Information Regarding Recent Fundraising Campaign
Posted: 2015-04-11 09:50
There have been multiple questions brought up by various community members pertaining to the recent fundraising campaign and Project Reality's finances in general. These questions are by all means valid and warranted, so I will do my best to address them.
THANK YOU!
-Slick
- Do you have a dedicated team member that is responsible for Project Reality's finances?
Yes and that team member is me. I have handled all of Project Reality's finances since 2007. There were some major issues back then as Project Reality had absolutely no income. So, I setup Google AdSense for website Ads and PayPal for donations to make Project Reality as self-sufficient as possible. We immediately were able to cover a lot of Project Reality's cost and for a long time we covered ALL of them.
When I took over Project Reality's finances, I fully understood how big of a responsibility it was and the importance of keeping everything as transparent as possible. Project Reality has its own bank account at a completely separate financial institution from any personal accounts that I have. Same applies to the PayPal account. I keep books on everything and every year I file taxes with the IRS and create an "End of Year Financial Report" outlining a summary of all of our income and expenses for that year. If at any time any member of PR's management wants to see any bank statement or other financial report, all they have to do is ask.
Now, we are currently not fully self-sufficient. There are multiple Dev's who have purchased various things for Project Reality out of their own account over the years (myself included). These developers tend to be the pillars of the Dev team who go above and beyond (including paying out-of-pocket) to improve the Project Reality modification itself or enhance you, the communities, general experience with PR. They all should be commended for the dedication and support of Project Reality. - What caused Project Reality's current financial crisis?
Six months ago, I had a life-threatening medical problem which left me in the hospital for a week. I went to my regular doctor because I had a god awful headache for 3 days straight. He sent me for an MRI where it was discovered that I had a blood clot in my head. I was immediately air-lifted to UNC Chapel Hill Hospital (a very prestigious hospital in the US). Once at UNC, I found myself in what I can only describe as an episode of "House". I had a team of 6 doctors and 10 or so medical students caring for me 24hrs a day. Luckily, they were able to break-up the clot, but there still has not been a diagnosis as to what caused it. However, the doctors did inform me that they believed stress was a major contributing factor.
I'm sure not all of you have been in a life-threatening situation before, but being 30 years old and being told that you may die very quickly opens your eyes to what is truly important and in the grand scheme of things, Project Reality is not. So, I took six months off from a lot things, including Project Reality. This is when PR's finances tanked and the AdSense account was disabled. Call it negligence or bad bookkeeping if you wish, but my life and my family is far more important than a game. I will, however, sincerely apologize for everything that happened and the position Project Reality was put in. - Why are you not asking the community to help with servers/hardware?
The main reason we are not, and will not, ask the community or server administrators to provide servers or hosting for Project Reality is simple: dependability and stability. Control and access to core components of Project Reality's operation are restricted to only dedicated and trusted Dev Team members who actually need access.
The problem that arises when a non-team member is given control of any critical component is that he/she can suddenly disrupt that service without notice. It is absolutely necessary that the Dev Team remains in control of every aspect of the development Project Reality. - How much does it cost to keep Project Reality running?
There are multiple components that are critical to the development and general operation of Project Reality. There are website servers, TeamSpeak servers, SVN servers, testing servers, FTP servers, domain registrations, code signing certificates, software licensees etc. for multiple projects that you, the community, may or may not be aware of. Currently on average, these expenses add up to around $400 a month. - Is Project Reality currently over-spending?
Yes, we are currently over spending. This is not something that has been going on for a long period of time however, as we just recently shut down a few projects. We are currently exploring our options to move to new servers that better meet our needs, both financially and hardware specification wise. - Why is the fundraising campaign goal set to the amount of $1,500?
As stated in the original news post, our Google AdSense account was suspended due to Google's very strict content policy. This has caused a loss in revenue totaling close to $1,000 over the past six months. In order to move to new, cheaper servers and keep Project Reality going, a $1,500 figure was agreed upon by PR's management. We do not always hit our donation goals every month and ad revenue can vary dramatically. With that said, we need to be able to compensate for the low income months and ideally would like to have enough funds available to cover all our expenses for 3-5 months. - How do I know that I can trust Project Reality with my money?
Project Reality has been around for 10 years now. During those years, we have never made a plea for financial help. We are legitimate business who is validated and confirmed (we have to be in order to keep our code signing certificate). If you are sincerely concerned about donating to Project Reality, then simply don't. We don't require our community to pay for Project Reality as it is a free modification for anyone to download and play.
THANK YOU!
-Slick
I hope you are going to be able to maintain your health from now on and good luck!