Archive of Our Own

We are pleased to publish the OTW's 2024 Annual Report, available in PDF and HTML formats. The report provides a letter from our Board of Directors, a summary of our activities during the past year, and our financial statements for 2024. Some highlights from 2024 include finishing the update to AO3's Terms of Service, creating a new committee (and 2 new subcommittees!), as well as starting work on the OTW Organizational Culture Roadmap.

You can access the 2024 report, and all earlier years, on the Reports and Governing Documents page of the OTW website. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

We are pleased to publish the OTW's 2023 Annual Report, available in PDF or HTML formats. The report provides a letter from our Board of Directors, a summary of our activities during the past year and our financial statements for 2023.

Some highlights from 2023 include a survey for AO3's 16th anniversary, major growth in OTW's social media presence, and Legal Advocacy successfully obtaining a renewal of the vidding exemption for the sixth time in our history!

You can access the 2023 report, and all earlier years, on the Reports and Governing Documents page of the OTW website. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

The OTW launched a user survey as part of the International Fanworks Day's 10th annual celebration. It was launched on February 9th and closed on February 19th. The survey, which asked 12 questions, was offered in 25 languages and was started by 55,620 people.

This survey report covers the following:

1) How many responses there were to each question
2) How many people gave which answers.

Below is an example from the report:

Q8: Have you ever used AO3 bookmarks to rec a fanwork?

50,591 survey takers answered this question.

Yes – 36,026 (71.37%)
No – 14,565 (28.63%)

Visit this link to access the rest of the survey responses.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Throughout the year, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. The team also revamped the accounting structure to better reflect the OTW's financial activity. Preparation for the audit of 2022 financial statements continues!

The team has also been diligently working on the 2023 budget update and are happy to present it here: (access the 2023 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2023 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$237,279.97 spent so far out of US$336,514.21 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• 47.7% 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 highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses also include US$64,000 to purchase new servers to increase the capacity of existing servers to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

• US$4,081.74 spent so far out of US$4,379.42 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$4,151.48 spent so far out of US$4,279.48 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tool (access all program expenses).

Fanlore

• US$12,575.29 spent so far out of US$17,903.54 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs, as well as its portion of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$491.06 spent so far out of US$5,491.06 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Legal's expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$1,564.95 spent so far out of US$3,684.95 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Budgeted expenses include convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW, which include convention registration fees, tabling fees, and related presentation materials (access all program expenses).

Fundraising and Development

• US$68,285.08 spent so far out of US$121,509.38 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• 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, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$69,179.75 spent so far out of US$212,988.32 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as productivity, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2023 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together will account for about 47% of our income in 2023. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases and keep on hand for legal contingencies. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. As the Archive and other projects of the OTW grow, we also spend more on tools and technology to support our volunteers, such as the tools used by Support and Policy & Abuse to communicate with and aid users, further increasing expenses.
• US$621,454.87 received so far (as of September 30, 2023) and US$693,989.51 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We'll get back to you as soon as possible!

To download the OTW's 2023 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

On September 5, 2023 the OTW launched a user survey to coincide with its 16th anniversary. The purpose was to identify locations used by fans for fandom activities so as to better understand where they might be encountering and sharing news. In compliance with our Strategic Plan's Vision Statement, we also used this survey to establish a baseline of fans' familiarity with the OTW and its projects.

The survey asked between 16 to 35 ticky box and radio button questions (depending on what answers were given) and was open for 16 days, closing on September 21. During that time the survey was accessed 90,607 times. This may indicate that some people visited the form several times, either to start and stop a survey response or to read the opening page.

Our survey platform designated the consent form as Q1, so survey questions began with Q2. Of the 79,222 respondents to the consent form, 78,258 said Yes (98.78%) they consented to take the survey and 965 (1.22%) said no, at which point those users did not continue with the survey.

The survey report covers the following:

1) How many responses there were to each question
2) What number and percentage of respondents chose each answer, and
3) How many people skipped the question.

Below are a few examples of responses from the report:

Q2: How long have you been active in online fandom spaces?

78,258 survey takers received this question.
77,358 answered it.
1,865 exited the survey at this point.

Less than a year - 1,964 (2.54%)
1-2 years - 6,563 (8.48%)
3-5 years - 20,369 (26.33%)
6-10 years - 25,105 (32.45)
11-15 years - 13,040 (16.86%)
16-25 years - 8,690 (11.23%)
26-30 years - 1,257 (1.62%)
Over 30 years - 370 (0.48%)

Q26: Have you ever downloaded a fanwork from Archive of Our Own/AO3?

67,544 survey takers received this question.
67,475 answered it
69 exited the survey at this point.

Yes - 46,574 (69.02%)
No - 20,901 (30.98%)

Visit this link to access the rest of the report.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

During the last year, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. Preparation for the 2022 audit of financial statements is currently ongoing!

