2024 Annual Report

Organization for Transformative Works Annual Report 2024


Table of Contents

Letter from the Board of Directors

Dear OTW donors, supporters, and volunteers,

2024 was a year of hard work, marked by important conversations and progress within the OTW. The Board followed through on promises to partner with an external culture firm to evaluate the changes needed to foster a healthier and safer environment for all our volunteers. The OTW underwent a months-long organizational culture audit, which included interviews with volunteers at every level of the organization and within every committee, as well as collaboration with a diversity consultant.

Following this, work began on the OTW Organizational Culture Roadmap, with goals focusing on six key themes of improvement: accountability at all levels, creating a safe and welcoming space in the OTW internal chat tool, global accessibility and cross-cultural sensitivity, open and transparent collaboration, organization-wide management standards, and volunteer safety and security. Efforts to achieve these goals have already begun and will continue into 2025 and the coming years.

The OTW also underwent multiple structural changes this year. A new User Response Translation committee was established to address translation needs for the Policy & Abuse and Support committees in specific high-need languages. Additionally, two subcommittees were created: Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution (under Volunteers & Recruiting) and News Post Moderation (under Communications). These changes are intended to ensure that the OTW’s development better reflects the organization’s evolving needs as our projects grow and develop.

Our projects accomplished a lot in 2024, which are further detailed in the later sections of this Annual Report. However, we want to highlight a few achievements here that we are particularly proud of:

  • Archive of Our Own completed a long-awaited update to its Terms of Service, clarifying the platform’s rules for users and enabling the Policy & Abuse committee to better address abuse reports.
  • Fanlore hosted multiple month-long challenges and announced that they would start hosting monthly editing challenges in the coming year as well. Around 6,700 new pages were added, and 163,000 edits were made during 2024.
  • Legal Advocacy focused on increasing outreach this year, collaborating with Communications to publish six news posts about proposed legislation that could affect fandom and fan spaces.
  • Open Doors imported 10 archives in 2024, containing approximately 13,000 works. This brings the total number of rescued archives to 111 since the project’s inception.
  • Transformative Works and Cultures was recognized by the University of Amsterdam for its Diamond Open Access publication status.

As we look back on 2024, we are incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made and the strides we’ve taken to strengthen our organization and support our volunteers and communities. The work outlined in this report represents just a fraction of the dedication and passion that drives the OTW every day. We are excited for the year ahead and remain committed to evolving and adapting to the needs of our projects, volunteers, and fans around the world. Thank you for your continued support as we work together to foster a space that is by fans and for fans.

With gratitude and best wishes,

The Board of Directors

Qiao Chu
Erica Frank
Jennifer Haynes
Rachel Linton
Anh Pham
Kathryn Soderholm
Zixin Zhang

Projects

Archive of Our Own

In 2024, the Archive of Our Own (AO3) celebrated its 15th anniversary and reached a milestone of 14 million fanworks on the site.

In November, AO3 completed long-awaited updates to its Terms of Service (TOS) which clarified language and increased accessibility across its Content, Privacy, and Abuse Policies. While substantial refinements were made, this update did not change what kinds of works were allowed on AO3. As part of the TOS update, the “Underage” Archive Warning was renamed to “Underage Sex” to make its meaning clearer to users and address persistent confusion present in Abuse reports.

In addition to changes to AO3’s TOS, the TOS FAQs were also updated. TOS FAQ updates prioritized addressing a far more comprehensive list of questions about AO3 and its TOS based on the questions and misunderstandings Policy & Abuse has seen in reports. A total of almost 20,000 words, including over 130 new questions, were added to the TOS FAQ.

An open comment period was announced for feedback on the TOS and TOS FAQ updates. The news post received over 4,300 comments from users. Policy & Abuse, in conjunction with the News Post Moderation team, responded to over 400 comments, providing clarity about the updates to the documents as well as AO3 in general.

In addition to TOS updates, Policy & Abuse received 27,700 tickets in 2024 spanning a variety of categories, an increase compared to 2023’s 23,600.

Pie chart of Policy & Abuse tickets submitted in 2024, divided by type of complaint. Non-fanworks: 48%; Rejected complaints about offensive content: 15%; Plagiarism and copyright infringement: 9%; Commercial promotion: 8%; Harassment: 7%; Spam comments, 3%; Incorrect fandom tags: 2%; Policy questions: 2%; Insufficient ratings or warnings: 2%; Other: 2%.
Policy & Abuse Tickets Submitted in 2024

Elsewhere, Support received 27,000 tickets in 2024, a 2,200 increase from 2023’s 24,800. They hit a new record for the highest number of tickets in one month, with September bringing in 4,150 tickets–over double their standard monthly average of around 2,000. Tickets included requests for technical help, questions about tag changes, and feature requests for AO3’s coding volunteers.

Column chart of AO3 Support Tickets by month in 2024. Tickets by Month: January: 2100, February: 1970, March: 2260, April: 2300, May: 2000, June: 2050, July: 2180, August: 2360, September: 4150, October: 1760, November: 2200, December: 2200
2024 AO3 Support Tickets by Month

Accessibility, Design, & Technology (AD&T) rolled out 34 releases in 2024. These included changes to prevent users from getting unsolicited gifts from users they blocked and prevent images from being displayed in comments under news posts, pseud descriptions, bookmark notes, and sitewide banners. Later releases also included an upgrade to Rails 7.0 and changes to combat spam, such as pre-selecting the “Only registered users can comment” option on new works. AD&T also assisted with the TOS update, completing the technical work to integrate the new TOS and TOS FAQ into AO3. AD&T worked in conjunction with Systems to address some stability and slowness issues at several points during the year. Systems later published a post-mortem on the issues.

AO3 committees also worked to create more informative documentation in 2024. AO3 Documentation uploaded a new Gifts FAQ, along with an updated History and Mark for Later FAQ. Meanwhile, PAC, Support, and other committees helped revise a new-and-improved Fannish Next-of-Kin FAQ to better answer questions about how AO3 handles requests to transfer ownership of accounts in the event of creator deaths or permanent incapacitation.

Tag Wrangling wrangled 5.4 million tags in 2024 (compared to 5.5 million in 2023) and canonized 6,050 new fandoms. They also announced two sets of updates to “No Fandom” tags, or tags that are not associated with any specific fandom. These updates included newly created canonical tags related to Generative AI and COVID-19, along with updates to tags that had historically caused confusion, such as Edgeplay and Edging.

2024 also saw the creation of a new AO3 committee: User Response Translation (URT). URT is responsible for addressing the translation needs of AO3 user-facing committees (Policy & Abuse and Support) in specific, high-need languages. Currently, these languages are Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.

Fanlore

In 2024, Fanlore saw over 5,000 new pages and over 163,000 edits made, bringing it to 72,936 total pages, which have been edited 1,531,996 times since its founding. 2024 also brought the creation of 21,496 new user accounts. With help from Systems, Fanlore was upgraded to MediaWiki 1.39, which included stability improvements, code tweaks, and bug fixes.

