[jenny65]

I'm pretty new here.

I'd be willing to donate, but I have a few questions:

How much does it cost to operate this site? I know they get a LOT of traffic, but it doesn't cost several hundred-thousand dollars a year. No way.

What other costs are we paying for, and what happens to the surplus? I'd like to see some details of your costs and not just blaring declarations of "Save your country by donating".

Like I said, I'm willing to give, but only if I know it is going where it needed, and not just to line someone's pocket.

All of these banner ads and pleas for money remind me of watching televangelists when I was a kid.

[WIMom]

Read what Jim Robinson posted earlier on the thread, that should help you understand better.

To: BadJoe

I've received quite a bit of email from banned posters in the last day or so, plus several anonymous complaints and remarks. Seems the bannees are taking great delight in their perceived belief that the current fundraiser is not doing so well. Well, we're not quite a full four days into the fundraiser and we're at 20% from credit card donations. Not bad. And, when you roll in the $21,000 in monthlies, plus the 8,000 to 9,000 that we usually receive in checks and through PayPal, we'll be over 60%. That's fantastic!

Also, receiving a lot of snickering remarks about the 84,000 FReeper number. Yes, that's the number of registrations we've had, but obviously we do not have 84,000 active FReepers (at least not registered active FReepers). The server stats show 65 to 75 thousand unique visits per day and I know that during big news events that number goes a lot higher, so I wouldn't doubt that we do approach 80,000 FReepers and LURKERS.

Also, receiving many nasty remarks about how can it cost $300,000 per year to run this website. Well, the short answer is, it doesn't. Our budget totals a little over $20,000 per month in regular recurring expenses. That includes 6,000 for management, 1,000 for admin, 3,000 for programming, 5,800 for bandwidth, 3,000 for legal and the remainder is for office expenses, travel, lodging and misc. Plus there's usually repairs, maintenance, improvements, projects, events, etc., that are budgeted and funds raised separately. Our bandwidth price this year is a couple thousand less than last year, but some of the other expenses are higher so I expect we'll probably need about the same amount overall.

Thanks for all your hard work and thanks to all who are helping you. You're doing a great job and a great service. And special thanks to all who are donating. Without your support there would be no Free Republic.

Regards,

Jim Robinson

832 posted on 6/11/02 5:26 PM Central by Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

Thanks very much for your support.

James

[Texasforever]

Look, you are not donating to anything but a forum in which you are free, within reason, to voice your opinions and to interact with other conservatives. Your donations are voluntary and is not a requirement to post here. I know of no case where a person was denied access because of a lack of financial support. I could care less how and where the money I donate goes. I just know that I get a quality product that is completely free if I so choose. This is NOT like the televangelists simply because there is a tangible product and given the competition on the WEB is far superior to any of the others. Believe me I doubt very seriously that JR is "lining" his pockets but if he is, hell everyone deserves a living especially if their work product is the best in their field.