GWJ Donation Drive 2016

Donation Drive 2016!!

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Today marks the launch of our 2016 donation drive. Over that time any current patrons or new donations that contribute more than $2.00 (either as a one-time donation or through Patreon) will receive a fancy new golden icon befitting your status as a character of discerning taste and style, and those of you who have supported us for the full 14 years will get a brand new icon, Coming Soon(™).

First, the short version -- if you’d like to help GWJ keep the lights on, remain ad-free, keep building the amazing community, keep pumping out great content, keep the Gamers With Jobs Conference Call going, keep making videos and radio plays and RPG podcasts and all kinds of stuff then go to → patreon.com/gwj.

[One important note -- if you do support the site and want the rewards make sure the email you use for Patreon is the same one you use for your GWJ account.]

In addition, this year we will go back to supporting one-time PayPal donations for people strongly opposed to the Patreon model. Please keep in mind that the Patreon model makes just about everything easier on our end, from managing monthly budgets to setting aside money for projects, expenses and projecting revenue. Ewww, gross business words, but it’s true. All things being equal, if you’re interested in helping GWJ, then Patreon is the best way to do that.

But, we get it’s not for everyone, and we are grateful for any and all support. If you feel strongly that PayPal is the best solution for you, then you can send your donations to [email protected].

That’s probably all you need to know about donating, but here’s the answer to a few additional questions you may have.

How do I donate to the site? -- Ok, good. This is an easy one, because I just mentioned it a moment ago. Go to Patreon.com/GWJ, enter an amount you’d like to pledge each month, enter your payment information and you’re good. Thank you, you’re awesome.

How’d that whole Patreon experiment go? -- Well, we’re sticking with it so that should give you an idea that we’re pretty happy with it. I will say that we’ve dropped about 20% from our highest level of support at the end of last year’s donation drive, which is not unexpected because we rarely promote donations and because we know a lot of people were primarily interested in shorter term donations. We are really aiming to cross our monthly income back above the $2,800 mark, and if we can achieve that over the next month that will be an important milestone for us. That seems to be a sweet spot for maintaining everything nicely on our end. Obviously, above and beyond that we can start talking about cool stretch goals and growth.

So, sticking with this Patreon thing then? -- Yes, for the foreseeable future Patreon will continue to be our main way of donating to the site. After a year of working with this model it’s made just about everything easier on our end, and in the end generated almost exactly the same dollars as our previous donation model.

Can I Change My Donation? -- You can always adjust your donation, up or down. We activate our monthly rewards based on whomever is in that tier at the time, so if you want to get a reward you can bump up your donation and receive that. Alternatively if you need to trim some expenses feel free to drop it down.

But, I really want to use PayPal. -- We understand not everyone is comfortable with the Patreon model, so this year we are adding a PayPal option back in. I would mention once again that Patreon is much easier on our end, so if you don’t have a strong preference we’d ask you to use that system. All that said, we get it and if PayPal is just a much better option, we understand. Thank you so much for wanting to support us at all in the first place.

To contribute via PayPal [email protected].

Cool, now what do I get for my money? -- Mostly, you get an awesome community. That and articles, videos, podcasts, game sessions and a bunch of other stuff that hopefully you like and want to support. But, there are also rewards as well --

Any $2.00+ donation -- Golden community icon for the fourms
$5/month -- Icon + Never before released GWJ Conference Call pilot.
$10/month -- Icon + Pilot + access to monthly Game King (™) stream.
$20/month -- Icon + Pilot + Stream + we’ll read a custom short message from you on the air of the Conference Call.
$50/month -- What? Seriously? Ok, all the other cool stuff, plus if you maintain this tier for a year, Shawn and I will get online and talk to you about what kind of project you’d like to see to match your awesome level of support. You’ll work directly with us on making something great for the site, and best of all, you get to help come up with what that something is.