On social media, Fanlore highlighted themed months of Femslash February, Pan-Asian Fandom, Fandom in Color, and Video Games. Fanlore also engaged with fans through challenges and live editing chats in their Discord server where they held six scheduled live editing chats, alongside providing a round-the-clock space for chatting, editing tips, and help with navigating Fanlore.

The committee celebrated and awarded badges for their annual International Fanworks Day (IFD) Challenge, Bingo Challenge, and Stub September Challenge. Fanlore also partnered with Communications’ Fanhackers to run an exciting Fandom Friendships Challenge, inspired by Fanhackers’ Zine of the same theme. This Fanlore Challenge encouraged users to broaden their fannish horizons by completing six edits to a wide range of Fanlore article types, all in the theme of Fandom Friendship.

Later in the year, Fanlore also made an exciting announcement that starting in 2025, they will be hosting monthly editing challenges! Each month, participants will be able to earn a new badge for completing the suggested editing task.

Legal Advocacy

In 2024, Legal advocated against a host of laws that could negatively affect fan freedom and expression. In February, they joined a coalition in sending a letter to U.S. Congress members to express support for the Invest in Child Safety Act of 2024. A few months later, they also joined a coalition of LGBTQ+, reproductive justice, and civil rights organizations in sending a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives reiterating their objections to the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Legal received a letter of appreciation from U.S. Congressperson Anna Eshoo (D-CA), who felt the Invest in Child Safety Act was better aimed at preventing and investigating child exploitation on the Internet compared to other proposed Internet safety bills.

Legal also joined allies to file an Amicus Curiae brief in Elliot McGucken v. Valnet, Inc about the rights of users and platforms related to embedding, and they participated in a coalition letter to the U.S. Senate and Congress expressing concerns with the proposed NO FAKES Act.

Outside of government advocacy, Legal also worked with Communications to increase outreach and awareness for legal issues that could negatively affect fans. They published six news posts discussing legislation in six countries:

Elsewhere, Legal dealt with multiple apps and sites that infringed on OTW and AO3 trademarks, and they investigated and acted on an app charging money to access the works on AO3. Legal also handled mistaken copyright takedown notices that blocked search access to some AO3 works.

Open Doors

In 2024, Open Doors continued to carry out their mission of fanwork preservation. They announced the following 13 new imports:

They also completed the following 10 imports:

  • All About Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
  • Between the Lines (JAG)
  • Elysejský klíč (Harry Potter and original fiction)
  • Smoochies (Multifandom)
  • Snow Lands (The Lion King)
  • The 9 Forum (2009 film 9)
  • The Common People Warehouse (Marvel Comics)
  • The Disney Kink Meme (Disney)
  • VinXperience (Characters played by Vin Diesel)
  • West of the Moon (Lord of the Rings)

In total as of December 31, 2024, Open Doors has migrated a total of 164,016 digital fanworks from 111 archives.

Line chart of Fanworks Migrated Through Open Doors by year from 2012 to 2024. Fanworks by Year: 2012: 4775, 2013: 7251, 2014: 8606, 2015: 6769, 2016: 17081, 2017: 41196, 2018: 20644, 2019: 2542, 2020: 2803, 2021: 4191, 2022: 19089, 2023: 16797, 2024: 12272.
Fanworks Migrated Through Open Doors (2012 to 2024)

Outside of imports, in April, Open Doors presented at a United States Library of Congress meeting on digital preservation infrastructure. Then, in October, they announced a roundup of a year’s worth of fanzine collections imported to AO3 via their Fanzine Scan Hosting Preservation Project.

Transformative Works and Cultures

Transformative Works and Cultures released three issues in 2024: No. 42, a special issue on “Fandoms and Platforms,” in March; No. 43, a general issue, in September; and No. 44, a special issue on “Centering Blackness in Fan Studies,” in December. All three issues were released on schedule—continuing TWC’s publication record since the journal’s founding.

In January, Transformative Works and Cultures was awarded a prize from the University of Amsterdam recognizing their Diamond Open Access Journal. They also announced their own Fans of Color Research Prize to recognize the best peer-reviewed article about fans and/or fandoms of color published in the journal in the preceding 3 years.

Fundraising & Outreach

Development & Membership (DevMem) held two successful membership drives in 2024, along with a mini-drive with Elections during June. The April Drive raised $207,088.91 USd and included donations from 6,073 people in 70 countries, including 5,206 who chose to begin or renew OTW membership. As usual, Finance supported the April Drive by publishing the OTW’s 2024 Budget and answering questions from commenters about it.

Later in the year, the October Drive raised $214,698.86 USD from 6,955 donors in 86 countries, and 6,020 of those donors chose to begin or renew OTW membership. Finance also published a mid-year updated version of the OTW’s budget. Translation translated the Drive posts (such as the budget update and related graphics) into 27 languages in April and 28 in October.

DevMem’s Conventions and Live Events team had another successful year attending conventions to represent the OTW. They attended eight cons in 2024, tabling at:

  • Arisia in Boston, U.S.
  • Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, U.S.
  • Supanova convention in Melbourne, Australia
  • C2E2 in Chicago, U.S.
  • Budapest Comic Con in Budapest, Hungary
  • WorldCon in Glasgow, Scotland
  • Fan Expo Chicago in Chicago, U.S.
  • CONfabulation in Chicago, U.S.

They also attended Ret-Con in Raleigh, U.S., where an OTW volunteer hosted a panel on fic searching.

In November, Finance prepared and submitted the OTW’s 2023 Form 990 which publicly outlines information about our activities and finances within that calendar year.

Communications & Public Relations

2024 was a big year for Communications with expansion and growth in various areas. Communications announced a new subcommittee: News Post Moderation. This subcommittee monitors incoming comments on both AO3 and OTW News to ensure they comply with the OTW News Post Moderation Policy and to reply to user questions.

Communications also opened accounts on two new social media platforms: TikTok and Bluesky. The transformativeworks TikTok was launched in November and ended the year with 11,700 followers, over 39,000 likes, and 314,000 views across four videos. The transformativeworks Bluesky began posting in December and quickly reached 2,300 followers by the end of the year.

Communications published a total of 118 new posts in 2024 and launched the OTW News by Email service. The new service allows users to be notified by email for news posts and emergency notifications and is available in 16 languages. OTW News by Email collected subscribers rapidly, surpassing 1,000 subscribers within a few months.

OTW’s social media presence grew across all platforms in 2024:

  • The OTW Facebook reached 19,600 views and gained 267 followers in 2024, bringing the total to 2,358.
  • The OTW Instagram, posts received 11,539 unique views and over 1,580 likes; the account published 128 posts and gained 16 new followers.
  • The OTW LinkedIn also saw growth, gaining followers on both the main and showcase pages.
  • Meanwhile, the OTW Tumblr surpassed 30,000 followers.
  • The OTW Twitter/X follower count fluctuated throughout the year, starting at 26,400 and landing at 27,100 by December. Engagement on each post remained steady with periods of increased likes, reposts, or replies, but saw a drop toward the end of the year due to an influx of fandom users leaving the site for external reasons.
Bar chart of new followers by month on OTW Social Media. Chart shows a slow but steady increase across all months with big peaks in November and December for the opening of an OTW Tik Tok and an OTW Bluesky. Notably Twitter is the only social media service with negative growth, losing a few hundred followers in November.
2024 OTW Social Media Follower Growth

Outside of social media and news, Communications celebrated the tenth annual IFD with several exciting events including: a 30-hour Discord chat room, a Feedback Fest, an IFDrabble challenge, a “Ten Things About Fandom” essay call, an IFD Fanlore challenge, and a fandom survey available in 25 languages that asked questions about how respondents engaged with fandom and their knowledge of the OTW.

