Today, we are pleased to publish the OTW’s 2015 Annual Report, available in PDF or html format. The report provides a summary of our activities during the past financial and calendar year, our financial statements for 2015, and our goals for 2016 and beyond. 2015 was a year of transition for the OTW, and we’d like to thank each of our members, donors, staff, and volunteers for their hard work and support.
You can view the OTW’s previous eight reports for more information, and please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Wow, huge amount accomplished and the archive is … well, awesome. Big thanks and lots of gratitude to everyone involved. But am I reading this right, that we are seriously short on funding against the projected costs? I didn’t do the math but it looked like more than double the donations to date are needed. Is the right? If so, what is the plan to address the shortfall?
Hi Marilyn,
Thank you for you support. In 2015 we actually fundraised more than we spent. We finish the year with a net income $198,411.11 in the period. Our expanses on 2016 will not be the same as those on 2015, but we fully expect to fundraise all needed funds to cover this year’s costs in full.
Besides that, thanks to the generosity of our donors in past years, we have a healthy reserve able to cover any unexpected expenses or fundraising shortfall, which would allow us to reassess our costs and fundraising strategy without immediate risk to any of our projects.
Aline
OTW Board
Whoever prepares your financials does not know they are doing.. One does not add depreciation and assets to get to total assets. There are assets, and accumulated depreciation. Assets means all assets you own, even if they have been previously depreciated. Accumulated depreciation means depreciation from all years. One subtracts the accumulated depreciation from the assets. So if your assets are $198,978 and accumulated depreciation is 3,791, then one would SUBTRACT the accumulated depreciation to get total assets of $195,187. NOT 202,770. In short, I would not recommend anyone donate to this organization. If you can’t prepare a simple financial statement, who knows what is happening to the cash, probably you don’t even reconcile the bank statements correctly.
Dude, do you even financial? Obviously not. If someone reading this is from the non-financial sector, just know your “accountant” is non-professional, and I would double check your cash bro. Like, several times.
….and I went back through all your financials. 2007 was the only year that they were prepared 100% correctly. See, in 2007, when the preparer uses the word net assets? That means they are netting the assets and the accumulated depreciation (+ assets – accumulated depr). Then, in 2010 through 2014, they start adding the two together, which is wrong. Finally, in 2015, you even begin to use the wrong title. It’s not Income Statement or Balance Sheet. It’s Statement of Activities and Statement of Financial Position. What is the difference? Well, the former is for profit accounting and the later is not-for-profit accounting. Did you suddenly become a for profit organization? If so, please inform the IRS, so they can revoke your 501(c) status.
Also, why did you spend $13K on fundraising, 12K on fiance charges, 22K on travel and meals? Just, no.
Thank you. I mean it. This is the kind of stuff this org really needs to get (as in, comprehend), because then maybe they’ll be around for a long time to come.
Also, “Dude, do you even financial?” = classic. 5 stars. No, 10 stars.
Thanks again.
Hi Aubergine,
Thank you for your feedback, I will pass it along to the responsible parties to take a look. We do plan on restructuring our finances and hiring a contractor to help us have a more professional and consistent financial setup going forward, including the reports. These changes are already ongoing and I hope we can do better in 2016.
To address the costs you questioned: the fundraising cost is from donor gifts (like pens, stickers, tote bags…) we send to those donating over US$50,00. The finance charges are transaction charges, primaly those referent to paypall.
The travel and meal costs cover a variety of items, as reimbursement for our Legal team travels to hearings and testimonies, conferences related to fair use and fandom advocacy, convention outreach to promote the OTW, and the costs of the in-person OTW board retreat (which will not happen this year, significantly reducing travel costs).
Aline
OTW Board
They are volunteers.
If you think they need a better accountant, then volunteer yourself? Otherwise don’t judge an organization that works its butt off and tries its best!
This is no place to be an emotional fan-person. Really, it’s not. You can cheer-lead all you want (and rightly so, you really should), but not on a post where valid objections have been raised.
Oh, and they’re not all volunteers. The OTW has several staff, who are paid, and if you’d read the financial report, such as it is, you’d have found that out.
And this is important. We have a right to criticise, because we’re invested. I have over 500K words on AO3, and people want to know why I maintain a separate site for that fiction. Answer: I’m worried that the OTW and AO3 are mismanaged.
A not-for-profit is still a business, and should be run like one. SRS BZNZ is serious, and all that. That’s all we’re asking for.
Not an official answer, but I want to correct the misapprehension for anyone reading, as I’m a volunteer. (Also, disclaimer, I’m a volunteer.)
Sorry, ‘several staff, who are paid’? I can think of one contractor, paid for smallish coding jobs at one point (who as far as I know had never been a volunteer), some touchy feeling person to do mediating at some point under the previous Board, also a contractor, and also not a volunteer, and plans to contract financial and coding work.
These are not “staff”.
What the OTW calls “staff” are basically volunteers who commit to do work for longer hours and more responsibility. They’re not paid. More explicitly: I’ve been staff since 2009 and chair in several terms, in different committees, and I’ve never been paid, and no other staff I’ve worked with, or chairs, or Board members, have been paid. The organization is fully volunteer-run. (Although I’m certainly for contracting more jobs when that move would make sense, as I think it’s in the plans.)