The team has also been diligently working to meet the OTW's 2023 needs, and is proud to present to you this year's budget (access the 2023 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2023 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$99,854.48 spent so far out of US$295,285.76 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• 59.4% 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 highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses also include US$74,000 to purchase new servers, as well as US$77,000 in server related equipment to increase the capacity of existing servers to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

• US$2,232.86 spent so far out of US$5,526.16 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$847.70 spent so far out of US$3,509.70 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Fanlore

• US$6,222.79 spent so far out of US$16,201.99 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs, as well as its portion of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$5,258.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Legal's expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$2,000.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Budgeted expenses include US$1,000.00 for convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW, which include convention tabling fees, volunteer attendance, and related presentation materials, as well as US$1,000.00 for convention giveaways (access all program expenses).

Fundraising and Development

• US$9,235.91 spent so far out of US$79,625.11 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• 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, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$21,093.22 spent so far out of US$89,172.96 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as productivity, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2023 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together will account for about 27% of our income in 2023. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases and keep on hand for legal contingencies. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. The growth of the Archive and other projects of the OTW also requires more volunteers and administrative support, further increasing expenses. The budget spreadsheet projects a withdrawal of US$130,000 from reserves to cover the costs that exceed the amount of revenue projected to be received this year. This amount may be withdrawn as needed during the year.
• US$69,477.12 received so far (as of February 28, 2023) and US$370,320.00 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We'll get back to you as soon as possible!

To download the OTW's 2023 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

We are pleased to publish the OTW's 2021 Annual Report, available in PDF or html formats. The report provides a letter from our Board of Directors, a summary of our activities during the past financial and calendar year, and our financial statements for 2021. Some highlights from 2021 include Fanlore's one millionth edit, Transformative Works and Cultures' new editor team, and comment freezing deployed on AO3 works and news posts.

You can also access reports from all earlier years at the Reports and Governing Documents page of the OTW website. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

During 2021, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. Preparation for the 2020 audit of financial statements continues!

Meanwhile, the team has also been diligently working on the 2021 budget update and are happy to present it here (access the 2021 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2021 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$125,025.02 spent so far out of US$227,075.48 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• 62.1% 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 highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses include a planned US$100,000.00 for an expansion of server capacity to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

• US$450.48 spent so far out of US$1,160.85 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$339.00 spent so far out of US$1,839.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Fanlore

• US$5,527.77 spent so far out of US$10,697.58 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$2,500.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Legal's expenses consist of filing fees for various activities, including OTW trademarks (access all program expenses).

Grant for F. Coppa book on the History of Fanvidding

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$598.32 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• The money for this grant comes from a donation made to the OTW in 2020 for the specific purpose of covering costs related to the production of Francesca Coppa's book on the history of fanvidding. The University of Michigan will publish the book and host the fanvids, as well as make it accessible for free online for everyone to read and use.
• Budgeted expenses are for additional proofreading and publication (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$31,423.46 spent so far out of US$62,647.46 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Our fundraising 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 (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$12,448.35 spent so far out of US$59,264.41 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2021 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 57% of our income in 2021. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which will significantly increase server equipment and server hosting expenses in the coming years. The growth of the Archive and other projects of the OTW also requires more administrative support, further increasing expenses.
• US$482,542.83 received so far (as of July 31, 2021) and US$542,972.85 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on October 16 at 8pm UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

Thanks for joining the chat!

To download the OTW's 2021 budget update in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

During the last year, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. Preparation for the 2020 audit of financial statements is currently ongoing!

The team has also been diligently working to meet the OTW's 2021 needs, and is proud to present to you this year's budget (access the 2021 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2021 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$26,728.93 spent so far out of US$416,252.39 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• 75.0% 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 highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses also contain US$115,000.00 in contractor costs to finish up work on moving AO3 collection searching to Elasticsearch, to upgrade the Archive to Rails 6.1, and to do an external audit of the AO3 site to find any security issues that need to be fixed.
• Additionally, AO3 expenses include a planned US$203,000.00 for an expansion of server capacity to handle expected site traffic growth through the year. It is possible that some parts of this activity will be postponed to next year depending on various circumstances; the updated budget to be released later this year will provide additional information.

Open Doors

• US$128.88 spent so far out of US$864.17 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$339.00 spent so far out of US$1,831.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Fanlore

• US$1,017.54 spent so far out of US$15,251.66 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$5,000.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• Legal's expenses consist of filing fees and registration fees for conferences and hearings (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$500.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• Budgeted expenses include US$100.00 for producing flyers for virtual cons and US$400.00 for other convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW (access all program expenses).