The survey’s results were translated into 25 languages and later released in March. As users taking the survey in Chinese were a statistically significant group of survey takers, Communications also worked with Translation to release a special report on only their responses. This report is only available in Chinese.

Additionally, Communications initiated a project to update OTW website content, ensuring all pages were up-to-date or clearly marked as historical. By the end of 2024, over 40 pages had been reviewed, and eight new pages were created.

Over the course of the year, Communications also handled around 350 queries from fans, website visitors, and the press, and either responded directly or referred questions to the appropriate group. Communications recorded five significant media mentions of the OTW and their projects in the Press Room.

People & Planning

Board held four public meetings in 2024: January 28, April 21, July 14, and September 30, with a total of 276 attendees across the four meetings. Beginning in the July meeting, Board introduced a way for attendees to ask questions asynchronously by allowing questions to be submitted via Google Form in the two weeks before each meeting. This change allowed those who couldn’t attend to still have their questions heard and answered by Board.

Board oversaw the completion of an organizational culture audit that included interviews with volunteers at every level of the organization and in every committee. The audit was completed with the assistance of an external culture firm and diversity consultant. From that, they created an Organizational Culture Roadmap of areas that need to be addressed to promote a healthier and safer OTW. They continued working on these roadmap items throughout 2024 and will continue to do so in the coming years as well.

In March, Volunteers & Recruiting (VolCom) established the Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution subcommittee, which manages personnel-related issues, recommends appropriate actions in response, and handles the review, investigation, and resolution of internal complaints across the organization.

In June, Elections announced that the 2024 election would field four candidates for two open seats. Each candidate published a bio and platform, which were translated into 25 languages by Translation. Candidates participated in two Q&As and one live chat. Elections introduced two new rules for Q&As in 2024, limiting each Q&A submission to one question and allowing only three questions per person. The 2024 Election had a turnout of 22.8%, with 3,415 of 14,959 total eligible voters casting a ballot. Erica Frank and Rachel Linton were elected, replacing outgoing directors Kari Dayton and Michelle Schroeder.

Strategic Planning saw the one-year anniversary of the 2023-2026 OTW Strategic Plan, which included Cybersecurity, Internal Sustainability, and Paid Staff related goals. Following one year of work on these goals, they conducted and prepared an assessment of the Strategic Plan. They also began work on a public release to update the public on the OTW’s progress.

VolCom recruited for 38 different roles across 13 committees. Over the course of the year, the OTW received a total of 1,398 applications. VolCom inducted 385 volunteers, including two Directors and officers and 19 chairs/leads. They removed 382 volunteers, including two Directors and officers and 11 chairs/leads. At the end of the year, the OTW had 889 volunteers.

OTW 2024 by the Numbers

2,139,910 AO3 works created and 1,298,541 AO3 accounts created. 34 billion AO3 page views, averaging 93.2 million per day. Last year: 31 billion. 5.4 million AO3 tags wrangled. Last year: 5.5 million. 27,000 AO3 Support tickets received. Last year: 24,800. 27,700 AO3 Policy & Abuse tickets received. Last year: 23,600. 34 AO3 releases deployed. Last year: 23. 9 archives imported to AO3 via Open Doors. Last year: 11. 21,496 Fanlore accounts created. 6,700 Fanlore pages created. Last year: 5,000. 163,000 Fanlore edits made. Last year: 141,000. 118 news posts published. Last year 118. 17 Fanhackers posts published. Last year: 59. 3 Issues of Transformative Works and Cultures released. Last year: 3.
OTW 2024 by The Numbers

Timeline 2024

January

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed four releases, including the ability to filter on all works in a given language (0.9.354–0.9.358).
  • Board had a public meeting on January 28th in which they announced their goals for the year.
  • Communications welcomed two new chairs: Harley G. and Sveritas.
  • Development & Membership attended Arisia convention in Boston, U.S.
  • Development & Membership chair Amy Lowell stepped down.
  • Legal investigated and acted on an app charging money to access the works on AO3.
  • Legal handled mistaken copyright takedown notices that blocked search access to some AO3 works.
  • Open Doors announced the import of Elysejský klíč, a Harry Potter and original fiction archive.
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,110 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 2,100 tickets.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 453,000 tags.
  • Transformative Works and Cultures was awarded a prize from the University of Amsterdam recognizing their Diamond Open Access Journal.

February

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed three releases, including the ability to use the flexbox layout model in skins (0.9.359–0.9361).
  • Communications celebrated IFD’s 10th anniversary with several activities including a survey, fanwork challenge, and live fan chat and games on Discord.
  • Development & Membership attended Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, U.S.
  • Fanlore hosted a challenge for IFD as well as a Femslash February themed month.
  • Legal joined a coalition of groups to send a letter to U.S. Congress members to express support for the Invest in Child Safety Act of 2024.
  • Open Doors completed the import of The Common People Warehouse, a Marvel Comics archive.
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 1,980 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 1,970 tickets.
  • Systems migrated their version control to a new location.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 416,000 tags.
  • Transformative Works and Cultures announced their new Fans of Color Research Prize recognizing the best peer-reviewed article about fans and/or fandoms of color published in the journal in the preceding three years.
  • Translation translated IFD content into 25 languages.

March

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed three releases, including working with Systems to deploy an upgrade to Ruby 3.1 (0.9.362–0.9.364).
  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology: Quality Assurance & Testing named a new Lead, Jenni. D.
  • AO3 Documentation uploaded a new Gifts FAQ and an updated History and Mark For Later FAQ.
  • AO3 Documentation welcomed two new chairs, Fiona M and telescopicpoems, and chair Sammie Louise stepped down.
  • Board appointed a Cybersecurity Delegate to complete an audit of the OTW’s tools and processes in relation to cybersecurity best practices.
  • Communications released the IFD 10th Anniversary Survey results.
  • Development & Membership attended Ret-Con in Raleigh, U.S., where an OTW volunteer hosted a panel on fic searching.
  • Legal worked with Communications on a post urging fans to oppose Tennessee’s ELVIS Act by contacting their representatives.
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,050 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 2,260 tickets.
  • Systems released a postmortem of the 2023 July/August DDoS Attacks.
  • Tag Wrangling announced on Tumblr upcoming changes to “No Fandom” tags, or AO3 additional tags not associated with specific fandoms.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 377,000 tags.
  • Transformative Works and Cultures published issue no. 42, a special issue on “Fandoms and Platforms.”
  • Translation translated the IFD survey report into 25 languages and worked with Communications to release a special report on submissions from users taking the survey in Chinese.
  • Volunteers & Recruiting set up a new subcommittee, Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution, and named a new Lead for it, iManga.