I don’t live in the US, can I donate? -- Yes ... at least according to Patreon’s FAQ -- your funds will be converted to USD. Here’s what they have to say -- https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

Wait, did some of the Patreon rewards change? -- Yup, we’ve pulled the bi-monthly Q&A and the monthly game night and replaced them. What we found is that after the first few we were increasingly lower attendance for both. A lot of that was because scheduling proved very difficult on our end. None of us do this as a full-time job, and getting even 2 or 3 of us at a time that was also convenient for an audience to attend was just a mess. We’ve moved away from having as many scheduled event rewards. Anyone currently contributing at those tiers will receive the new rewards.

Are icons still part of the deal? -- Heck yeah! Just donate $2.00 or more and we’ll tag you with the next icon. We also have a few people in the community who have been with us for all 14 -- 14?! -- years and donated every year, so we couldn’t leave them hanging without a new look.

Sweet, when do I get my icon? -- We’ll periodically update icons as we get donors, though I suspect we’ll probably start handing them out more earnestly toward the end of the drive. It’s important to remember, though, that if you want your icon you’ll need to ensure that your Patreon or PayPal email matches your GWJ profile.

When does the Donation Drive end? -- Technically we will be accepting support year-round, and there will be a link to the Patreon on the site, but the Donation Drive itself still only lasts a month, and after October 15, we’ll pretty much stop talking about support or the Patreon. You’ll always have normal access to and an easy way to find the Patreon though, not just for those who want to donate, but also in case people who have donated want to make any changes. We will only be accepting PayPal donations until Oct 15.

Anything else? -- Probably, but the big answer to this question is if you have more things you’re wondering drop a line in comments, send us a PM or even reach out to [email protected] and we’ll try to get you an answer.

And, thank you one more time. Even if you aren’t able to contribute your dollars to help the site, so many of you do things both little and big every day to make this an amazing and rare place on the internet. We are so grateful for your time, your support and your awesome contributions. Thanks for making GWJ great!

Comments

Psst...the Patreon link in the article is busted. I think you want this link.

Very glad to see a PayPal option again. Thank you for giving the choice, even if not many will use it!

Stilgar Black wrote:

Psst...the Patreon link in the article is busted. I think you want this link.

Thanks, fixed.

If we have an awesome custom icon, what do we note if we want to keep it?

Whose palm needs greased to bring back the custom icon option?

$50/month -- What? Seriously? Ok, all the other cool stuff, plus if you maintain this tier for a year, Shawn and I will get online and talk to you about what kind of project you’d like to see to match your awesome level of support. You’ll work directly with us on making something great for the site, and best of all, you get to help come up with what that something is.

I'm starting a Patreon to help generate $50/month for me to give to this Patreon.

Launder your GWJ donations through me, and let's get a special *Legion* project on this site.

mudbunny wrote:

If we have an awesome custom icon, what do we note if we want to keep it?

This man is asking the important questions!

We see custom icons on our end when updating -- I'm pretty sure that's true -- so I'm pretty sure we're assuming anyone with a custom wants to keep theirs.

If you have a custom icon we ain't touching it. Those things are PRICELESS.

Guys

As someone who has been supporting you and Gamers with Jobs for quite a few years now, but who lives in the UK, I feel the need to point out that while Patreon does accept other currencies the conversion rate and bank charges incurred this side of the Atlantic means that you end up paying nearly as much in charges as you do in Donations (certainly if it's just a couple of dollars a month) For that reason I'll be sending you a bulk payment via PayPal this year and cancelling my Patreon subscription.

Are you still recognising PayPal donations? I'm not that fussed about forum icons and stuff like that but it's nice to know you are appreciated!!

So... if I'm already set up on Patreon from the last Donation Drive do I just let it coast and I'm good?

It feels a little less special to be honest.

Are you still recognising PayPal donations? I'm not that fussed about forum icons and stuff like that but it's nice to know you are appreciated!!

Yep!

Rezzy wrote:

So... if I'm already set up on Patreon from the last Donation Drive do I just let it coast and I'm good?

It feels a little less special to be honest.

Yep, you're good. If there's a downside to Patreon, that might be it. WE still think it's very special. I say a little thank you every time I tag someone.

