficient donations to cover this and other month's there are enough to cover the shortfall and the same month.

Most donations are sent via Paypal which incurs a charge to receive the money and some are sent by cheque or direct bank transfer.

January: £55 donations - fees £2.67. Total = £52.33

February: £158 donations - fees £7.42 Total = £150.58

March: donations £135 - fees £7.22 Total = £127.78

April: donations £244 - fees £10.53 (one really generous member donated £200 of this amount!!) Total = £233.47

May: donations £45 - fees £2.37 Total = £42.63

June: donations £249 - fees £9.88 Total = £239.12

July: donations £55 - fees £2.87 Total = £52.13

Aug: (so far) donations £55 Total = £55

Easy fundraising donations since Jan 2015 = £24.31

Total this year is £977.35 over 8 months

Cost of server = £106 x 8 = £848 so I have £129.35 in the "kitty"

[23tana]

So without the one generous donation, you would be running at a loss. And none of these figures include the time and electricity used by Nic and the admins.

Can we have a vote for how many people would pay a membership fee?

[nomorepanic]

We won't go down the membership route and for now we are in the black with donations so some month's will be up and some down - that is ok

[23tana]

What about some games with prizes donated or from the shop?

[ricardo]

Is it not possible to just buy a product for The Chat Room as opposed to what amounts as a monthly rental, or do they all work like your example,Nic.
Unfortunately this brings up the question of membership or not and I believe in your experience you would prefer to keep it an open site.

It is practically impossible to find a solution whereby members would pay a fixed amount monthly or yearly and members come and go and one is left with a hard core, and put it to the vote if members would pay or not.
How many members are on line in any given 24 hour period multiplied by 365 days ? You see it gets so complicated, it really is a poser.

[sial72]

How many members are there? Wouldn't a really cheap membership (like 1£ a month) cover it? Surely everybody could afford that? X

[MyNameIsTerry]

How many members are there? Wouldn't a really cheap membership (like 1£ a month) cover it? Surely everybody could afford that? X

Yep, thats what I agree with. I know some people like to pay more and there is the option for donation anyway but when you consider membership you have to consider how things look to new business, not us existing members and the competition.

Some people may be scratching their heads over that but it's simply a matter of looking at a list of places to join and deciding if one offers an advantage over the others. If there isn't this, new business may go elsewhere.

I think it is commendable though that Nic is willing to resist a trend towards a closed site as well as likely astute too because it may also just turn into a club. I offer my thanks for her showing us the impact we can make and also it's amazing that someone felt so committed as to give £200 and then there was the guy who gave them his Vbulletin licence (was it a licence)

[ricardo]

Nic doesn't want a closed site, she has mentioned it before.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes, I know it says above about membership. But the problem is if you charge people the question they will ask is what do they get over the people watching. So, some forums have gone closed and what some do is have an open forum but with some members only closed boards. Maybe that would be middle ground there.

The answer is that people joining could having posting rights but then that takes it back to all those forums out there that don't charge for that. What are they like? What is the competition? Or are you only looking to preserve something with the people here already out of goodwill as as opposed to really applying a membership?

Maybe Nic just prefers not having the hassle of membership management?

[ricardo]