Grant for F. Coppa book on the History of Fanvidding

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$598.32 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• The money for this grant comes from a donation made to the OTW in 2020 for the specific purpose of covering costs related to the production of Francesca Coppa's book on the history of fanvidding. The University of Michigan will publish the book and host the fanvids, as well as make it accessible for free online for everyone to read and use.
• Budgeted expenses are for additional proofreading and publication (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$5,657.33 spent so far out of US$52,564.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• Our fundraising 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 (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$3,154.33 spent so far out of US$61,911.81 total this year, as of February 28, 2021.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2021 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 35% of our income in 2021. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. The growth of the Archive and other projects of the OTW also requires more volunteers and administrative support, further increasing expenses. The budget spreadsheet projects a withdrawal of US$195,000.00 from reserves to cover the costs that exceed the amount of revenue to be received this year. This amount may be withdrawn as needed during the year.
• US$55,553.19 received so far (as of February 28, 2021) and US$360,575.00 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on April 10 at 8pm UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

Click through here to access the chatroom where the meeting will be held. Come chat with us, and bring your questions!

To download the OTW's 2021 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

During 2020, the OTW Finance team has continued to review the organization's financial transactions for accuracy and completeness. Additional tasks have included paying the bills, completing the audit of the 2019 financials, and ensuring that standard accounting procedures were met.

In the meantime, the team has also been diligently working on the update to the 2020 budget, and are proud to present it here! (access the 2020 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2020 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$76,703.46 spent so far out of US$383,327.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2020.
• 68.2% of the OTW's expenses go toward maintaining 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 highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year, US$18,000 in contractor costs have been spent on separating AO3 administrative roles in the background to make volunteer work more efficient. Other budgeted AO3 expenses include an additional US$100,000.00 in contractor costs for work on moving AO3 collection searching to Elasticsearch and upgrading to Rails 6.
• Additionally, AO3 expenses include the purchase of frontend servers, database servers, and VM servers for roughly US$147,000.00. The new database servers will expand the ability of our infrastructure to store works for AO3 and also increase the number of pages served to users. The old servers will be repurposed as application servers, which generate site pages.
• Also planned is the installation of a third server rack later in the year to give AO3 (and OTW websites) more power capacity and reduce the impact of server failures. Adding this rack will involve setup costs of roughly US$8,000.00, and will increase our monthly server costs by US$2,200.00
• Other budgeted costs include US$33,000.00 for a Systems contractor, who will do some work for various OTW projects, including AO3.

Fanlore

• US$2,527.97 spent so far out of US$13,659.57 total this year, as of July 31, 2020.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchases, maintenance, and colocation costs, in addition to Fanlore's web domain renewals (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$331.00 spent so far out of US$1,831.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2020.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, and publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$364.01 spent so far out of US$927.78 total this year, as of July 31, 2020.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$2,500.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2020.
• Legal's budgeted expenses consist of filing fees (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$500.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2020.
• Budgeted expenses include US$100.00 for printing flyers and US$400.00 for other convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$44,771.92 spent so far out of US$107,248.20 total this year, as of July 31, 2020.
• Our fundraising 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 current and potential donors (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$10,475.36 spent so far out of US$52,404.14 total this year, as of July 31, 2020.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2020 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 71% of our income in 2020. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Given your generosity in the past several drives, we are planning to transfer an additional US$150,000 into our reserves, to be kept in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we are exploring alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. We have made progress in a search for a suitable investment method and investment specialist for a small nonprofit organization like the OTW; we aim to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2021.
• Your generosity during the April 2020 drive especially has left the OTW with the ability to begin planning for the fiscal feasibility of large scale projects. We look forward to sharing these with you once we figure out the legal and practical logistics!
• We also received our first restricted donation: US$5,161.62 from HP Education Fanon, Inc., a fellow 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to promoting the benefits of reading that sadly ceased operations in 2018. The donation will go toward supporting Francesca Coppa's book on the history of fan vidding for the University of Michigan Press, which is currently in production. The money will be used to pay for the University of Michigan to host the fanvids referenced in the book, as well as assist in making the book free for everyone to read and use.
• US$665,975.09 received so far (as of July 31, 2020) and US$754,362.62 total projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on October 10 at 8pm UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

To download the OTW's 2020 budget update in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

Throughout 2019, the OTW Finance team worked in the background to make sure that all of the organization's bills were paid, taxes were filed, and standard accounting procedures were met. Preparations for the 2019 financial statements and audit are currently underway!

In the meantime, the team has also been diligently working to meet the OTW's 2020 needs, and are proud to present to you this year's budget (access the 2020 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2020 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$11,326.91 spent so far out of US$503,414.15 total this year, as of February 29, 2020.
• 79.7% 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 highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses also contains US$100,000.00 in contractor costs for work on moving AO3 collection searching to Elasticsearch and upgrading to Rails 6.
• Additionally, AO3 expenses tentatively include a planned significant server upgrade and expansion of roughly US$255,000.00. New database servers will expand the ability of the Archive to serve pages and search results to users with fewer connection issues. The old servers will be repurposed as storage for the new servers. It is possible this activity will be deferred to next year depending on various circumstances; the updated budget to be released later this year will provide additional information.
• Other budgeted costs include US$33,000.00 for a Systems contractor, who will do some work for various OTW projects, including the Archive.