Certis wrote:

If you have a custom icon we ain't touching it. Those things are PRICELESS.

Can I get two custom icons?

So I'll be letting my Patreon coast, smooth sailing ahead! Which is probably appropriate, because I think my next icon is the boat (nope, that's next year!). We love you, GWJ!
Are we doing a raffle for custom icons this year as well?

TheGameguru wrote:
Certis wrote:

If you have a custom icon we ain't touching it. Those things are PRICELESS.

Can I get two custom icons?

How about you share with the rest of us peons?

I'm doing the one time payment through Patreon thing again in which I give you $X now and then cancel after the first month. When will that payment get processed? Beginning of October?

Edit: Yup, 1st day of the month.

Thanks for the clarification on why the Cabal game nights stopped. I donated at that tier for months before finally realizing that it was dead. So sadly I stopped donating.

Eleima wrote:

So I'll be letting my Patreon coast, smooth sailing ahead! Which is probably appropriate, because I think my next icon is the boat (nope, that's next year!). We love you, GWJ!
Are we doing a raffle for custom icons this year as well?

TheGameguru wrote:
Certis wrote:

If you have a custom icon we ain't touching it. Those things are PRICELESS.

Can I get two custom icons?

How about you share with the rest of us peons? ;)

I share my wisdom daily.. that has to count for something!

garion333 wrote:

I'm doing the one time payment through Patreon thing again in which I give you $X now and then cancel after the first month. When will that payment get processed? Beginning of October?

Yep!

I'm letting my patreon donation setup from last year ride. Bring on the new icon!

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I'm letting my patreon donation setup from last year ride. Bring on the new icon! Don't change my wienerbomb icon!

FTFM

Also letting my Patreon donation coast on through. Bring it on, golden car icon!

Oh, come on, there should be an option for our own icons. I promise not to use dick pics.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/MilkmanDanimal/Mobile%20Uploads/article-2294821-18BDAEB9000005DC-441_306x423.jpg)

Oh yeah . . .

Amazingly my credit card didn't expire, get stolen, or automatically get issued a new number by the bank due to a major breach (Thanks Target and Home Depot). So I haven't had to go in to Patreon and re-enter my card number since last year. Incredible.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Oh, come on, there should be an option for our own icons.

They can't make a Tampa Bay QB icon, there's not enough room or enough gold.

*Legion* wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Oh, come on, there should be an option for our own icons.

They can't make a Tampa Bay QB icon, there's not enough room or enough gold.

I will assume your preferred icon is just a golden version of Blaine Gabbert's dreamy face, since you inherently root for whatever team he happens to go to.

PoderOmega wrote:

Amazingly my credit card didn't expire, get stolen, or automatically get issued a new number by the bank due to a major breach (Thanks Target and Home Depot). So I haven't had to go in to Patreon and re-enter my card number since last year. Incredible.

This actually raises an interesting point.

I've had my bank issue new cc (with new number) a few times over the past 5 years.

Does Patreon email you if your current card on file goes dead? I have my GWJ Patreon dialed in to monthly payments, so I'm personally in "set it and forget it" mode.

I wouldn't want the payments to stop and have it slip my mind to update my card info if applicable.

I'm going to need to drop down a tier to maximise income during what could be a tricky period. Hopefully it's not and I can bump it back up in a timely fashion.

My current rental property is being put on the market. I have six weeks to sort somewhere else out. My outgoing per month is likely to increase (my wife is out of work and house sharing with a sister-in-law may no longer be viable). If it's not furnished I need to pick up a washing machine, a cooker, and a refrigerator.

My Amazon Instant Video subscription is being put on ice. No new video games. No internet service. The NX fund may become a kitchen appliance fund! #firstworldproblems

Letting it ride too! What comes after the boat?

PaladinTom wrote:

Letting it ride too! What comes after the boat?

Wake.

For icons it's a Companion Cube / owl.

Why don't you guys cater to those who want to transfer you the money via Western Union?