April

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed three releases, including updating the blocking feature to apply to gifts (0.9.365–0.9.367).
  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology, working with Support and Policy & Abuse, posted an update about spam comments on AO3 and temporarily disabled all guest comments across the site.
  • Board held their second quarter public meeting on April 21, including announcements about the contents of the organizational culture consultant’s report.
  • Communications launched the OTW News by Email service, which allows users to receive OTW news posts in their inbox.
  • Development & Membership had a table at the Supanova convention in Melbourne, Australia, as well as C2E2 in Chicago, U.S.
  • Development & Membership raised $207,088.91 USD from 6,073 donors in 70 countries in the April membership drive.
  • Fanlore updated their featured article documentation to reflect their new process.
  • Finance shared the 2024 OTW Budget.
  • Open Doors presented at a Library of Congress meeting on digital preservation infrastructure.
  • Open Doors announced the import of three archives of works related to the HBO TV show Oz: Oz Magi, Twisted Sisterhood, and Unit B; as well as PHOENIX: Michael Biehn Archive, an archive of works about characters played by Michael Biehn.
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,590 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 2,300 tickets.
  • Tag Wrangling announced another update on “No Fandom” additional tags, including the canonization of tags related to COVID-19.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 429,000 tags.
  • Translation assisted with the launch of the OTW News by Email service, allowing for subscriptions in 16 languages.
  • Translation translated Membership Drive and Budget posts and graphics into 27 languages.

May

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed two releases, including an upgrade to Rails 7 and various bug fixes (0.9.368–0.9.369).
  • Communications chair Harley G. stepped down.
  • Communications announced a new subcommittee for News Post Moderation and named a Lead. They also announced the News Post Moderation Policy to outline how the new subcommittee would handle comments.
  • Development & Membership attended Budapest Comic Con in Budapest, Hungary.
  • Elections announced the timeline for the 2024 Board Elections.
  • Fanlore spotlighted a variety of fandoms and fan activities related to Asia and Asian culture as part of their Pan-Asian month.
  • Legal joined allies to file an Amicus Curiae brief in Elliot McGucken v. Valnet, Inc about the rights of users and platforms related to embedding.
  • Legal joined a coalition of LGBTQ+, reproductive justice, and civil rights organizations in sending a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives reiterating their objections to the pending “Kids Online Safety Act” (KOSA).
  • Legal worked with Communications to publish a news post encouraging users to oppose California’s Parent’s Accountability and Child Protection Act (AB 3080), a pending age verification bill.
  • Legal received a letter of appreciation from U.S. Congressperson Anna Eshoo (D-CA) for their support of the Invest in Child Safety Act of 2024, as they felt the act is better aimed at preventing and investigating child exploitation on the Internet compared to other proposed internet safety bills.
  • Open Doors completed the import of The Disney Kink Meme, a prompt meme focusing on the Disney animated (and some live-action) films.
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,310 tickets.
  • Strategic Planning named a new chair, natalieee5, to replace outgoing chair, Arly Guevara.
  • Support received approximately 2,000 tickets.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 405,000 tags.
  • Translation teams worked to translate the Elections Timeline into 26 languages.

June

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed three releases (0.9.370–0.9.372).
  • AO3 Documentation completed a review of their user-facing documentation, determining what to prioritize over the next two years.
  • Board’s Diversity Consultant Research Officer stepped down.
  • Communications saw one chair step down.
  • Development & Membership worked with Elections to hold a mini-drive at the end of June, encouraging users to register and become members.
  • Elections announced the four candidates for the two open seats in the 2024 Board Election and the candidates posted their Bios and Platforms.
  • Fanlore hosted their annual Bingo Challenge with a theme of mythical creatures.
  • Open Doors announced the import of House of Tucker, a Star Trek: Enterprise fansite dedicated to the character Charles “Trip” Tucker III.
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,380 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 2,050 tickets.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 433,000 tags.
  • TWC named a new co-chair Bridget Kies, and chair Karen Hellekson stepped down.

July

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed one release (0.9.373).
  • Board hosted a public meeting on July 14, including a new change to allow questions to be submitted asynchronously before the meeting.
  • Communication’s Fanhackers announced a call for submissions for their new “Fandom Friendships Zine.”
  • Communications, Policy & Abuse, and Systems volunteers participated in an Ask Me Anything Q&A event.
  • Elections published Board candidate Q&A responses to their website and hosted a live chat with the Board candidates for the upcoming election.
  • Fanlore celebrated a Fandom in Color-themed month and hosted one live editing chat.
  • Legal dealt with several apps and sites that infringed on OTW and AO3 trademarks.
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,410 tickets.
  • Policy & Abuse welcomed a new chair, wichard.
  • Support received approximately 2,180 tickets.
  • Support helped revise a new-and-improved Fannish Next-of-Kin FAQ on AO3.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 468,000 tags.
  • Webs welcomed a new chair, Kari Dayton, and another chair stepped down.

August

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed one release which included swapping AO3’s monitoring service from New Relic to Sentry (0.9.374).
  • Board, with help from the Board Assistants Team, Finance, the Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution subcommittee, and Legal, finalized a Whistleblower Protection Policy.
  • Communications and Legal collaborated on news posts regarding upcoming legislative proposals in the U.S. and Canada.
  • Development & Membership attended Fan Expo Chicago in Chicago, Illinois and WorldCon in Glasgow, Scotland.
  • Elections announced Erica Frank and Rachel Linton as the incoming Board Directors, and published voter turnout statistics from the 2024 election.
  • Legal worked with Communications to warn fans about Canada’s proposed Internet bill S-210.
  • Legal worked with Communications to post an update on KOSA.
  • Open Doors announced the import of Sentinel Angst (The Sentinel).
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,170 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 2,360 tickets.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 458,000 tags.
  • Translation made election content available in 26 languages.

September

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed three releases (0.9.375–0.9.378).
  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology and Systems collaborated to handle AO3-wide issues with users having trouble staying logged in.
  • Board hosted a public meeting on September 30, including wrapping up the Board election and electing this year’s Board Officers. Anh Pham would remain President, Qiao Chu was voted Secretary, and Kathryn Soderholm was voted Vice President.
  • Communications celebrated the OTW’s 17th anniversary with an anniversary site skin.
  • Communications OTW News by Email service passed 1,000 subscribers.
  • Fanlore hosted their annual Stub September Challenge, encouraging people to contribute to short “Stub” pages.
  • Legal joined allies in sending a letter to the U.S. Senate and Congress expressing concerns with the proposed NO FAKES Act.
  • Open Doors announced the import of Choices Fanfic Archive (Choices: Stories You Can Play).
  • Open Doors completed the import of two archives: The 9 Forum (2009 film 9) and West of the Moon (Lord of the Rings).
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,260 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 4,150, around double their usual monthly count.
  • Tag Wrangling paused their long-running project to standardize fandom tree structures to have internal discussions about their guidelines regarding fandom metatags.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 439,000 tags.
  • Transformative Works and Cultures published their issue no. 43, their annual general issue.
  • Translation translated the celebration of the OTW’s 17th anniversary into 29 languages.