Fanlore

• US$533.83 spent so far out of US$7,018.28 total this year, as of February 29, 2020.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchases, maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to Fanlore's web domain renewals (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$331.00 spent so far out of US$1,831.00 total this year, as of February 29, 2020.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, and publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$139.66 spent so far out of US$871.83 total this year, as of February 29, 2020.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$5,000.00 total this year, as of February 29, 2020.
• Legal's expenses consist of filing fees and travel expenses for conferences and hearings (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$500.00 total this year, as of February 29, 2020.
• Budgeted expenses include US$100.00 for printing flyers and US$400.00 for other convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$2,891.28 spent so far out of US$59,187.18 total this year, as of February 29, 2020.
• Our fundraising 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 (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$6,777.87 spent so far out of US$53,657.25 total this year, as of February 29, 2020.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2020 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 58% of our income in 2020. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Given your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount in reserves, which we plan to keep in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we can explore alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. The Finance team has made progress in its search for a suitable investment method for a small non-profit organization like the OTW and aims to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2020.
• The reserves also help bolster us in years when we’re planning larger than usual purchases. As mentioned previously, we have plans to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which significantly increase our expenses for this year. Some of the forecasted expenses outlined in this budget may not take place before the end of the year, due to various constraints. To account for this uncertainty, even though all expenses we anticipate are described in the budget spreadsheet, we have projected a withdrawal of US$111,000.00 from our reserves to cover the amount corresponding to the less likely expenses. This additional amount may be withdrawn from reserves on an as-needed basis during the year. Our budget update, which will be published in October, will contain more precise information about which expenses will take place in 2020.
• US$49,079.71 received so far (as of February 29, 2020) and US$520,900.00 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on April 25 at 8pm UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

Here is the link to the chat transcript. Thank you for participating!

To download the OTW's 2020 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

Earlier in the year, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) published its 2019 budget. With the end of the year drawing closer, we’d like to issue an update on our financial activity for the remainder of the year, and how our plans have altered or progressed.

Our Finance team continues to track the OTW’s financial activity, prepare financial statements and reports, and ensure compliance with accounting standards and regulations. We’ve worked to improve and document our processes, help the OTW plan its financial future, and are close to concluding the annual audit of our 2018 financial statements.

Without further ado, here’s our updated budget for 2019 (download the budget spreadsheet for more information):

2019 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$74,984.28 spent so far out of US$334,351.23 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• 74.2% 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 licences (access all program expenses).
• This year's AO3 expenses include US$30,000.00 in contractor costs for upgrades and security testing, of which US$15,000.00 has already been spent to upgrade Ruby for the Archive.
• Additionally, AO3 expenses include a significant server overhaul and expansion of roughly US$177,000.00. New virtualisation servers will replace the current equipment, making testing and deployment of code for the Archive much smoother. The old servers will be repurposed as storage for the new servers. Other new servers will expand the Archive's capacity to serve pages and search results to users with fewer connection issues.
• Other anticipated costs include US$33,000.00 for a Systems contractor, who will do some work for the Archive's hardware infrastructure.

Fanlore

• US$1,477.22 spent so far out of US$10,374.19 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchases and maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to Fanlore web domains (access all program expenses).
• The new virtualisation servers mentioned above will also serve Fanlore pages and store Fanlore wiki backups.

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC)

• US$275.00 spent so far out of US$1,833.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Transformative Works and Cultures’ expenses are the journal's website hosting, and publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$244.20 spent so far out of US$1,294.54 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$5,000.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Legal's expenses consist of filing fees and travel expenses for conferences and hearings, when and if they are required (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$500.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Budgeted expenses include US$100 for printing flyers and US$400 for other convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$23,100.09 spent so far out of US$46,800.09 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Our fundraising 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 (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$17,051.93 spent so far out of US$50,440.80 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2019 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 68.7% of our income in 2019. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Given your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount in reserves, which we plan to keep in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we can explore alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. The Finance team has made progress in its search for a suitable investment method for a small non-profit organization like the OTW and aims to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2019.
• US$346,650.73 received so far (as of July 31, 2019) and US$546,750.73 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on October 13 8PM UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

Here is the link to the open chat! Come chat with us, and bring your questions! The chat is now over. To contact the Finance Committee with any quesitons, please fill out the form on our website<.a>.

To download the OTW’s updated budget for 2019 in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

2018 was another productive and busy year for the OTW Finance team. We continue to work in the background to make sure that the bills are paid, the record keeping is accurate, and standard accounting procedures are met. Preparations for the 2018 financial statements and audit are also underway!

