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First and foremost, I want to once again thank those of you who have donated. I've received numerous message afterward wishing you could do more and I want to reassure you, every little bit helps!
As most of you know, Northwest Firearms relies on donations and ad revenue to cover our operating expenses. Over the past year our donations have dropped off by a substantial amount while both expenses and the number of members using of ad blockers have increased. This past month we were very close to running in the red. I'm starting this thread because I'd like to get some ideas regarding what we can do (or do differently) to raise money and/or encourage people to donate.
We've tried a few different things with varied levels of success. This past January we brought back the Supporting Member Giveaways to say thank you to those of you who have donated and in hopes that we'd raise additional funds. Though we can't sell tickets and hold 'actual raffles' (we do not have non-profit status), these have been fairly successful. Last month we took a poll and (based on member feedback) invested the money to do a run of Northwest Firearms branded lower receivers. Unfortunately, these aren't selling as quickly as we had hoped. Once we recoup the money from these we're going to consider other merchandise, but to be honest we've never done particularly well with these sort of things. I think we have enough ads; I refuse to turn this into one of those sites no matter how much money it brings. In the past we've held donation drives where we've simply asked for money. Though these were incredibly successful, I always feel like I'm holding a sign next to an on-ramp
The area where I'm especially interested in gaining some insight is with the Supporting Member perks. Did these factor into your decision to donate, or did you donate simply to support Northwest Firearms? Which do you find most valuable? Any additional features you'd like to see added?
To let the community know where we are with donations we've developed a new Monthly Donation Goal sidebar block, displaying both our progress toward our goal and the number of donations we've received so far. We're also putting the finishing touches on our <broken link removed>, allowing members to purchase upgrades for each other. It's working now, and we'll further promote it once it's out of beta.
Forgive me if this post is a bit disorganized, I'm brainstorming publicly here. I look forward to hearing your ideas and feedback
As most of you know, Northwest Firearms relies on donations and ad revenue to cover our operating expenses. Over the past year our donations have dropped off by a substantial amount while both expenses and the number of members using of ad blockers have increased. This past month we were very close to running in the red. I'm starting this thread because I'd like to get some ideas regarding what we can do (or do differently) to raise money and/or encourage people to donate.
We've tried a few different things with varied levels of success. This past January we brought back the Supporting Member Giveaways to say thank you to those of you who have donated and in hopes that we'd raise additional funds. Though we can't sell tickets and hold 'actual raffles' (we do not have non-profit status), these have been fairly successful. Last month we took a poll and (based on member feedback) invested the money to do a run of Northwest Firearms branded lower receivers. Unfortunately, these aren't selling as quickly as we had hoped. Once we recoup the money from these we're going to consider other merchandise, but to be honest we've never done particularly well with these sort of things. I think we have enough ads; I refuse to turn this into one of those sites no matter how much money it brings. In the past we've held donation drives where we've simply asked for money. Though these were incredibly successful, I always feel like I'm holding a sign next to an on-ramp
The area where I'm especially interested in gaining some insight is with the Supporting Member perks. Did these factor into your decision to donate, or did you donate simply to support Northwest Firearms? Which do you find most valuable? Any additional features you'd like to see added?
To let the community know where we are with donations we've developed a new Monthly Donation Goal sidebar block, displaying both our progress toward our goal and the number of donations we've received so far. We're also putting the finishing touches on our <broken link removed>, allowing members to purchase upgrades for each other. It's working now, and we'll further promote it once it's out of beta.
Forgive me if this post is a bit disorganized, I'm brainstorming publicly here. I look forward to hearing your ideas and feedback