Pilots of America Operations Fundraiser! (Ended)

RyanB

RyanB

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Ryan
As some of you know, Pilots of America periodically runs a fundraiser to gather donations to support the upkeep of the site and the expenses that come along with it. We are now going to open up a fundraising period again, as it’s been over a year since our last one, and we would like to kindly ask that you consider donating to help fund the operation of Pilots of America.

As a little background, Pilots of America is a nonprofit organization. We are not a 501(c)3, but rather a state registered nonprofit. As such, none of us (moderators and technical administrators) receive any money for the work done with the site. It costs us a few hundred dollars per month for the AWS resources necessary to keep the site running and backed up. Plus, we have to pay for domain registration, software/plugin updates for necessary and requested features, etc., so the fee’s add up.

We would like to, once again, raise enough money to keep everything running for another year or so, as well as make some new improvements to the site that we have in pipeline, but to do this, we need YOUR help!

As a token of appreciation for your generosity, you will receive a fancy ‘PoA Supporter’ badge next to your name like mine. If you already have one, than making a donation will extend the time effectiveness of it and further your commitment to keep PoA alive and well!

Our end goal, as always, is to make Pilots of America a great resource for pilots (and aviation enthusiasts in general) for generations to come, and by making a donation, you’re helping to ensure that becomes a reality!

If you'd like to donate an amount more (or less) than those listed, feel free to send me a PM and I’ll be happy to work with you. You can also purchase more than one of the levels, if you desire!

The donation options can be found here - https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/account/upgrades

Thank you! :)

Ryan - On behalf of the Management Council
 
I have not seen this before, but the PayPal link (which is linked to a Chase credit card) offered to use my Chase Ultimate Reward points at a 3X conversion rate. I was able to clear the donation with points instead of $, which was a nice surprise.

I don't know if this is an A/B test, or some promotion one of those two scoundrel companies are running, but I was pleased to benefit for once. Maybe someone on the fence can benefit also. :D

(Mods, if this somehow cheated the board and you didn't get the full fitty, let me know so I can raise hell for sport and make PoA whole as well. )
 
schmookeeg said:
(Mods, if this somehow cheated the board and you didn't get the full fitty, let me know so I can raise hell for sport and make PoA whole as well. )
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Minus the processing fees, we got the whole thing! :)

Thanks!
 
Yes, there are options to donate (other than using a PayPal account).
For example, debit or credit card.
 

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As always, I’m very impressed by the support of our user base! The fundraiser will likely continue until the end of the week.

A big THANK YOU to everyone that’s donated so far!
 
Kelvin said:
Is there another way to contribute other than Paypal?
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As @MikeNY posted above, you can pay by a debit or credit card or you can also send a check. If you want to donate by check, PM me and I’ll provide the address for mailing.
 
Done, thanks for the knowledge provided over the past year plus.
 
Dave Anderson said:
I hate to ask, but is there a negative operating budget that dictates how much you need to raise?
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No. We generally run the fundraiser on an annual basis, so our goal is to raise enough money to fund the operations of the site for the next calendar year or so.
 
Done. Thank you for maintaining this great forum.
 
RyanB said:
No. We generally run the fundraiser on an annual basis, so our goal is to raise enough money to fund the operations of the site for the next calendar year or so.
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Care to share what that amount is?
 
mandm said:
Care to share what that amount is?
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The target is $2500, which is enough to fund the site for around a year, with a safety buffer. We have to pay for the AWS resources necessary to keep the site running and backed up, plus we have to pay for domain registration, software/plugin updates for necessary and requested features, etc.
 
eman1200 said:
that sounds absolutely insane, can that be right?
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Unfortunately it is. AWS costs us around $185/mo, plus the various other little plug-ins and features that we pay for (like Chat for example).
 
eman1200 said:
All of it. We’re PILOTS……of A M E R I C A, dagnabbit!! AWS should be paying US! Maybe we can get daher or pilatus to sponsor us.
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Flying eyes
 
dmspilot said:
A dedicated server costs less than that...but I was turned down when I offered to help.
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We had a dedicated server some years back, but the redundancy and reliability of the AWC was chosen after a couple of server issues.
 
SCCutler said:
We had a dedicated server some years back, but the redundancy and reliability of the AWC was chosen after a couple of server issues.
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I'm not suggesting a dedicated server, just saying it shouldn't cost that much. Something is very poorly optimized somewhere. And don't you mean AWS? Not sure what AWC is.
 
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SCCutler said:
We had a dedicated server some years back, but the redundancy and reliability of the AWC was chosen after a couple of server issues.
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Agreed, it’s difficult to run your own server for something that you want up 24/7/365. Your own server needs reboots, updates and your ISP will go out from time to time, all seems to happen when you are not at the server to fix it (just started a week holiday somewhere!). AWS is more reliable and will maintain the uptime, even with that, it requires the occasional reboot and update but you can get away with more.
 
RyanB said:
The target is $2500, which is enough to fund the site for around a year, with a safety buffer. We have to pay for the AWS resources necessary to keep the site running and backed up, plus we have to pay for domain registration, software/plugin updates for necessary and requested features, etc.
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Could share progress of the fundraising on the homepage like wiki does?
 
mandm said:
Could share progress of the fundraising on the homepage like wiki does?
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Have no idea how to do that or if Xenforo even has that feature, but we’re currently about $500 short of our goal. I’ll make an announcement shortly before reaching the goal and concluding the donations.
 
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