As can be seen from our Open Collective page, we built up a war chest in our first round of fundraising that almost covers a year's worth of hosting and we still have solid monthly donations:

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However, this doesn't provide a full breakdown of our costs, so here are the details:

Hosting (total after VAT €40.68 - £34.09):

  • Server - €29.00
  • IP4 - €1.70
  • Backup box - €3.20

So, as we received £39.31 this month our monthly donations are covering the hosting costs. As we went for a server with ample specifications these costs should remain the same for the time being.

In addition, before our fund-raiskng, I paid for hosting as we were preparing for a move to a new instance and then, after a quick change of plans, the current server. So there were four payments and I am submitting one repayment each month. This month was £11.78.

Following an earlier request, I have broken down the outgoings in a spreadsheet, which can be found here. That should help explain what the various costs have been and the payments that have been made to me as well as the ones due.

If anyone has any other questions then fire away. I've tried to keep everything concise but informative, however, I may have missed something.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.uk
    ·
    4 months ago

    On a slightly wider note: I had hoped to start posting financial reports sooner but there has had to be quite a bit of back-and-forth, with a dollop of trail-and-error, to get the payments working smoothly but we've now got a process in place that is working well. Which likely means I've jinxed it.

    • addie@feddit.uk
      ·
      4 months ago

      Thanks for all the great work, squire - I know it's a bit thankless. Let us know if the well's running dry.

      • ianovic69@feddit.uk
        ·
        4 months ago

        I second this, my recurring isn't large but I can stretch to a bit more for a one off on top if needed.

        • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.uk
          ·
          4 months ago

          Thanks for the kind offer but, as it stands, everyone's generosity means we are in a secure financial state. If something unexpected does strike and, we need more, we can always have another round of fundraising.

          • ianovic69@feddit.uk
            ·
            4 months ago

            No worries, always glad to help out if I can.

            I was putting a little in to the Lemmy/Jerboa dev but it feels more personal this way. And if they needed more funding I guess they have a bigger collective to pull from.

            So now I'm fully behind our instance rather than split between the two things and I'm happy with that.

            Thanks to all of you for the work you do!

      • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.uk
        ·
        4 months ago

        I know it’s a bit thankless.

        It's the dull bit that helps keep the lights on but I've got it down to 5 minutes once a month, so it is hardly a chore.

        Let us know if the well’s running dry.

        We will do but, as it stands, the future of the Instance is secure. Regular donations exceed the hosting costs and one-off have given us a sizeable war chest which should help us through any issues (it's always tricky to foresee what might be in the future but this gives us a buffer against a lot of things).

  • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.uk
    ·
    4 months ago

    Many thanks for your efforts - I appreciate it's quite a thankless task you're doing.

    And... I meant to setup a regular payment when you picked up from Tom and... dunno... fighting off zombies distracted me... so I'll take another look at those links.

  • Mex@feddit.uk
    ·
    4 months ago

    Thank you for being clear with the finances, I was thinking of asking. If we build to an excess of war chest is there anything we could spend the money on to promote/expand the community?

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.uk
      ·
      4 months ago

      Always open to ideas, although as it isn't my money I'd be hesitant to dip too far into it because it may be needed. However, it will keep building up if there's no crisis.

      Ideas:

      • GA has mentioned using AI credits to get better summaries or video summaries.
      • If there was a feature in some code we wanted to use we could posts a bounty on it.
      • Smart toilets for feddit.uk HQ.
      • Mex@feddit.uk
        ·
        4 months ago

        Oh I agree, there might be unexpected costs down the line that a large war chest will buffer is from.

        I agree with all the above but smart toilets for all!

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.uk
      ·
      4 months ago

      Transparency is key because a) it's not my money and b) I do try and encourage people to set up single topic instances and I wanted to demonstrate that the costs aren't that high.