Donations for Susan's

[Ms. Bee]

To: Susan's board and members

I've been a member of Susan's for a few months now. I notice a recurring theme regarding soliciting donations either through a pop-up in my member inbox or a thread like "I can donate $150, can you?" This is over and above the link to donate or subscribe.

Have we thought about adding a monetary requirement for members to post on Susan's or enable certain site privileges. For example, contribute $60 a year, or $15 quarterly, or $5 a month to have full access to Susan's. These are options. Guests would still continue to be able to lurk around the site to get information as do today. I think it would lessen the burden on the one's who are pressured to give when we have so many benefiting from Susan's.   As you can see by my profile I have donated. I am posting this new thread too. Why should non-contributors be entitled to do the same as members who donate to keep this site alive? Don't know who's call this is, but definitely something to consider to fund this great resource. Your thoughts, feelings, and emotions?

Thank you,

Brianna Necole

[Lady Sarah]

Some members contribute through their knowledge and experience, when they do not have enough money to donate.

[Sarah1979]

A major problem for many transgender people is transitioning with very little money due to employment discrimination.  I (personally) don't feel that adding a requirement to give money in order to interact with a community resource like Susan's is a good idea.  I think we need to help each other given that many times the world around us has nothing but apathy towards us.  Just a thought...

[Devlyn]

To: Susan's board and members

I've been a member of Susan's for a few months now. I notice a recurring theme regarding soliciting donations either through a pop-up in my member inbox or a thread like "I can donate $150, can you?" This is over and above the link to donate or subscribe.

Have we thought about adding a monetary requirement for members to post on Susan's or enable certain site privileges. For example, contribute $60 a year, or $15 quarterly, or $5 a month to have full access to Susan's. These are options. Guests would still continue to be able to lurk around the site to get information as do today. I think it would lessen the burden on the one's who are pressured to give when we have so many benefiting from Susan's.   As you can see by my profile I have donated. I am posting this new thread too. Why should non-contributors be entitled to do the same as members who donate to keep this site alive? Don't know who's call this is, but definitely something to consider to fund this great resource. Your thoughts, feelings, and emotions?

Thank you,

Brianna Necole

Hi Brianna, it's Susan's call. She's been helping the community for over twenty years with no obligatory contributions, and wants to continue doing that. Finally, donations and subscriptions are optional for those able to contribute.

The only time my emotions are involved in these discussions is when someone complains about the subscriber and donator badges on our avatars.

Hugs, Devlyn

[JulieAllana]

I agree that if the goal is to help people who could be at real lows in their lives, that charging them to participate might not be the best idea.  Perhaps requiring donations before being able to upload an avatar or some other similar perks for donators other than the badges. 

       Julie

[Dena]

We have people joining the site who have completely hidden the fact they are transgender and need advice about coming out or surviving as they are. In addition, while payments are handled through PayPal, the charges may still appear on their credit card. Demanding payment to use the web site might result in them being outed before they are ready so instead of joining here, they might continue to use sites that provide harmful information.

In addition, there are other ways to assist the site. Most of the time we can use additional staff so if your unable to contribute money, your time will benefit the site. If that is a bit much of a commitment, you can always post on the introduction threads and help make the new members feel welcome. After you have been here a while, you  will probably be able to pass your knowledge on to newer members.

[Ryuichi13]

Some members contribute through their knowledge and experience, when they do not have enough money to donate.

I am one of those that can't afford to donate.  I am disabled, and on a fixed budget, and even $10 may mean that I can't afford to drive to see my gender therapist, so I do what I can by offering what I know. 

If this becomes a "pay for access site," I will more than likely have to go elsewhere.

Ryuichi

[Lady Sarah]

I am one of those that can't afford to donate.  I am disabled, and on a fixed budget, and even $10 may mean that I can't afford to drive to see my gender therapist, so I do what I can by offering what I know. 

If this becomes a "pay for access site," I will more than likely have to go elsewhere.

Ryuichi

The same goes for me. Some can afford to donate over a hundred bucks a month, no problem. Others can't. If this site became "pay to use" I'm sure someone will make a site that does not mean having to run their own servers, much like a site I used to have that cost me all of $120 per year... and that was when I was selling merchandise on it. Times are tough for many of us.

[Sno]

Ah, the great paywall debate. We need to be open, and accessible, so that folk can read anonymously, whilst they are thinking, possibly for the first time in their lives about them. Consider me one of those folk, for whom, I can give nothing but support and personal experience of trying to not get sucked into the void, and 'continue' with life as folk expect it.

Personally, I've been out of work for the last 2 years, due to mental health issues. The appeals fill me with regret that I am unable to help financially - which I attempt to offset by helping folk in the non binary space, and those who just need a compassionate ear, and a helping hand.

I give of myself, as that is all I have. My contributions have been small recently, as there is little of myself left at the moment - but what I give, is free, and with love.

