Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related It’s Time to Talk About Fundraising!

It’s that time again, FoLCs! We’ve been super fortunate that we haven’t had to do a fundraiser almost 10 years! We have some FoLCs that have recurring donations and some that chip in what they can when they can, no matter the amount. But now the account is low again, and we pretty much only have only enough funds to get us through the end of this current year.

So, usually, that’s fundraiser time! We thought we’d float some ideas around, but we also wanted your ideas, too!

Of course, if the account somehow magically fills up before we can decide on a fundraiser…we can just keep the ideas in our back pocket for the next time we need them. wink wink hint wink

We need about $400 USD/year to maintain and keep everything running across the following L&C sites: these MBs, the Kerth Awards site, the nfanfic archive, and the lcficdirectory.com. This includes domain names, hosting fees, and the cost for various plugins.

Here are some ideas for fundraising:

• Fanworks auction—FoLCs offer a story or fanart in exchange for a donation, and bidding happens like a silent auction.
• A donation-based subscription to a special forum on the MBs where there would be exclusive access to a select number of stories (e.g. These 5 stories can only be read here for 6 months before they’re posted publicly). (Similar to the Fundraiser DVD back in 2007, but MBs-based.)
• FoLC Swag—creating some sort of t-shirt, keychain, etc and the proceeds go to the FoLC account.

Let’s throw ideas around and see what works best! Keep in mind that some of these ideas involve a lot of logistics and such, and while super fun if there’s big involvement, can sometimes be more effort in the long run. (Though there’s no doubt that they’re super fun when everyone’s involved!)

While we’re tossing around ideas, feel free to donate now and help us get enough funds for next year (and we’d love to have a year’s buffer in there or more to keep us secure). I absolutely love that these boards have been around for 20 years now and that FoLCs are still here and actively using them and posting fic and socializing! FoLCdom is really amazing! Think about that trip for coffee or a night out with family or friends—how easy it is to spend $5 or $15 or $25 dollars or more on those simple pleasures—and consider what you might be able to chip in for all the enjoyment you get from the FoLC sites.

If you have any questions or concerns or ideas, we’d love to hear them!

Sara, Michael, and Annette

If you want to see the fancy thermometer as it rises, you can go to the official donations page!

And of course, the PayPal donation link works just fine as well. (This is ALWAYS at the top of the forums for easy access so that you can donate any time of the year you want!)

If you click through to the donations page, you’ll get to see that we’ve already raised $100 just since posting this because FoLCs are so generous! Thank you!!

Sara

P.S. Please note that the thermometer is not automatically updated! I have to wait for Kathy to give me updates OR, if you’d like to see the thermometer move after your donation, please feel free to PM me if you’re comfortable telling me the amount donated, and I can update it just for you.

I will happily auction off a fanvid! You pick the song, I make the video!

I wanted to knit a scarf in Superman colors for awhile now. I was going to donate it to the cause once it is finished. I already started collected the yarn.

I still have my t-shirt and hoodie from the last fundraiser! I'm all about the swag. Maybe like canvas reusable shopping bags?

I'd be willing to auction off a story.

I love the excitement and generosity already!! Thank you to all who have participated so far!

I’m willing to auction off a story too!

And Deadly Chakram, OMG me too! Well, I only got a t-shirt but I still wear it all the time! I’d love to have another one and maybe like a keychain or something or some other type of swag! I’ll have to look into things again unless anyone else wants to dive into those print-on-demand services and see what’s doable before I get to it.


And just to update everyone: So far, we’ve raised $414!!! Thank you to everyone who has donated already! Given the excitement around both an auction and swag, it’s very possible we’ll do both in the months to come. Our aim is to make a final decision and have that announced at the Kerth Ceremony, but we should definitely keep discussing here in the meantime to see what’s possible!

FoLCs outside the U.S.! We’ve found an easier and more cost-effective way than PayPal for you to make your donations! Please see the donations page for full details.

Thanks!!

Sara

Yep, me replying to my own thread again…

After Michael, Kathy, and I did some tallying and math, we’ve got some more updated figures for you all! So, when we set aside the funds we still need for 2023, we had $199 left in the account. Now, with that and our combined donations, we’re up to $615 of future funding!

Michael has updated the thermometer to show exactly what we need and when… (here’s the text breakdown of it):

2024: $400 — fully funded
2025: $215/$400 —half funded
2026 and beyond: $0

Thank you, everyone!!

Great news!!

Me again on behalf of Michael (because he’s been busy doing all the coding and website stuff behind the scenes). He asked me to share his thoughts on the fundraising ideas!

Thanks for posting Sara!

And *yay* and thanks to everyone for pushing the thermometer to 640 already
/applies unit version/ "ficlet" in "Sara" hmm...oh boy, that's gonna be longer than The Fellowship of the Ring
Michael

I’m a long time lurker … checking in on this board every so often just reading fics. I am glad to see y’all still around. I will gladly donate some $$, but I was curious because I’ve been reading fics for multiple fandoms for 20+ years now and Lois and Clark fics have some of the best writing I’d hate to see any fics lost.

Have you considered having fics imported over at Archive of Our Own AO3. - If anything ever happened $$$ wise, they could probably be archived there.

Just a thought.

But still happened to support the current operation and so thankful for those that continue or run it!

Hi tooaddicted2tv, so great to see you popping in!

Yes, Sara and I have discussed AO3 in the past. There's a couple of things one needs to be aware of:
* the Archive itself (lcfanfic.com) is hosted by Lauren and not part of the message board budget, so Sara and I can't say either way.
* stories published on the Archive and the Boards are first and foremost copyrighted by the authors themselves. While many might be okay with their public stories getting archived / re-published on AO3, that's not something we may take for granted.
* the nfanfic is behind a password, both here on the boards and on nfanfic.com. This is done both because some authors don't actually want their work to be publicly accessible and because of the age restriction.

So, all this means we would need to first get individual approval from each author for both the Archive and the boards, and then export and re-publish their works on the AO3. I am aware that there's a bulk option, but I'm not sure we could do this without express permission of each author. It may be something to revisit in the future, for now, though, we're here on the boards and the Archive and thank each and every one of you who supports our community with their presence and participation and also of course a little donation from time to time to keep the engines running

Personally, should the fandom ever dwindle to the point where the Archive and Boards are no longer sustainable, yes, I would be all for making sure the works are preserved in e.g. AO3. Then again, we're now in the 25th year of the Kerth Awards and in the 30th year after the show started and there's still fresh blood and even a new generation of FoLCs (literally!) showing up, so there is a magic here which I hope to help sustain well into the future

Michael