And now, we present the budget for 2019 (access the 2019 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2019 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$12,242.60 spent so far out of US$418,104.06 total this year, as of February 28, 2019.
• 81.2% 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 (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses include US$110,000 in contractor costs for upgrades and security testing.
• Additionally, AO3 expenses include a significant server overhaul and expansion of roughly US$177,000. New virtualisation servers will replace the current equipment, making testing and deployment of code for the Archive much smoother. The old servers will be repurposed as storage for the new servers. Other new servers will expand the Archive's capacity to serve pages and search results to users with fewer connection issues.
• Other anticipated costs include US$33,000 for a Systems contractor, who will do some work for the Archive's hardware infrastructure.

Fanlore

• US$329.34 spent so far out of US$6,738.97 total this year, as of February 28, 2019.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchases, maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to Fanlore's web domain renewals (access all program expenses).
• The new virtualisation servers mentioned above will also serve Fanlore pages and store Fanlore wiki backups.

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$275.00 spent so far out of US$1,833.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2019.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, and publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$91.82 spent so far out of US$936.17 total this year, as of February 28, 2019.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0 spent so far out of US$5,000.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2019.
• Legal's expenses consist of filing fees and travel expenses for conferences and hearings (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0 spent so far out of US$500.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2019.
• Budgeted expenses include US$100 for printing flyers and US$400 for other convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$2,296.25 spent so far out of US$31,460.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2019.
• Our fundraising 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 (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$2,785.99 spent so far out of US$50,471.80 total this year, as of February 28, 2019.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2019 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 67% of our income in 2019. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Given your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount in reserves, which we plan to keep in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we can explore alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. The Finance team has made progress in its search for a suitable investment method for a small non-profit organization like the OTW and aims to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2019.
• The reserves also help bolster us in years when we’re planning larger than usual purchases. As mentioned previously, we have plans to replace old server hardware over the next few months as well as purchase new server hardware, which significantly increase our expenses for this year. Some of the forecasted expenses outlined in this budget may not take place before the end of the year, due to various constraints. To account for this uncertainty, even though all expenses we anticipate are described in the budget spreadsheet, we have projected a withdrawal of US$96,000 from our reserves to cover the amount corresponding to the less likely expenses. This additional amount may be withdrawn from reserves on an as-needed basis during the year. Our budget update, which will be published in October, will contain more precise information about which expenses will take place in 2019.
• US$23,840.99 received so far (as of February 28, 2019) and US$419,475 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on April 6 at 8pm UTC(what time is that in my timezone?).

Here is the link to the chatroom! Come chat with us, and bring your questions!

To download the OTW's 2019 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

Earlier in the year, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) published its 2018 budget. With the end of the year drawing closer, we’d like to release an update on our financial activity for the remainder of the year, and how our plans have altered or progressed.

Our Finance team continues to track the OTW’s financial activity, prepare financial statements and reports, and ensure compliance with accounting standards and regulations. We’ve worked to improve and document our processes, help the OTW plan its financial future, and are close to concluding the annual audit of our 2017 financial statements.

Without further ado, here’s our updated budget for 2018 (download the budget spreadsheet for more information):

2018 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$176,374.10 spent so far out of US$265,301.92 total this year, as of August 31, 2018.
• 73.9% 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 licences (access all program expenses).
• This year, we implemented a significant server overhaul costing about US$115,000. This overhaul focused on new database servers for AO3 works, comments, and activities, as well as a new server rack for them to live on. The new servers also increased our monthly colocation expenses, while the old machines are being repurposed as application servers, which generate the Archive's pages and serve them to users.
• Previously, US$100,000 was budgeted for contractor services. However, testing, fixing bugs, and tweaking behavior for our Elasticsearch update took considerably longer than expected, giving us less time than we'd hoped to merge code written by contractors into our code base this year. Therefore, we chose not to contract out any more projects and focus on deploying the code we'd already paid for and that had been submitted by our volunteers.

Fanlore

• US$5,277.80 spent so far out of US$7,890.77 total this year, as of August 31, 2018.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchase, maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to related licenses and Fanlore web domains (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC)

• US$2,520.54 spent so far out of US$5,941.53 total this year, as of August 31, 2018.
• Transformative Works and Cultures’ expenses are its allotment of server costs, as well as the journal’s publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).
• This year, hosting of the TWC issues will be moved offsite to a company that specializes in handling the open source software used by the journal, for an annual cost of US$1,500. There is also US$1,000 budgeted for travel to speak at the 2018 Fan Studies conference.

