Pillowfort's Fundraising Track Record
Nov. 5th, 2023 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anacedragon(Crossposted from Pillowfort.)
In light of the recent Staff announcement, I wanted to write up a summary of Pillowfort's past fundraisers and donation rates. This post goes into some of PF's financial history, the data I've been collecting on donations since May 2022, and the overall patterns in that data. The monthly donation goal has changed over time, so I've calculated the previous averages in terms of both percentages and absolute amounts. In a typical month, donations are fairly consistent in the middle of the month, though there is often a spike in donations at the beginning and end of the month. Donations have also generally slowed since December 2022, though it can be hard to compare months given how much outside factors can influence donations. Even so, past funding drives have been successful, and PF has also drawn in above-average funds in exceptional circumstances. So although it's likely that meeting the current $25k funding goal will take some extra rallying, it wouldn't be unprecedented.
The Data
First, some background on the data I'm using and its limitations. I've been manually tracking the percentage to the donation goal for over a year now, and I have the daily data listed here on Google Sheets. In 2022, I was also posting monthly-ish status updates; those can be seen here on my blog if you're curious.
Note that the last date visible on the sidebar donation counter each month is the second-to-last day, not the last day, so that's the number I use below when computing averages. Where Staff has given the final count (usually after a fundraiser), I used those numbers when discussing the highlights below. (As an example, the final number shown in the sidebar for September 2022 was 98% on 9/29/22, but Staff announced that we reached a total of 104%.) This does mean that my calculations are likely lower (by some unknown amount) than the actual funds raised.
Monthly Donation Goal
The set monthly donation goal has changed a few times during beta. This is mostly due to changes in compensation as staff hours have been increased or decreased, but also includes changes in hosting and storage fees as the userbase expands.
Donation Trends
As stated in the update from Julia, PF has struggled to meet its donations goals regularly. The months that PF has met its donation goals have usually been part of a specific fundraiser or a month where other social media sites have had issues of their own. Given the influence of outside factors, it's hard to identify what a "baseline" month looks like, but I've taken some averages to give a sense of trends over time. (I get into more detail about what was going on in specific months in the High Points section.)
Fundraising High Points
With all that out of the way, here's some highlights from Pillowfort's previous fundraisers and other months where the donation goal was met:
Now, all of that said, if you're wondering what you can do to help the site meet its funding goals during (and after) the drive, whether you have the money to spare or not, check out Kevin's post as well as the Pillowfundraising comm! We're off to a good start, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going past the typical fundraising spike at the beginning.
In light of the recent Staff announcement, I wanted to write up a summary of Pillowfort's past fundraisers and donation rates. This post goes into some of PF's financial history, the data I've been collecting on donations since May 2022, and the overall patterns in that data. The monthly donation goal has changed over time, so I've calculated the previous averages in terms of both percentages and absolute amounts. In a typical month, donations are fairly consistent in the middle of the month, though there is often a spike in donations at the beginning and end of the month. Donations have also generally slowed since December 2022, though it can be hard to compare months given how much outside factors can influence donations. Even so, past funding drives have been successful, and PF has also drawn in above-average funds in exceptional circumstances. So although it's likely that meeting the current $25k funding goal will take some extra rallying, it wouldn't be unprecedented.
The Data
First, some background on the data I'm using and its limitations. I've been manually tracking the percentage to the donation goal for over a year now, and I have the daily data listed here on Google Sheets. In 2022, I was also posting monthly-ish status updates; those can be seen here on my blog if you're curious.
Note that the last date visible on the sidebar donation counter each month is the second-to-last day, not the last day, so that's the number I use below when computing averages. Where Staff has given the final count (usually after a fundraiser), I used those numbers when discussing the highlights below. (As an example, the final number shown in the sidebar for September 2022 was 98% on 9/29/22, but Staff announced that we reached a total of 104%.) This does mean that my calculations are likely lower (by some unknown amount) than the actual funds raised.
Monthly Donation Goal
The set monthly donation goal has changed a few times during beta. This is mostly due to changes in compensation as staff hours have been increased or decreased, but also includes changes in hosting and storage fees as the userbase expands.
- September 2021(?) - March 2022 - $6,647 (see breakdown here)
- April 2022 - August 2022 - $4,375
- September 2022 - December 2022 - $7,215 (announced here)
- January 2023 - October 2023 - $4,943 (announced here)
Donation Trends
As stated in the update from Julia, PF has struggled to meet its donations goals regularly. The months that PF has met its donation goals have usually been part of a specific fundraiser or a month where other social media sites have had issues of their own. Given the influence of outside factors, it's hard to identify what a "baseline" month looks like, but I've taken some averages to give a sense of trends over time. (I get into more detail about what was going on in specific months in the High Points section.)
- From April-August 2022, when the goal was $4,375, donations averaged about $3,750, or 86% of the goal
- From September-December 2022, when the goal was $7,215, donations averaged about $7,150, or 99% of the goal
- From January-March 2023, the goal was $4,943, and donations averaged about $3,800, 77% of the goal
- From April-July 2023, after the Premium Feature Suite was launched, donations averaged about $4,300, 88% of the goal
- Since then, donations have been down slightly, averaging about $3,500 between August and October 2023, 71% of the goal
Fundraising High Points
With all that out of the way, here's some highlights from Pillowfort's previous fundraisers and other months where the donation goal was met:
- The initial 2016 Indiegogo campaign raised over $5,000 (of an initial goal of $600)
- $600 was initially supposed to cover the first 10 months of the closed beta, and included maintenance fees (hosting and storage), as well as taxes and fees.
- The 2018 Kickstarter campaign raised over $57,000 (of an initial goal of $39,900)
- $39,900 was intended to cover staff compensation as well as maintenance fees for 1 year; that's about $3,325/month
- As mentioned in Julia's post, this $57,000 has served as a buffer for the goal shortfalls PF has had during the years since the Kickstarter
- The December 2021 Holiday Funding Drive raised over $7,000 (at least 109% of the $6,647 goal)
- $6,647 was the goal for the month, again covering staff compensation and maintenance fees
- In August 2022, PF raised just under $5,000 (113.6% of its $4,375 goal)
- The UI update was launched on the 5th, and announced on other social media on the 19th
- The September 2022 Autumn Fundraising Drive raised about $7,500 (104% of the $7,215 goal)
- In November 2022, PF raised over $11,000 (at least 155% of the $7,215 goal)
- Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter in October, leading to... lots of questionable changes. Tumblr also made some changes to their content guidelines and filters.
- PF's rolling waitlist went live, partially in response to the increased chatter about PF on other social media sites. This demand also led to more people paying $5 to register for PF and potentially increased donations from existing and/or new users.
- I go into some more detail on this in my September and October donation posts.
- In April 2023, PF's Premium Suite went live
- Though the site was still short of its monthly goal (around 84%), a few months afterwards have hit the goal without such extreme outside shenanigans
- In June and July 2023, PF hit its donation goals, ending at 101% and 107% of the goal, respectively
- During these months, the Twitter situation continued to devolve, with announcements about the block feature being disabled, requiring you to log in to view tweets, and, of course, the rebrand to X
- In the first two days after the emergency $25,000 fund drive was announced, PF raised 21% (approximately $5,200) of the goal
- That's equivalent to a jump from 12% to 116% of the regular goal for the month(!!)
Now, all of that said, if you're wondering what you can do to help the site meet its funding goals during (and after) the drive, whether you have the money to spare or not, check out Kevin's post as well as the Pillowfundraising comm! We're off to a good start, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going past the typical fundraising spike at the beginning.