Archive of Our Own ^beta

We are pleased to publish the OTW's 2024 Annual Report, available in PDF and HTML formats. The report provides a letter from our Board of Directors, a summary of our activities during the past year, and our financial statements for 2024. Some highlights from 2024 include finishing the update to AO3's Terms of Service, creating a new committee (and 2 new subcommittees!), as well as starting work on the OTW Organizational Culture Roadmap.

You can access the 2024 report, and all earlier years, on the Reports and Governing Documents page of the OTW website. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

We are pleased to publish the OTW's 2023 Annual Report, available in PDF or HTML formats. The report provides a letter from our Board of Directors, a summary of our activities during the past year and our financial statements for 2023.

Some highlights from 2023 include a survey for AO3's 16th anniversary, major growth in OTW's social media presence, and Legal Advocacy successfully obtaining a renewal of the vidding exemption for the sixth time in our history!

You can access the 2023 report, and all earlier years, on the Reports and Governing Documents page of the OTW website. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

The OTW launched a user survey as part of the International Fanworks Day's 10th annual celebration. It was launched on February 9th and closed on February 19th. The survey, which asked 12 questions, was offered in 25 languages and was started by 55,620 people.

This survey report covers the following:

1) How many responses there were to each question
2) How many people gave which answers.

Below is an example from the report:

Q8: Have you ever used AO3 bookmarks to rec a fanwork?

50,591 survey takers answered this question.

Yes – 36,026 (71.37%)
No – 14,565 (28.63%)

Visit this link to access the rest of the survey responses.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Throughout the year, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. The team also revamped the accounting structure to better reflect the OTW's financial activity. Preparation for the audit of 2022 financial statements continues!

The team has also been diligently working on the 2023 budget update and are happy to present it here: (access the 2023 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2023 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$237,279.97 spent so far out of US$336,514.21 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• 47.7% of the OTW's expenses go towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses, as well as costs highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses also include US$64,000 to purchase new servers to increase the capacity of existing servers to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

• US$4,081.74 spent so far out of US$4,379.42 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$4,151.48 spent so far out of US$4,279.48 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tool (access all program expenses).

Fanlore

• US$12,575.29 spent so far out of US$17,903.54 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs, as well as its portion of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$491.06 spent so far out of US$5,491.06 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Legal's expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$1,564.95 spent so far out of US$3,684.95 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Budgeted expenses include convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW, which include convention registration fees, tabling fees, and related presentation materials (access all program expenses).

Fundraising and Development

• US$68,285.08 spent so far out of US$121,509.38 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, and the tools used to host the OTW's membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$69,179.75 spent so far out of US$212,988.32 total this year, as of September 30, 2023.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as productivity, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2023 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together will account for about 47% of our income in 2023. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases and keep on hand for legal contingencies. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. As the Archive and other projects of the OTW grow, we also spend more on tools and technology to support our volunteers, such as the tools used by Support and Policy & Abuse to communicate with and aid users, further increasing expenses.
• US$621,454.87 received so far (as of September 30, 2023) and US$693,989.51 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We'll get back to you as soon as possible!

To download the OTW's 2023 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

On September 5, 2023 the OTW launched a user survey to coincide with its 16th anniversary. The purpose was to identify locations used by fans for fandom activities so as to better understand where they might be encountering and sharing news. In compliance with our Strategic Plan's Vision Statement, we also used this survey to establish a baseline of fans' familiarity with the OTW and its projects.

The survey asked between 16 to 35 ticky box and radio button questions (depending on what answers were given) and was open for 16 days, closing on September 21. During that time the survey was accessed 90,607 times. This may indicate that some people visited the form several times, either to start and stop a survey response or to read the opening page.

Our survey platform designated the consent form as Q1, so survey questions began with Q2. Of the 79,222 respondents to the consent form, 78,258 said Yes (98.78%) they consented to take the survey and 965 (1.22%) said no, at which point those users did not continue with the survey.

The survey report covers the following:

1) How many responses there were to each question
2) What number and percentage of respondents chose each answer, and
3) How many people skipped the question.

Below are a few examples of responses from the report:

Q2: How long have you been active in online fandom spaces?

78,258 survey takers received this question.
77,358 answered it.
1,865 exited the survey at this point.