Open Doors

• US$540.72 spent so far out of US$1,009.14 total this year, as of August 31, 2018.
• This year’s expenses for Open Doors are hosting, backup and domain costs for archives imported by Open Doors (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$2,670.02 spent so far out of US$2,670.02 total this year, as of August 31, 2018.
• Legal’s expenses consist of filing fees and travel expenses for conferences and hearings. US$1,500 was spent in January to file a WIPO Dispute fee because someone else registered a domain address too similar to AO3’s. (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$50.00 spent so far out of US$50.00 total this year, as of August 31, 2018.
• The OTW passed out flyers at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$13,446.80 spent so far out of US$27,546.80 total this year, as of August 31, 2018.
• Our fundraising 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 (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$39,285.43 spent so far out of US$48,598.58 total this year, as of August 31, 2018.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2018 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 73% of our income in 2018. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Given your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount in reserves, which we plan to keep in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we can explore alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. The Finance team and the OTW board have decided on a conservative investment portfolio for a small portion of our funds to start with, which will place the initial investment at as low a risk as possible. This move is long overdue, and we're currently working on creating a solid policy regarding investment and usage of our reserves in place.
• The reserves also help bolster us in years when we're planning larger than usual purchases. As mentioned earlier, we have already replaced our old server hardware, and had to withdraw money from reserves to aid in the purchase of servers. However, with the revenue from the rest of the year, which includes the October drive, the net amount used from reserves should be US$30,000.
• US$213,449.59 received so far (as of August 31, 2018) and US$356,775.34 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on October 14th from 6 to 7PM UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

Here is the link to the chatroom. Come chat with us, and bring your questions!

To download the OTW’s updated budget for 2018 in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

2017 was another busy and productive year for the OTW’s Finance team! We’ve continued to improve the efficiency of the organization’s financial policies and adherence to standard accounting practices. We started our first ever audit of financial statements, which concluded in early 2018. You can check out our audited financial statements for 2015 and 2016 on the OTW Finance page. We're now preparing for the audit of our 2017 financial statements, which should start within a few weeks.

Without further ado, here's our budget for 2018 (download the budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2018 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$13,334.02 spent so far out of US$266,032.07 total this year, as of February 28, 2018.
• 75.1% 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 licences (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses include US$100,000 in contractor costs. We're quite pleased with our contractor’s work on the Archive's Rails and Elasticsearch upgrades and look forward to continuing to work with them on other projects.
• In addition to contracting costs, AO3 expenses include a significant server overhaul to the tune of around US$96,000 in total. This overhaul focuses on new database servers for AO3 works, comments, and other activities, as well as a new server rack for them to live on. The new servers should also increase our colocation expenses, while the old machines will be repurposed as application servers, which generate the Archive's pages and serve them to users.

Fanlore

• US$257.44 spent so far out of US$4,897.97 total this year, as of February 28, 2018.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchase, maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to related licenses and Fanlore web domains (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC)

• US$418.81 spent so far out of US$2,993.99 total this year, as of February 28, 2018.
• Transformative Works and Cultures’ expenses are its allotment of server costs, as well as the journal’s publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$94.16 spent so far out of US$1,257.11 total this year, as of February 28, 2018.
• This year’s expenses for Open Doors are hosting, backup and domain costs for archives imported by Open Doors (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$1,500.00 spent so far out of US$5,000.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2018.
• Legal’s expenses consist of filing fees and travel expenses for conferences and hearings. US$1,500 was spent in January to file a WIPO Dispute fee because someone else registered a domain address too similar to AO3’s. (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$1,751.46 spent so far out of US$26,135.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2018.
• Our fundraising 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 (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$2,023.59 spent so far out of US$47,823.40 total this year, as of February 28, 2018.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and auditing, as well as communication and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2018 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 79% of our income in 2018. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Given your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount in reserves, which we plan to keep in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we can explore alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. The Finance team and the OTW board have decided on a conservative investment portfolio for a small portion of our funds to start with, which will not place the initial investment in any risk. This move is long overdue, and we're glad to have a solid policy regarding investment and usage of our reserves in place.
• The reserves also help bolster us in years when we’re planning larger than usual purchases. As mentioned previously, we have plans to replace old server hardware over the next few months, which significantly bolster our expenses for this year. Our current projected expenses for this year exceed estimated 2018 revenues by roughly US$30,000. The additional amount may be withdrawn from reserves on an as-needed basis during the year.
• US$12,668.54 received so far (as of February 28, 2018) and US$315,631.46 projected to be received until the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on April 21 from 8 to 10PM UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

[Edit:] The chat has now ended. Thanks to those who came by and asked questions!

To download the OTW’s budget for 2018 in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

Earlier this year, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) published its budget for 2017. As December draws closer, we'd like to give you an update on our financial outlook for the rest of the year, and how our plans have progressed or changed since a few months ago.

Our Finance team is currently preparing for the OTW's first audit of financial statements, in what we expect will become a regular annual process going forward. Given the size of our organization and our donors' generosity, it's important for us to make sure that our bookkeeping and internal controls are as efficient and thorough as they can be. We're very grateful to have the stability and revenue required for this undertaking. Thanks to our donors for making this possible!

