[barnieca]

what is the $240K/year go to pay?

are there employees of freerepublic?

is it a massive cost for the website?

is money used for supporting conservative candidates?

sorry I just don’t know.. please explain.

[Sally'sConcerns]

FR is owned and operated by Jim while his son John keeps the site up and running. The money is used to support FR and the Robinson's. Please note FR is an LLC as found on the bottom of the comments page. It's a full time job running a website of this magnitude and the Robinson's deserve to be paid for the service they provide.

Having said that, any donation of any amount you choose to make will help keep FR around. If you feel no need to donate in order to participate on this site, that's your right.

If you think it's okay for people to voluntarily donate whatever amount they can afford and think the experience of FR is worth the amount they choose then you can send in a donation.

Jim, once I make it through April 15th I'll be able to become a monthly donor again. Knocking on wood (among other things) that things have stabilized to the point to where I don't have to worry constantly about when the next "surprise" hospital stay will be.

[tsmith130]

(Go here for montly expense breakdown)

[Jim Robinson]

There are four of us working on the project, two full-time and two part-time. Plus we have bandwidth and equipment expenses and all the other normal expenses, fees, taxes and costs of doing business. Doubt our expenses are out of line with any other internet organization of similar size and probably smaller than most.

Here’s a breakdown of our budgeted expenses:

https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/budget

We also now have some debt related to our travels and tea party events last year that we need to raise money to pay off.

[Jim Robinson]

And, no, we do not raise money for candidates or any other purposes other than our operating expenses and or our activism projects/events.