Less than a year - 1,964 (2.54%)
1-2 years - 6,563 (8.48%)
3-5 years - 20,369 (26.33%)
6-10 years - 25,105 (32.45)
11-15 years - 13,040 (16.86%)
16-25 years - 8,690 (11.23%)
26-30 years - 1,257 (1.62%)
Over 30 years - 370 (0.48%)

Q26: Have you ever downloaded a fanwork from Archive of Our Own/AO3?

67,544 survey takers received this question.
67,475 answered it
69 exited the survey at this point.

Yes - 46,574 (69.02%)
No - 20,901 (30.98%)

Visit this link to access the rest of the report.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

During the last year, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. Preparation for the 2022 audit of financial statements is currently ongoing!

The team has also been diligently working to meet the OTW's 2023 needs, and is proud to present to you this year's budget (access the 2023 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2023 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$99,854.48 spent so far out of US$295,285.76 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• 59.4% of the OTW's expenses go towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses, as well as costs highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses also include US$74,000 to purchase new servers, as well as US$77,000 in server related equipment to increase the capacity of existing servers to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

• US$2,232.86 spent so far out of US$5,526.16 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$847.70 spent so far out of US$3,509.70 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Fanlore

• US$6,222.79 spent so far out of US$16,201.99 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs, as well as its portion of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$5,258.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Legal's expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$2,000.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Budgeted expenses include US$1,000.00 for convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW, which include convention tabling fees, volunteer attendance, and related presentation materials, as well as US$1,000.00 for convention giveaways (access all program expenses).

Fundraising and Development

• US$9,235.91 spent so far out of US$79,625.11 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, and the tools used to host the OTW's membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$21,093.22 spent so far out of US$89,172.96 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as productivity, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2023 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together will account for about 27% of our income in 2023. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases and keep on hand for legal contingencies. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. The growth of the Archive and other projects of the OTW also requires more volunteers and administrative support, further increasing expenses. The budget spreadsheet projects a withdrawal of US$130,000 from reserves to cover the costs that exceed the amount of revenue projected to be received this year. This amount may be withdrawn as needed during the year.
• US$69,477.12 received so far (as of February 28, 2023) and US$370,320.00 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We'll get back to you as soon as possible!

To download the OTW's 2023 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

We are pleased to publish the OTW's 2021 Annual Report, available in PDF or html formats. The report provides a letter from our Board of Directors, a summary of our activities during the past financial and calendar year, and our financial statements for 2021. Some highlights from 2021 include Fanlore's one millionth edit, Transformative Works and Cultures' new editor team, and comment freezing deployed on AO3 works and news posts.

You can also access reports from all earlier years at the Reports and Governing Documents page of the OTW website. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

During 2021, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. Preparation for the 2020 audit of financial statements continues!

Meanwhile, the team has also been diligently working on the 2021 budget update and are happy to present it here (access the 2021 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2021 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$125,025.02 spent so far out of US$227,075.48 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• 62.1% of the OTW's expenses go towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses, as well as costs highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses include a planned US$100,000.00 for an expansion of server capacity to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

• US$450.48 spent so far out of US$1,160.85 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$339.00 spent so far out of US$1,839.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Fanlore

• US$5,527.77 spent so far out of US$10,697.58 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$2,500.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Legal's expenses consist of filing fees for various activities, including OTW trademarks (access all program expenses).

Grant for F. Coppa book on the History of Fanvidding

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$598.32 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• The money for this grant comes from a donation made to the OTW in 2020 for the specific purpose of covering costs related to the production of Francesca Coppa's book on the history of fanvidding. The University of Michigan will publish the book and host the fanvids, as well as make it accessible for free online for everyone to read and use.
• Budgeted expenses are for additional proofreading and publication (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$31,423.46 spent so far out of US$62,647.46 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• Our fundraising expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, and the tools used to host the OTW's membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$12,448.35 spent so far out of US$59,264.41 total this year, as of July 31, 2021.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2021 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 57% of our income in 2021. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which will significantly increase server equipment and server hosting expenses in the coming years. The growth of the Archive and other projects of the OTW also requires more administrative support, further increasing expenses.
• US$482,542.83 received so far (as of July 31, 2021) and US$542,972.85 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on October 16 at 8pm UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

Thanks for joining the chat!

To download the OTW's 2021 budget update in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.