2017 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$89,207.44 spent so far out of US$224,045.79 total this year, as of August 31, 2017.
• As usual, the majority of the OTW's expenses—a projected 72% of this year's total—goes towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance fees—plus contractor work, website performance monitoring tools, various systems-related licences and training (access all program expenses).
• We continue to work with coding contractors on structural improvements for the AO3, and there's been a lot of progress throughout this year, such as our much-needed Rails upgrade! Check out the Archive's latest release notes for information on our most recent deploys.

Fanlore

• US$1,389.03 spent so far out of US$5,688.85 total this year, as of August 31, 2017.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchase, maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to related licenses and Fanlore web domains (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC)

• US$819.81 spent so far out of US$3,399.74 total this year, as of August 31, 2017.
• TWC's expenses are its allotment of server costs, as well as the journal’s publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$402.25 spent so far out of US$1,685.78 total this year, as of August 31, 2017.
• This year’s expenses for Open Doors are hosting, backup and domain costs for archives imported by Open Doors (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0 spent so far out of US$1,500.00 total this year.
• Legal’s expenses consist of filing fees (access all program expenses).

Con outreach

• US$713.50 spent so far out of US$2,013.50 total this year, as of August 31, 2017.
• Our convention outreach expenses consist of preparing and shipping promotional material related to the OTW and its projects for volunteers to share with other fans at conventions. This year we've done a meet-up during San Diego Comic-Con and a technical talk about the AO3's systems infrastructure at Nine Worlds (access all con outreach expenses).

Fundraising

• US$12,669.94 spent so far out of US$27,089.94 total this year, as of August 31, 2017.
• Our fundraising expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation; thank-you gifts purchase and shipping; and the tools used to host the OTW’s membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors (access all fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$10,893.98 spent so far out of US$44,874.98 total this year, as of August 31, 2017.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, auditing services, as well as project management, communication and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2017 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 81% of our income in 2017. We also receive donations via employer matching programs and Amazon Smile.
• The OTW Finance team is investigating options for a sustainable plan to invest the OTW's current reserves; our forecasted income should be enough to cover this year's expenses without requiring emergency withdrawals from our reserves.
• US$191,014.11 so far (as of August 31, 2017) and US$321,531.62 projected until the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on October 15 from 7PM to 9PM (what time is that in my timezone?). This post will be updated with a chatroom link a few hours before the appointed time. Come chat with us, and bring your questions!

To download the OTW’s updated budget for 2017 in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

The OTW is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects, including AO3, Fanlore, Open Doors, TWC, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on the OTW website.

2016 was a busy year for the OTW's Finance team, and we're hard at work improving the organization's bookkeeping and financial policies. Budgeting is another area where we've improved in the past few months—especially with regards to collaborating with our various teams to project their likely expenses and accounting for unexpected changes.

Without further ado, here's our budget for 2017 (download the budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2017 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$7,013.49 spent so far out of US$213,339 total this year, as of February 28, 2017.
• 75.7% 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 licences (access all program expenses).
• Starting last year, we've conducted a search for companies that could work with us on upgrades to AO3's infrastructure. We've collaborated with two companies so far on preparing for our much-needed Rails upgrade, and look forward to expanding our contracting projects this year.

Fanlore

• US$312.61 spent so far out of US$7,487.50 total this year, as of February 28, 2017.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchase, maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to related licenses and Fanlore web domains (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC)

• US$400.04 spent so far out of US$4,383 total this year, as of February 28, 2017.
• Transformative Works and Cultures’ expenses are its allotment of server costs, as well as the journal’s publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$60.80 spent so far out of US$1,536.47 total this year, as of February 28, 2017.
• This year’s expenses for Open Doors are hosting, backup and domain costs for archives imported by Open Doors (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0 spent so far out of US$3,500 total this year.
• Legal’s expenses consist of filing fees and travel expenses for conferences (access all program expenses).

Con outreach

• US$0 spent so far out of US$5,000 total this year, as of February 28, 2017.
• Our convention outreach expenses consist of preparing and shipping promotional material related to the OTW and its projects for volunteers to share with other fans at conventions, as well as potentially organizing spaces of our own during conventions (access all con outreach expenses).

Fundraising

• US$1,573.52 spent so far out of US$23,060 total this year, as of February 28, 2017.
• Our fundraising expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation; thank-you gifts purchase and shipping; and the tools used to host the OTW’s membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors (access all fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$977.15 spent so far out of US$23,660.83 total this year, as of February 28, 2017.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, as well as project management, communication and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2017 revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 75% of our income in 2017. We also receive donations via employer matching programs and Amazon Smile.
• The OTW Finance team is investigating options for a sustainable plan to invest the OTW's current reserves; our forecasted income should be enough to cover this year's expenses without requiring emergency withdrawals from our reserves.
• US$6,839.56 so far (as of February 28, 2017) and US$308,500 projected until the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on April 9 from 5 to 7PM UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

This post will be updated with a chatroom link a few hours before the appointed time. Come chat with us, and bring your questions!