October

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed one release (0.9.379).
  • Board Directors Erica Frank and Rachel Linton took office on October 1.
  • Board Directors Kari Dayton and Michelle Schroeder stepped down as their terms ended.
  • Development & Membership attended CONfabulation in Chicago, U.S.
  • Development & Membership held its annual October membership drive, raising $214,698.86 USD from 6,995 donors in 86 countries.
  • Fanlore celebrated all things related to video games with a Video Game themed month, including two live editing chats on Discord.
  • Finance published the 2024 Budget Update.
  • Open Doors announced the import of Due South Seekrit Santa (Due South).
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,620 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 1,760 tickets.
  • Systems released a postmortem of the August/September AO3 downtime and site slowness issues.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 478,000 tags.
  • Translation shared Membership Drive and Budget-related news posts and graphics in 28 languages.
  • Volunteers & Recruiting named a new chair Eevee, and chair Cyn stepped down.

November

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed four releases, including updates related to the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS) update (0.9.380–0.9.383).
  • AO3 Documentation chair Morgan Drake stepped down.
  • Board appointed two Paid Staff Transition Leads: Jenni D. and Kate G.
  • Board approved updates to the AO3 TOS following a two week public feedback period which received several thousand comments.
  • Board approved a new committee: User Response Translation.
  • Communications celebrated AO3’s 15th Anniversary with a trivia scavenger hunt across OTW social media platforms.
  • Communications opened an OTW TikTok account and began posting there.
  • Fanlore hosted a Fandom Friendships Challenge in collaboration with Fanhackers, encouraging users to broaden their fannish horizons by completing edits to a range of article types.
  • Finance issued and filed the 2023 Form 990.
  • Open Doors announced the import of Fan Fiction Writers Archive, a multi-fandom fanfiction archive that began as a GeoCities website.
  • Open Doors announced a roundup of a year’s worth of fanzine collections imported to AO3 via their Fanzine Scan Hosting Preservation Project.
  • Policy & Abuse posted a public call for feedback on proposed updates to the AO3 TOS and TOS FAQ.
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,600 tickets.
  • Strategic Planning named a new chair Dan-i, and one chair stepped down.
  • Support received approximately 2,200 tickets.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 424,000 tags.
  • User Response Translation named two chairs: Qiao Chu and Taki.

December

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed four releases (0.9.384–0.9.387).
  • Communications established an OTW Bluesky account and began actively posting there.
  • Communications welcomed a new News Post Moderation Subcommittee Lead: xeno.
  • Fanlore hosted one live editing chat, welcomed two chairs, Indes and The Professor, and one chair stepped down.
  • Legal worked with Communications to warn users about U.S. bill H.R.9495 as well as how several social media bans around the world could impact fan spaces.
  • Open Doors announced the import of three archives: Slash Advent Calendar (Multifandom), MuggleNet Fan Fiction (Harry Potter), and Remembering Tiger Lily Roar (Multifandom).
  • Open Doors also completed the imports of six archives: All About Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Smoochies (Multifandom), Snow Lands (The Lion King), VinXperience (Characters played by Vin Diesel), Elysejský klíč (Harry Potter), and Between the Lines (JAG).
  • Policy & Abuse received approximately 2,550 tickets.
  • Support received approximately 2,200 tickets.
  • Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 560,000 tags.
  • Transformative Works and Cultures published issue no. 44, a special issue on “Centering Blackness in Fan Studies.”

Finances

Statement of Financial Position

As of December 31, 2024

20242023
ASSETS
Current Assets
Cash & Cash Equivalents
Operating Cash1,317,265.112,028,032.50
Operating Reserves2,154,967.491,154,757.77
Certificate of Deposit10,196.2710,193.20
Donations Receivable11,971.717,301.67
Prepaid Expenses102,128.4233,520.27
Total3,596,529.003,233,805.41
Property, Plant, & Equipment
Servers & Equipment1,132,725.461,061,285.46
Less: Accumulated Depreciation(958,015.39)(836,148.63)
Total174,710.07225,136.83
Other Assets
Deferred Expenses10,093.7510,093.75
Total10,093.7510,093.75
TOTAL ASSETS3,781,332.823,469,035.99
LIABILITIES
Current Liabilities
Accounts Payable18,888.2918,501.97
Total18,888.2918,501.97
TOTAL LIABILITIES18,888.2918,501.97
Net Assets
Without Donor Restriction3,762,444.533,450,534.02
With Donor Restriction––
Total Net Assets3,762,444.533,450,534.02
TOTAL LIABILITIES & NET ASSETS3,781,332.823,469,035.99

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

Statement of Activities

For the Year Ended December 31, 2024

20242023
Without Donor RestrictionsWith Donor RestrictionsTotalWithout Donor RestrictionsWith Donor RestrictionsTotal
REVENUE
Direct Contributions814,822.91–814,822.91829,121.17–829,121.17
Other Contributions–––1,061.30–1,061.30
Donations from Matching Programs62,040.66–62,040.66149,022.74–149,022.74
In-Kind Revenue466,266.75–466,266.75187,362.50–187,362.50
Total1,343,130.32–1,343,130.321,166,567.71–1,166,567.71
OTHER INCOME
Interest Income212.79–212.79117.19–117.19
Royalties104.47–104.47–––
Total317.26–317.26117.19–117.19
TOTAL REVENUES1,343,447.58–1,343,447.581,166,684.90–1,166,684.90
EXPENSES
Programs
Archive of Our Own458,345.37–458,345.37364,044.90–364,044.90
Open Doors19,897.89–19,897.899,069.06–9,069.06
Transformative Works and Cultures5,462.82–5,462.823,617.38–3,617.38
Fanlore25,089.85–25,089.8517,763.46–17,763.46
Legal Advocacy53,039.89–53,039.8952,232.05–52,232.05
Con Outreach––––––
Fundraising & Development142,125.49–142,125.49109,675.66–109,675.66
Management & General327,575.76–327,575.76265,914.89–265,914.89
Total1,031,537.07–1,031,537.07822,317.40–822,317.40
Change in Net Assets311,910.51–311,910.51344,367.50–344,367.50
Net Assets, beginning of year3,450,534.02–3,450,534.023,106,166.52–3,106,166.52
Net Assets, end of year3,762,444.53–3,762,444.533,450,534.02–3,450,534.02

