Updated stats bar - in the past week we've gotten an additional:
USD ~245 euro (from 8 donors, for about 41 USD on average)
GBP ~12 euro (from 2 donors, for about 5 GBP each)
That is including all donations to date, but not all have 'cleared' the banking hold (I counted them, assuming they will clear). We gave a date of JAN 15 as a closing date, hoping to have any bank holds cleared within the next week or so....but we also hoped to have enough to cover the bill, and obviously we don't. At least, not on the donations of the very few generous people who gave (you have our thanks). It may take a few days before we can take down our donation page, so if you see it still available, consider that an opportunity to still give. But it should be coming down at any time with no more warning than what I'm giving you here.
Why are we shutting down the donation page when we obviously still need money? We're transitioning our banking and need to close down the current account as we activate a new one. Expect that the donation page may become available once we have the new account online and the kinks worked out.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I need to get in touch with chrissie to see how much the Calendars and Posters earned us, and I suspect those will remain available going forward.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Inflexxion study is NOT closing on the same date....that is open until they reach the required number of responses. We're awaiting word from them on how close we are to that magic number, however they were initially very pleased with the number of responses they were getting despite the noted difficulty several of our members experienced in taking it. Unfortunately, once they started looking into the responses, they found where people had obviously taken it multiple times - just trying to help us out, with the best of intentions, but as such those entries had to be taken out of the data sample and setting us back significantly on the number of
valid responses we've directed their way. We're working with Sebastian's Ghost and the Inflexxion staff to wrap this up in a way that meets their needs, including working up a banner to catch people's eye and whatever else we can do to send responses their way.
There is the question raised of "How much money is Inflexxion giving?" They have helped out significantly in the past, and are promising a good return on this study as well. We (the admin) have held back on publicly stating "How much?" because we hope to get similar opportunities with other research groups needing access to a group like our membership, and we don't want to bias our opportunities with those entities by selling ourselves short, or setting it an amount to high and scaring them off. This really isn't a known market, so 'value' is debateable. That said, we (the admin) can tell you that for this survey alone, we would clear our remaining debt for 2010 and get a good start on 2011's first quarter payment. We can also state that SG is working on our behalf to set up a deal for next year with them to run several surveys (agreed dollar amounts, number of surveys and respondents) so we can go into this with a better financial foundation than we've operated with to this point. That said, with Inflexxion alone, we won't make it - we'll still need member donations and other fund raising events (we are looking at a premium usergroup, as well as merchandising, and of course the 'one off' donations we've accepted to this point). However, those hinge on a) getting our new banking set up and operational, and b ) the continued patience of our host....which is really unfair to ask of them.
I'll make a similar statement in the discussion thread for the survey in Drug Studies.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Amazon money? Changing banking? What's up with this stuff...huh?
Ok, as outlined earlier in the thread, we are limited in the online banking opportunities we have, given our content and geography issues, combined with the strong desire for people to retain their privacy (which I'm sure you would all agree is understandable). There are reasons behind changing the banking, which for the privacy reasons of the people involved we'd prefer not to state - but we can assure you NOBODY is running off with any funds, and in fact those involved have discussed covering the remaining difference just to ease the transition....but it's still too much for the few involved to foot the full bill. Once we get the changes made, we can hopefully offer a better, more informative response, but for now - this is what drove our JAN 15 date, and why the donation page will be offline for a bit. If anyone is concerned about misuse of the money, or theft, well....there's not much more we can do beyond showing you 10 yrs of keeping the site online, reporting to you the amounts the donations are bringing in, and what our actual expenses are for each year. We're trying to remain as transparent as possible, but still respect the privacy of those who donate, and those who put their names on the accounts. Beyond that, you have to trust us. Anyone who's met any of us admin will know we're not getting rich, or even high for an evening, with the money the site brings in.
As to Amazon money, or Google money, or other alternatives we say thank you for the suggestion. However, we've explored them and they won't work for our site. I know johboy spent days going over the options awhile back (when the donation drives first started), and I've done the same recently. We really are handcuffed on our options. If they don't work for you individually, we're sorry, and we'll try to work with you however we can, but we have what we have.