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CHAT

To download the OTW’s updated budget for 2017 in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

In March this year, the OTW published its first official budget. Since then, our Finance committee has been rebuilt by volunteers who have non-profit and/or accounting backgrounds! They've been busy working with other committees to reorganize and rebuild key internal processes for bookkeeping, budgeting, tax filing, and general financial policies.

This improvement is a work in progress for us as an organization, and we've already learned a lot since March about how to forecast our expenses and income better. Because of that, we're publishing an updated version of the 2016 budget that better reflects our current financial situation (download 2016 updated budget spreadsheet).

2016 expenses

Archive of Our Own

• US$73,176.82 spent so far out of US$128,458.92 total this year.
• Most of the OTW's expenses go towards AO3 upkeep, including the bulk of our server expenses (new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance), website performance monitoring tools and systems licenses (access all program expenses).
• The amount allotted for the original contractor for the Archive of Our Own in the March budget has been reduced due to time constraints. Both the Accessibility, Design & Technology and Systems committees plan to seek new contractors before the end of the year, and next year's budget will include more accurate forecasts for their work.

Fanlore

• US$3,360.12 spent so far out of US$5,187.57 total this year.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchase, maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to licenses and domains pertaining to Fanlore directly (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$2,196.76 spent so far out of US$3,196.76 total this year.
• Legal's expenses consist of filing fees and travel expenses for panel presentations (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$1,736.32 spent so far out of US$2,040.30 total this year.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are its allotment of server costs and fees associated with the journal's publishing and storage (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$305.89 spent so far out of US$627.16 total this year.
• This year's expenses for Open Doors are hosting, backup and domain costs for imported archives (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$10,227.54 spent so far out of US$26,737.54 total this year.
• Our fundraising expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for every donation, thank-you gifts purchase and shipping, and the tools used to host the OTW's membership database and track communications with donors (access all fundraising expenses).

Administration expenses

• US$15,158.96 spent so far out of US$23,254.49 total this year.
• The OTW's admin expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, project management, communication and accounting tools, as well as contracted services for CPA assessment and tax filing (access all admin expenses).
• We worked with a CPA to receive an initial assessment of our financial situation and procedures earlier this year, and with an external tax preparer to file our taxes. Having completed both of these, we don't foresee needing other external financial services until next year. Finance is currently organizing our ledger and processes, and will then reassess the best setup for external services in the following years.

2016 revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for 80% of our income in 2016.
• We're aiming to raise more than our projected expenses for this year, which should help cover us until next year's April drive (including a new server!), plus increase our reserves by about US$30,000. The Finance team is currently looking into the best possible low-risk investment options for the OTW's reserves; our 2017 budget post will provide more details regarding our reserve policy, such as how many operating months we can sustain with zero donations and under what circumstances committees are allowed to request reserve funds for spending.
• US$137,886.22 so far and US$150,200 projected until the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget, contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat a week from today to answer any questions you may have about the OTW's finances. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on Sunday, October 2 from 20:00 - 21:00 UTC (What time is that in my timezone?) Update: Here's the link to our chatroom.

This post will be updated with a chatroom link a few hours before the appointed time. Come chat with us, and bring your questions!

To download the OTW's updated budget for 2016 in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

Today, we are pleased to publish the OTW's 2015 Annual Report, available in PDF or html format. The report provides a summary of our activities during the past financial and calendar year, our financial statements for 2015, and our goals for 2016 and beyond. 2015 was a year of transition for the OTW, and we'd like to thank each of our members, donors, staff, and volunteers for their hard work and support.

You can view the OTW's previous eight reports for more information, and please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

A lot of work has been done behind the scenes since our last update! Today we bring to you our prospective budget for 2016, as promised. This budget is one of a number of steps we are taking as we continue to work toward a more formal financial setup for the OTW long term, with a particular eye to openness and sustainability.

The budget can be found on the OTW site. It was prepared taking into consideration project needs, committee requests and our regular expenses from past year, and covers all expected expenses necessary to keep the OTW running in 2016. It anticipates fundraising income (including income from drives and other fundraising sources) of US$303,750.00, which is consistent with recent years' income.

This budget also addresses the OTW's need to keep a reserve on hand for emergencies, such as a sudden need to replace a server, or other unexpected costs. To the extent that the OTW may face unexpected expenses during 2016, they will be paid from the OTW's reserve funds. With that in mind, we believe the most prudent course of action is to make sure we are able to raise enough money to cover our annual running costs (expected to be US$303,750 this year) without having to use our reserves, keeping those for emergencies and hardware investments.

With our current funds sitting at about US$436,000 we are in a comfortable position that allows us to prepare for our growing expenses. In the next few months we plan to keep improving our financial set up, including contracting a CPA and rebuilding our Finance Committee, as well as reevaluating our resource allocation and reserves for 2017 as needed.

Follow this link to access the OTW’s budget for 2016.