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

Statement of Functional Expenses

For the Year Ended December 31, 2024

 Archive of Our OwnOpen DoorsTransformative Works and CulturesFanloreLegal AdvocacyProgram TotalFundraisingDevelopmentFundraising & Development TotalManagement & GeneralTOTAL
In-Kind Expense174,704.2513,062.00–8,863.5052,714.50249,344.25–14,694.7514,694.75201,294.75465,333.75
Banking Fees263.2913.68–11.301.00289.27150.005.92155.92179.43624.62
Insurance Expenses–––––––361.53361.53809.001,170.53
Postage and Shipping––––––29,562.10–29,562.102,779.2532,341.35
Miscellaneous Expenses––––––117.89–117.89–117.89
Convention Registration Fees–––––––1,920.211,920.21–1,920.21
Auditing–––––––––16,000.0016,000.00
Financial Services–––––––––15,863.7515,863.75
Contractor Services––––––3,200.00–3,200.00–3,200.00
Other Professional Services––––––3,741.50–3,741.5042,300.0046,041.50
SSL Certificates–––––––––––
Legal Filing Fees–––––––––––
Financial Filing Fees–––––––––––
Office Equipment–––––––––––
Server Equipment752.64––41.82–794.46–––41.81836.27
Server Hosting103,521.16––5,541.44–109,062.60–––7,927.67116,990.27
Hosted Provider–144.00–––144.00––––144.00
Plug-ins–16.17–––16.17–––32.8349.00
Website Hosting–1,753.051,500.00––3,253.05–––1,278.704,531.75
Website Domains81.18162.18–––243.36–––26.24269.60
Website Monitoring15,766.25––––15,766.25––––15,766.25
Productivity Tools37,998.304,724.751,778.323,888.98324.3948,714.7415,622.512,149.8717,772.3831,681.0998,168.21
Subscription Services12,446.15–933.00649.48–14,028.63–––1,267.9115,296.54
Travel Expenses–––––––295.11295.11–295.11
Premium Merchandise––––––23,723.02–23,723.02–23,723.02
Transaction Fees–22.06–––22.0643,022.57–43,022.57–43,044.63
Total Expenses Before Depreciation345,533.2219,897.894,211.3218,996.5253,039.89441,678.84119,139.5919,427.39138,566.98321,482.43901,728.25
Depreciation109,680.10––6,093.33–115,773.43–––6,093.33121,866.76
Total455,213.3219,897.894,211.3225,089.8553,039.89557,452.27119,139.5919,427.39138,566.98327,575.761,023,595.01

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

Statement of Cash Flows

For the Year Ended December 31, 2024

20242023
Cash Flows from Operating Activities
Increase in Net Assets311,910.51344,367.50
Adjustments to reconcile change in net assets to net cash flows provided by operating activities––
Depreciation121,866.76149,867.45
Subtotal433,777.27494,234.95
Increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents due to changes in operating assets and liabilities––
Donations Receivable(4,670.04)3,876.71
Prepaid Expenses(68,608.15)10,798.48
Deferred Expenses–(7,593.75)
Accounts Payable386.3218,356.97
Total360,885.40519,673.36
Cash Flows for Investing Activities(3.07)(2.31)
Cash paid for purchase of property and equipment(71,440.00)(93,996.82)
Net increase in cash289,442.33425,674.23
Cash, beginning of year3,182,790.272,757,116.04
Cash, end of year3,472,232.603,182,790.27

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

Notes to the Financial Statements

Organization for Transformative Works, Inc.

December 31, 2024

Note 1 – Description of Organization

Organization for Transformative Works, Inc. (“the Organization”) was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in the State of Delaware on September 5, 2007, and has 501(c)(3) nonprofit status under the Internal Revenue Code. The OTW was established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. The OTW is a collaborative effort initiated and driven by fans for fans. Almost 900 volunteers contribute to the OTW’s five major projects (Archive of Our Own; Open Doors; Fanlore; Legal Advocacy; Transformative Works and Cultures) as well as fundraising, membership development, and internal management and administration.

Note 2 – Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Accounting

The financial statements of the Organization are prepared on the accrual basis of accounting in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”).

Financial Statement Presentation

The Organization utilizes Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 958, Not-for-Profit Entities. Under FASB ASU 2016-14, the Organization is required to report information regarding its financial position and activities according to two classes of net assets: net assets without donor restrictions and net assets with donor restrictions.

Net assets and changes therein are classified and reported as follows:

  • Without donor restrictions – Net assets that are not subject to donor-imposed stipulations.
  • With donor restrictions – Net assets subject to donor-imposed stipulations that will be met either by actions and/or the passage of time or net assets subject to donor-imposed stipulations that will be maintained permanently.

The Organization has net assets with donor restrictions of $0 as of December 31, 2024.

Donations Receivable

The Organization considers receivables from donors to be fully collectible; accordingly, no allowance for doubtful donations is currently required. If donations receivable amounts should become uncollectible, they will be charged to operations when that determination is made.

Contributed Materials and Services

Contributed materials and services are reflected in the financial statements at the estimated fair value of the materials and services received. The contributions of services are recognized if the services received either: (a) create or enhance non-financial assets or (b) require specialized skills that are provided by individuals possessing those skills and would typically need to be purchased if not provided by donation. This is in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 958.

Contributed services of $466,266.75 and $187,362.50 were recorded as operating contributions during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The contributed services consist of legal services donated to the Organization by the volunteers of the Legal Committee.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Cash

The Organization maintains cash at one financial institution which may exceed federally insured amounts at times.

Investments

Investments in marketable securities with readily determinable fair values and all investments in debt securities are reported at their fair values in the statement of financial position. Unrealized gains and losses are included in the change in net assets. Investment income and gains restricted by donors are reported as increases to unrestricted net assets if restrictions are met, either by passage of time or by use, in the period of reporting in which the income and gains are recognized.

The Organization accounts for investments in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures. FASB ASC Topic 820 includes a fair value hierarchy that is intended to increase consistency and comparability in fair value measurements and related disclosures. The fair value hierarchy is based on inputs to valuation techniques that are used to measure fair value that are either observable or unobservable. Observable inputs reflect assumptions that market participants would use in pricing an asset or liability based on market data obtained from independent sources, while unobservable inputs reflect a reporting entity’s pricing based on their own market assumptions.

The fair value hierarchy consists of the following three levels:

  • Level 1: Inputs are quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
  • Level 2: Inputs are quoted prices for similar assets in markets that are not active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable, and market corroborated inputs which are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data.
  • Level 3: Inputs are derived from valuation techniques in which one or more significant
    inputs or value drivers are unobservable and require the entity to make its own assumptions.
Property and Equipment

Donations of property and equipment are recorded as in-kind contributions at their estimated fair value at the time of donation. Such donations are reported as unrestricted support unless the donor has restricted the use of the donated asset to a specific purpose. Assets donated with explicit restrictions regarding their use are reported as restricted support. Absent donor stipulations regarding how long those donated assets must be maintained, the Organization reports expirations of donor restrictions when the donated or acquired assets are placed in service as instructed by the donor. The Organization reclassifies temporarily restricted net assets to unrestricted net assets at that time.

Property and equipment are depreciated using the double declining balance methods over the estimated useful lives of the assets, which are 5 years. Maintenance and repairs of the assets are charged to operations as incurred. Significant improvements or renewals of assets are capitalized.

Contributions

Contributions received are recorded as contributions with donor restrictions or contributions without donor restrictions depending on the existence and/or nature of any donor restrictions. Contributions which have any restrictions satisfied in the same period they are received are recorded as increases in net assets and are reflected as without donor restrictions.

The Organization did not receive any contributions with donor restrictions during the year ended December 31, 2024.

Functional Allocation of Expenses

The costs of providing program services, fundraising, and administrative functions are summarized on a functional basis in the statement of activities.

See Figure 1 for a summary of Program Expenses.

