Brother, can you spare a dime?
April 27, 2015 8:00 AM Subscribe
What is currently state of the art/best practice/best tool for a tip jar type mechanism for a blog?
I am one of the volunteer editors for a blog that posts daily news for our fairly large regional hobbyist community. For the past two years, the founding editor has been paying the cost out of pocket, but we've had to upgrade hosting to keep up with traffic and would like to run a small day of giving online event to try and defer costs.
From a legal standpoint, the blog has no status. We're all volunteers, not a nonprofit. We don't want to deal with bitcoin (which seems to be the focus of many micro transaction tools these days). We're trying to raise about $400 total (which is totally doable). We are aware of the tax implications. We would like to minimize fees, while also not falling into the "Paypal locked up all our money for eleventy weeks while they think it over" trap.
What tool should we be using?
I am one of the volunteer editors for a blog that posts daily news for our fairly large regional hobbyist community. For the past two years, the founding editor has been paying the cost out of pocket, but we've had to upgrade hosting to keep up with traffic and would like to run a small day of giving online event to try and defer costs.
From a legal standpoint, the blog has no status. We're all volunteers, not a nonprofit. We don't want to deal with bitcoin (which seems to be the focus of many micro transaction tools these days). We're trying to raise about $400 total (which is totally doable). We are aware of the tax implications. We would like to minimize fees, while also not falling into the "Paypal locked up all our money for eleventy weeks while they think it over" trap.
What tool should we be using?
Response by poster: Patreon looks very cool, but we are not really "creators" - we're a site that posts news about a hobby community (Next Saturday the Vermont chapter is holding an event, Last Saturday the following people won the widget competition, that sort of thing.)
posted by anastasiav at 8:19 AM on April 27, 2015
posted by anastasiav at 8:19 AM on April 27, 2015
Paypal is probably still your best bet, then. It's what Metafilter uses.
posted by MsMolly at 8:28 AM on April 27, 2015
posted by MsMolly at 8:28 AM on April 27, 2015
if it's a onetime 'day of giving', then perhaps Indiegogo or GoFundMe? (I don't know what the fees are).
posted by the agents of KAOS at 8:30 AM on April 27, 2015
posted by the agents of KAOS at 8:30 AM on April 27, 2015
Patreon, even if you're not "creators". Simply promise "we'll have weekly updates until end of the year if you all pledge this much", and if you pledge THIS much we'll add original articles...
posted by kschang at 10:08 AM on April 28, 2015
posted by kschang at 10:08 AM on April 28, 2015
« Older Where is muscle problem originating and what kind... | Hope in face of colorectal cancer? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by MsMolly at 8:13 AM on April 27, 2015