(Hugs)


Rowan

[VickyS]

I am in a tricky place financially and am having to sell a lot of my belongings including classic car projects and photography equipment to be able to afford electrolysis.  Most of the time I have to really save to be able to have £50 at the end of the month! I don't drink or smoke and I can't afford take-away meals.  This month I was going to buy some photo developing chemicals with my saved up £50, but after Susan's plea, I donated it and it made me feel that I was helping the community that has helped me so much and continues to do so. 

When I first registered, I was unsure what was really going on in my life and if I had to pay a subscription to enter the site, I think I would have not bothered registering.  I think that is the crux of the situation.  If it moved to a mandatory subscription now, then of course I'd pay it, but I would not at the start and that is when I needed help the most.

[Alice V]

Put aside the fact that this place is for help and not for raising money, I may be wrong, but doesn't requirements to pay before use this site make it buisness because it makes Susan sell access to this information? I bet there'll be some cons in such model

[sarah1972]

Making this a pay site is really not an option. As we have seen in this post, many members are struggling financially and we all know transition is not necessarily a cheap endeavor either. Taking care of personal needs, medications and even hobbies must take precedence. Hence the aim to finance the site through voluntary donations by the members who can afford to do so.

There is a way to support this site with a monthly subscription. They are available at many different levels to accommodate different financial means. The only real difference is that you get a badge displayed under your name if you sign up for a subscription.

If you want to do something for the site in support of the transgender community, you can also consider signing up for one of the staff positions. Staff are also volunteers who dedicate a part of their time to the site. Be it as a greeter or moderator, manage the links collection or write news articles. This additional content keeps the site interesting and provides additional information as well as a safe haven for our members.

Hugs!

Sarah

[JulieAllana]

You all make some wonderful points to which I completely agree.  Access to the site should be free, including the ability to post.  The tone of some of the comments though that seem to suggest that Susan's would be sort of business or what not is just right off.  It isn't a matter of making money, it is a matter of keeping the resources here available for all.  We as a society have just taken for granted that the internet is free, but it actually costs money to run this place and I don't see pop-up ads all over the place (and there shouldn't be) which is how many web sites pay for themselves.  Every time someone accesses the site, it uses bandwidth which costs money.  Susan has created this place and has donated her own time and money to maintain it, but she can't do it alone and it isn't fair to ask her to.  It is likewise not fair to continue to ask the same people to reach deep into their pockets every month to make up the shortfalls.  This is a community/user sponsored site.  All this thread is doing is trying to figure out a way to encourage people to participate in that sponsorship.  For the first few months I used the site I didn't donate.  I fell into the trap of thinking web sites should generally be free.  It wasn't until after seeing for a few months that Susan didn't even cover the cost of running the site in donations and that she had to dip into her reserves just to keep the site online that I signed up to donate every month.  I can't fathom how anyone that has found succor here would not do the same, assuming they had the means of course.  There are enough users here that it wouldn't take much if everyone who was able to gave just a little.

           Best regards,
                           Julie

[Ms. Bee]

I have read each posts, thank you!. I understand everyone is at a different place financially.  I just resign from my job. I didn't take into account job discrimination when it comes to transgender. The emails and pleas it come across like "Oh my the sky is falling. I need x amount of dollars to make budget". I thought about it more. Most sites I uses on a daily bases are free. YouTube (has ads), our local news website (has ads), lottorypost (free or extra paid content), and an x rated site (free or extra paid content). Susan's is the only site where I am asked to give a donation sort of like at church or a non-profit. I gave $25 here and there when able to because i worked for my last job for 10 years. I pay $81 for home internet each month. I think others can do a little bit periodically to help meet the monthly goal.

As far as new members. I wouldn't prompt them to donate for additional privileges until after a "free look" phase. This period would give them time to snoop around, post, ask questions, to see if  a donation status fits them.

[Lucca]

Well, it's Susan's call, but I don't think it's really feasible to require payment in order to post. Besides people who genuinely can't spare anything, there's also people in crisis who need help immenently and a paywall barrier puts an extra step in their way, and there are also minors who may not be financially disadvantaged, but don't have access to their own funds or accounts separate from their parents.

[sarah1972]

Ads are a very difficult subject. Internet advertising is always trying to track users, even across multiple devices. There is a reason why I see shoe ads in Facebook on my phone even though I looked for the same pair of shoes on my laptop.

Ads also try to mine user comments and information, something we really do not want for privacy reasons. Member privacy and the protection of members is so important that ads are not much of an option.

Take the example of financial advice sites: they are mostly free after you sign up. How are they paying for their services? They sell your personal I formation. A plain record yields about $50, if a user of such site signs up for a credit card through one of those sites it is $150. But of course: your information has been sold.

The only feasible model while protecting a users privacy and given our members is donations.

Running a high volume site like Susan's is also not a cheap endeavor. Storage and data traffic is what costs the most.

As mentioned before: no one is forced to donate or subscribe. If you can support the site: great. If you cannot: also great! The ones who can gladly support the ones who cannot.