Income Taxes

The OTW is a 501c3 organization exempt from Federal income and State franchise taxes under provisions of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and Section 1902(b)(6), Title 30 of the Delaware State Taxation Code respectively. As such, no provision for income taxes has been provided in these financial statements.

Note 3 – Investment Assets

The Organization’s investments are valued as follows:

Level 1 Investments
Asset20242023
Certificates of Deposit$10,196.27$10,193.20
Total$10,196.27$10,193.20

Note 4 – Fixed Assets

 20242023
Servers$963,367.67$963,367.67
Server Hardware & Upgrades$165,952.44$94,512.44
Firewall$3,405.35$3,405.35
Total Assets$1,132,725.46$1,061,285.46
Accumulated Depreciation$(958,015.39)$(836,148.63)
Fixed Assets, Net of Accumulated Depreciation$174,710.07$225,136.83

Figure 1: Program Expenses

For the Year Ended December 31, 2024

20242023
Program Services
Archive of Our Own
Banking Fees263.29296.27
Legal Services3,125.25–
Server Equipment752.6415,059.48
Server Hosting103,521.1698,908.92
Website Hosting6.80–
Website Domains81.18–
Website Monitoring15,766.2520,339.00
Productivity Tools37,998.3041,072.64
Subscription Services12,446.159,775.38
Depreciation109,680.10134,880.71
In-Kind Services174,704.2543,712.50
Total458,345.37364,044.90
Open Doors
Banking Fees13.688.75
Hosted Provider144.00136.00
Plug-ins16.1716.17
Website Hosting1,753.05557.00
Website Domains162.18859.87
Productivity Tools4,724.756,982.71
Transaction Fees22.0621.06
In-Kind Services13,062.00487.50
Total19,897.899,069.06
Transformative Works and Cultures
Banking Fees–4.59
Miscellaneous Expenses500.00–
Website Hosting1,500.001,500.00
Productivity Tools1,778.321,542.29
Subscription Services751.50570.50
In-Kind Services933.00–
Total5,462.823,617.38
Fanlore
Banking Fees11.3017.48
Server Equipment41.82836.63
Server Hosting5,541.445,331.42
Productivity Tools3,888.983,584.56
Subscription Services649.48500.00
Depreciation6,093.337,493.37
In-Kind Services8,863.50–
Total25,089.8517,763.46
Legal Advocacy
Banking Fees1.001.53
Productivity Tools324.39393.02
In-Kind Services52,714.5051,837.50
Total53,039.8952,232.05
Con Outreach
Miscellaneous Expenses––
Total––
Program Services Total561,835.82446,726.85
Fundraising & Development
Fundraising
Banking Fees150.0042.76
Postage and Shipping29,562.1016,979.70
Miscellaneous Expenses117.89–
Convention Registration Fees3,033.69–
Contractor Services3,200.008,160.00
Professional Services3,741.503,741.50
Office Equipment55.50–
Productivity Tools15,622.518,033.33
Travel Expenses162.00–
Premium Merchandise23,723.0217,042.03
Transaction Fees43,022.5740,117.61
In-Kind Services–3,737.50
Total122,390.7897,854.43
Development
Banking Fees5.9219.13
Postage and Shipping361.53756.00
Printing and Reproduction284.34–
Miscellaneous Expenses–420.05
Convention Registration Fees1,920.211,209.90
Website Domains22.98–
Productivity Tools2,149.872,308.65
Travel Expenses295.11120.00
In-Kind Services14,694.756,987.50
Total19,734.7111,821.23
Fundraising & Development Total142,125.49109,675.66
Management & General
Banking Fees179.43202.23
Insurance Expenses809.0013,824.50
Postage and Shipping2,779.252,757.84
Auditing16,000.0021,500.00
Financial Services15,863.7516,835.54
Contractor Services–4,542.72
Other Professional Services42,300.0060,000.00
Financial Filing Fees–5.43
Office Equipment–434.73
Server Equipment41.81836.64
Server Hosting7,927.677,293.73
Hosted Provider–408.63
Plug-ins32.8332.83
Website Hosting1,278.701,090.27
Website Domains26.2412,500.00
Productivity Tools31,681.0934,516.49
Subscription Services1,267.911,039.94
Depreciation6,093.337,493.37
In-Kind Services201,294.7580,600.00
Management & General Total327,575.76265,914.89
Total Expenses1,031,537.07822,317.40

All currency amounts are presented in USD.

About the OTW: Mission, Vision, & Values

Our Mission

The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate.

The OTW represents a practice of transformative fanwork historically rooted in a primarily female culture. The OTW will preserve the record of that history as we pursue our mission while encouraging new and non-mainstream expressions of cultural identity within fandom.

Our Vision

We envision a future in which all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity. We are proactive and innovative in protecting and defending our work from commercial exploitation and legal challenges. We preserve our fannish economy, values, and creative expression by protecting and nurturing our fellow fans, our work, our commentary, our history, and our identity while providing the broadest possible access to fannish activity for all fans.

Our Values

  • We value transformative fanworks and the innovative communities from which they have arisen, including media, real-person fiction, anime, comics, music, and vidding.
  • We value our identity as a predominantly female community with a rich history of creativity and commentary.
  • We value our volunteer-based infrastructure and the fannish gift economy that recognizes and celebrates worth in myriad and diverse activities.
  • We value making fannish activities as accessible as possible to all those who wish to participate.
  • We value infinite diversity in infinite combinations. We value all fans engaged in transformative work: fans of any race, gender, culture, sexual identity, or ability. We value the unhindered cross-pollination and exchange of fannish ideas and cultures while seeking to avoid the homogenization or centralization of fandom.

About the OTW: Who We Are

The Organization for Transformative Works is run for fans by fans. The Directors of OTW’s Board are all active in fandom, as are the rest of the 889 volunteers serving on our committees.

2024–25 Board of Directors

Anh Pham (President) started drawing fanart of the manga Crest of the Royal Family when they were in primary school, although it would take them several years to stumble into their first time reading a doujinshi or a fanfic. Anh is a Vietnamese fan who often has their interests piqued by their favourite characters in DC, their beloved and niche video games, or Asian media such as Japanese manga and Chinese web-novels.

English is Anh’s second language. They also learnt some Cantonese Chinese from their family over the years, enough to start reading Chinese fanfic years before they started using AO3 in 2013. Prior to joining the OTW in 2022 as a volunteer for the Fanlore Social & Media Outreach team, they also considered positions in Team Vietnamese of the Translation Committee or Chinese language track of the Tag Wrangling Committee. Now, besides their current role in the Fanlore Committee, they are also an Open Doors Import Assistant.

Outside of the OTW, they studied Digital and Visual Art, and they are a freelance artist. In addition, they work as a part-time chef at a local restaurant.

Erica Frank was around for the founding of the OTW and participated in some of the early discussion groups. After the OTW was formed, she joined Fanlore where she has worked for more than 10 years. She also spent some time as a Tag Wrangler, and later became involved with an Open Doors fanzine preservation project where she has been also volunteering for the past few years.

Her online fannish activities went from email lists to forums to Livejournal to Dreamwidth to Tumblr to Discord while avoiding Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. In 2022, she took her fandom in an extremely retro direction and joined FAPA, the science fiction mailing list (paper, not email) that’s been active since 1938.

