March 2024 Donations & Finances

[Cipher]

Hello everyone!

 

As always with these posts, I’d like to drop a quick reminder that there are more ways to support Homecoming than just through donations. For a general overview of the different ways you can help Homecoming, check out this thread.

 

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Homecoming operates in a non-profit capacity* and accepts donations from the community each month to cover its operating expenses. These donation windows typically open on the last Saturday of each month, around 13:00 EST, and are automatically closed once the goal for the month has been reached. Any funds remaining at the end of each month are put towards our expenses for the following month. In the event that our expenses exceed our estimated costs for the month, the difference will be included in the donation goal for the following month.

 

If you wish to donate, you may do so here. The donation window for next month is open as of the time of this post and will automatically close once the goal is met. Thank you for your continued support!

 

* Homecoming is a Delaware registered Limited Liability Company, not a non-profit organization, and donations made to Homecoming are not tax deductible.

 

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Last Month: February 2024

 

We placed the second order for our SQL host hardware upgrades on February 20th, totaling $662.83. We did not include this in the original goal for February, and as such will be including it in the goal for March. Additionally, our AWS expenses for the month increased due to the increase in outbound emails.

Income

Total: $8,681.60

 

Amount	Source
$8,678.20	Donations
$3.40	Rebates & Rewards (PayPal)

 

Recurring Expenses

Total: $4,645.92

 

Amount	Service / “to”	Addt’l Notes
$4,422.99	Server Infrastructure (OVH)
$206.64	Google Workspace	Voice, Business (15 seats)
$50.64	Email (AWS EC2 + SES)	2x EC2 micro instances
$25.00	GPU Server (Paperspace)	Used for tooling
$11.12	Admin Software

 

Additional Expenses

Most of our expenses for this month were paid in January and will not show on our transaction log from PayPal this month. These are included here as they were a part of the donation goal for the month.

 

Total: $3,934.75

 

Amount	Service / “to”	Addt’l Notes
$2,780.24	Legal counsel	Dec. 5 - Dec. 31 2023
$591.90	Server Infrastructure (OVH)	SQL host upgrade
$240.99	DocuSign	+100 envelopes
$240.00	UPS Mailbox	1 year renewal
$53.62	January Overage	See above
$12.00	CleanTalk	Anti-Spam (1 year)
$10.00	IPSFocus	Forum assets (1 year)
$6.00	US Copyright Office	DMCA Designated Agent Reg.

 

 

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This Month: March 2024

 

The donation target for March 2024 is $6,076.36.

Recurring Expenses

Total: $4,701.93

 

Amount	Service / “to”	Addt’l Notes
$4,416.99	Server Infrastructure (OVH)
$229.57	Google Workspace	Voice, Business (15 seats)
$19.25	Email (AWS EC2 + SES)	2x EC2 micro instances
$25.00	GPU Server (Paperspace)	Used for tooling
$11.12	Admin Software

 

Additional Expenses

Total: $1,404.93

 

Amount	Service / “to”	Addt’l Notes
$662.83	Server Infrastructure (OVH) (+)	SQL host upgrade 2
$567.38	Server Infrastructure (OVH) (+)	SQL host upgrade 1
$174.72	Legal counsel	Jan. 4 - Jan. 31 2024

 

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Donations will be open at https://cohhc.gg/donate as of the time of this post and will automatically close once the goal has been met. As always, thank you for your continued support.

 

- The Homecoming Team

 

[Psi-bolt]

Donated.   Not sure if this is allowed under your license, but if there were a way to auto-donate, I would be down!

[Zep]

Now that things are official, were it to become possible, I would set up a monthly recurring charge as well.

[DarkMyst]

I would setup a recurring charge as well!  I donate for two accounts (husband and mine) and would love to just do a recurring charge!

[Sabre]

WooHoo! Take my money! LOL

[TorontoSunshine]

Once again I have donated so my alts can show those silly Longbow ---- who dress up like silly candycanes ---- that the Suggestion Engine never works on free thinking individuals!

[Asacledhae]

Gotcha this time! 😁

Doubled my usual amount cause I missed last month..

 

As always, a HUGE thanks to everyone who helps keeping our city alive!

See you in-game.

[Abraxus]

Duckets donated...all is right with the world!

[Vaderblade]

Finally didn't miss donating. 

[ZorkNemesis]

Only around two hours again, ridiculous how supportive this community is.

[TorontoSunshine]

Well done everybody! 

[BrandX]

Daaaamn...went to donate and it was filled!

[GenericHero719]

Wow that was fast.

So a question popped into my head after it closed so quickly again. Is there no way to setup a trust so that donations could overflow one month and just pool for the future?
Surely someone around here is an accountant that would know how to do this.

[starro]

i agree, would love to set up a regular debit in case i miss these windows.  See you next month!

[BlackHorde22]

Please give us a Monthly Subscription we can do between 15$ to 20$ USD, thanks much.

[unstatusthequo]

Have you considered moving away from PayPal? They are a pretty hostile entity to deal with if there is any dispute about your money.  Square is at 2.9% +$0.30 per transaction, which donors can probably just add to cover. Then you're reducing the amount given away to PayPal monthly. 

 

Or, if you get your incarnate non-profit powers, this: https://donorbox.org/.  Pricing: https://donorbox.org/pricing which could reduce even further. 

 

Just some ideas. Maybe you've looked already. I'm certainly wiling to help in this, I have experience with both Square and Stripe. Square has a nice donation goal management feature which could be useful and less manual for the GMs. https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/7184-set-up-donation-goals-with-square-checkout-links