Outside of the OTW, she works in document processing and loves her job. She is on the Board of another fannish nonprofit org, has worked in indie publishing, and has been staff at several science fiction conventions.

She has a tendency to join fandoms two years after everyone else, which means she misses out on a lot of the early discussion and headcanons turning into fanon, but there are lots of completed long fics to read. She almost always stays involved in fandoms; she’s still interested in the fandoms she loved on Livejournal and before.

Jennifer Haynes (she/they) works as a research manager and consultant to many companies in the life sciences industry. She has been a volunteer with the Organization for Transformative Works since 2022 as a Tag Wrangler, and has been a member of fandom and the Archive of Our Own for over a decade.

In their day job, Jennifer manages projects across numerous internal and external stakeholders worldwide. She is detail-oriented and thoughtful. She also believes in consistent growth and learning—especially in public, no matter how embarrassing or difficult it may be sometimes.

In fandom, Jennifer is a writer with over a hundred stories published on the Archive. They have participated in and managed numerous events, including: fan weeks, fic remixes, fests, and exchanges across a wide variety of fandoms.

Kathryn Soderholm has spent the last 20 years in fandom, mostly reading and daydreaming elaborate fanfic plots that only occasionally made it onto the page. She has been a volunteer with the Organization for Transformative Works since 2014. Outside of the OTW, she works as a nonprofit administrator, and she is a progressive community activist in her free time.

Qiao Chu (she/her) discovered fandom back in her elementary school days, almost 20 years ago. She stumbled upon a Cardcaptor Sakura fandom forum and has been reading fanfics ever since. She was motivated by her love for fandom to learn English: she simply couldn’t wait for the translator to update her favorite X-Men fanfic, and decided to read the original text. This is how she discovered AO3, seven years ago.

She joined OTW as a tag wrangler in 2019. She is happy to see that she can make use of her lore knowledge and language abilities in her daily wrangling duties as well as to help users improve their filtering and reading experiences.

She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree in materials engineering in Japan and hopefully will get her doctorate next year. She loves to spend her time outside the lab reading manga, playing video games, and participating in fandoms: she sometimes writes, translates, edits, and always, always reads.

Rachel Linton (she/her) has been writing fanfiction for more than a decade. She wears a number of hats in the Organization for Transformative Works as a Tag Wrangler and Wrangling Supervisor, and Policy & Abuse Committee member. Off the internet, she’s a grad student, D&D player, and metaphorical hat collector.

Zixin Zhang (Secretary) fell into fandom when she became obsessed with Detective Conan and found her way to online fannish forums, though her fannish life probably started earlier when she secretly wrote fanfiction for Dream of the Red Chamber on her exercise books in primary school. Some of her favourite fandoms include Lord of the Rings, The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles (DMBJ Series), Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Final Fantasy XIV. She is also an avid reader of Chinese web novels.

She started volunteering with the OTW as a tag wrangler (Chinese language track) in March 2019 when she saw the call for applications on OTW’s Weibo account. She later joined the Policy & Abuse Committee in October 2019, and the Communications Committee as one of the Weibo moderators in January 2020. She has also previously worked as an admin volunteer for the Open Doors Committee.

Zixin has a bachelor’s degree in China Studies and a master’s degree in Labour Studies. She currently works for a non-profit that provides educational services to migrant workers’ children and advocates for educational equity while being a cat mom at home and a bird watcher at large.

Non-Director Officers

Yuechiang Luo (Treasurer)

Former Board Directors

2024

  • Anh Pham
  • Jennifer Haynes
  • Kathryn Soderholm
  • Kari Dayton
  • Michelle Schroeder
  • Qiao Chu
  • Zixin Zhang

2023

  • Alex Tischer
  • Antonius Melisse
  • Heather McGuire
  • Kari Dayton
  • Jess White
  • Michelle Schroeder
  • Natalia Gruber

2022

  • Alex Tischer
  • Antonius Melisse
  • E. Anna Szegedi
  • Kari Dayton
  • Jess White
  • Kirsten Wright
  • Rebecca Sentance

2021

  • Alex Tischer
  • Jess White
  • Kati Eggert
  • Kirsten Wright
  • Lex de Leon
  • Natalia Gruber
  • Rebecca Sentance

2020

  • Claire P. Baker
  • Danielle Strong
  • Jessie Casiulis
  • Kirsten Wright
  • Lex de Leon
  • Natalia Gruber
  • Rebecca Sentance

2019

  • Claire P. Baker
  • Danielle Strong
  • Jessie Camboulives
  • Kristina Busse
  • Lex de Leon
  • Natalia Gruber
  • Priscilla Del Cima

2018

  • Atiya Hakeem
  • Claire P. Baker
  • Danielle Strong
  • Jessie Camboulives
  • Kristina Busse
  • Matty Bowers
  • Priscilla Del Cima

2017

  • Alex Tischer
  • Aline Carrão
  • Atiya Hakeem
  • Katarina Harju
  • Kristina Busse
  • Matty Bowers
  • Priscilla Del Cima

2016

  • Alex Tischer
  • Aline Carrão
  • Atiya Hakeem
  • Katarina Harju
  • Matty Bowers

2015

  • Andrea Horbinski
  • Cat Meier
  • Eylul Dogruel
  • Jessica Steiner
  • Margaret J. MacRae
  • Soledad Griffin

2014

  • Andrea Horbinski
  • Anna Genoese
  • Cat Meier
  • Eylul Dogruel
  • Franzeska Dickson
  • Nikisha Sanders

2013

  • Andrea Horbinski
  • Cat Meier
  • Eylul Dogruel
  • Franzeska Dickson
  • Ira Gladkova
  • Julia Beck
  • Kristen Murphy
  • Maia Bobrowicz
  • Nikisha Sanders

2012

  • Julia Beck
  • Francesca Coppa
  • Ira Gladkova
  • Jenny Scott-Thompson
  • Kristen Murphy
  • Naomi Novik
  • Nikisha Sanders

2011

  • Allison Morris
  • Francesca Coppa
  • Hele Braunstein
  • Ira Gladkova
  • Kristen Murphy
  • Rachel Barenblat
  • Sheila Lane

2010

  • Allison Morris
  • Elizabeth Yalkut
  • Francesca Coppa
  • Naomi Novik
  • Rachel Barenblat
  • Rebecca Tushnet
  • Sheila Lane

2009

  • KellyAnn Bessa
  • Francesca Coppa
  • Naomi Novik
  • Rachel Barenblat
  • Rebecca Tushnet
  • Susan Gibel
  • Sheila Lane

2008

  • Cathy Cupitt
  • Francesca Coppa
  • KellyAnn Bessa
  • Michele Tepper
  • Naomi Novik
  • Rebecca Tushnet
  • Susan Gibel

Committees

Accessibility, Design, & Technology
AO3 Documentation
Board Assistants Team
Communications
Development & Membership
Elections
Fanlore
Finance
Legal
Open Doors
Policy & Abuse
Strategic Planning
Support
Systems
Tag Wrangling
Translation
TWC
User Response Translation
Volunteers & Recruiting
Webs

Read more about our committees.