Does DU release financial reports?

[Radical Activist]

Any corporation and especially organizations that take donations typically release some kind of statement about the money they're taking in and how its spent. I haven't seen this for DU so I'm wondering if its available somewhere.

I'm not accusing DU of mishandling the money, but this is the sort of thing I'd like to see before I decide how much money to give. Its pretty standard practice to make that information public.

[Raster]

1. I didn't realize DU was a corporation.

[Radical Activist]

2. dupe

anyone else having trouble?

[Radical Activist]

3. It takes donations

and as I wrote, any organization that takes donations will usually make even more complete reports than corporations.

[punpirate]

4. Well, sort of...

... all non-profit corporations make annual statements of total contributions on their Form 990 (although even there, they don't have to itemize those contributions below a certain amount).

Hell, even political campaigns don't have to itemize contributions below $200 (although they do have to list the total of those contributions).

Since DU operates principally by donations, but is a limited liability corporation, rather than a 501(c)3, I'm not sure what your complaint is. The money obviously goes to the people who offer the service and to defray their expenses in providing the service. You get substantial use of the service, even if you contribute nothing.

So, what's the problem? And, why didn't you address this in an email to the administrators before jumping the gun and inviting the collective membership to believe something isn't quite right with the way DU money is spent. Maybe it's none of your business.

If you'd donated to maintain the service, and the service disappeared immediately afterwards, perhaps you'd have a gripe, but that hasn't happened, has it?

Cheers.

[sundog]

5. thank you

:)

[RetroLounge]

6. Well said!

:hi:

RL

[Runcible Spoon]

7. I don't think he's complaining or has a problem.

I don't see asking a simple, fair question as having a "gripe". Radical Activist is an awesome DUer and loves it here. I often wondered how our money is spent (my star just expired a few days ago so this has been weighing on my mind too, as I have to decide how much I can spare), not in a sinister way but perhaps if we give to charities or whatever, because methinks DU has enormous power to generate funds for all sorts of things like political campaings, charities, etc.

[Radical Activist]

8. I suspected

that DU was a limited liability corporation. Just because they may not be legally required to make financial reports doesn't mean that they shouldn't do it voluntarily. That would be normal practice for any organization that takes donations from many members, including me.

I don't think there's any reason for your defensive and accusatory tone. I didn't make accusations or express dissatisfaction with DU or how they spend the money. If I'm going to make ANOTHER donation to DU I think its pretty normal and reasonable to ask for some kind of statement about how many is spent. That's not an accusation or gripe. Its a very reasonable question. The information may already be public for all I know.

[Maddy McCall]

11. Skinner gave an accounting of expenses during a recent fundraiser.

Why not just PM him and ask him to do the same for this fund raiser.

I'd be willing to bet that our donations do not make the three guys wealthy.

[Radical Activist]

13. Really?

Do you have a link or do you know if its still posted somewhere? I thought it might be, but I just haven't seen it yet.

[punpirate]

29. Well, let me ask this...

... you're a long-time member--did you ever think about this and ask Skinner or Elad or EarlG about this in the past? Or did you think about it after all the brouhaha about Andy Stephenson?

Cheers.

[Radical Activist]

30. I thought about asking

some time ago and forgot. I was reminded because it is pledge time and I'm not sure if my star expires soon.

Are you a real pirate?

arrrgh

[Maddy McCall]

9. No need for a financial statement.

We all know that our donations buy Mercedes and Rolls Royces for Skinner, Earl, and Elad. We also know that our donations allow them to take six-month vacations all over the globe.

:scarcasm:

[sundog]

10. hehe

:toast:

[Radical Activist]

12. haha

Right. :)
Like I said, I don't think they're doing that sort of thing, but it might protect DU from accusations or issues in the future if they make that info public. It might encourage people to donate more money if they could see how its spent.

[Runcible Spoon]

16. I agree. servers are incredibly expensive.

as are legal fees for fending off freeper lawsuits, server maintenance, not to mention the time and effort put into this site by the admins. I really would like it if the admins could make a decent living in return for providing us with DU, altho with all these costs I'd be surprised if it did. It's prolly a labor of love. But I agree with RA that disclosing how much it really takes to keep this going would motivate people to donate more.

[Runcible Spoon]

14. I love ya Maddy, but COME ON

RA NEVER SAID he questions how the money is spent. I mean, we're all a bit more questioning after the whole Bev Harris thing. This is NOT TO SAY that anyone equates Bev's lying manipulative schemes with the way DU is run. AND after poor Andy was forced to post evidence that he was actually sick. So there are two examples, from two sides of teh spectrum, that just reflect the evolution of how we donate moeny from an automatic gesture of goodwill to a free for all nasty fight over allegations of sinister intentions. Maybe the healthy thing is somewhere in the middle. I don't necessarily think asking for a basic idea of how this moeny is used connotes that RA has issues with how DU is run, and on the flip side of things the admins probably don't owe him an answer.

[Radical Activist]

15. Exactly

In the light of incidents like the Bev Harris fiasco it should increase confidence among people who think about donating if DU just makes financial statements public on the site. That only helps DU. Or, if they post it on the forum, and maybe it has been posted and I never saw it.

[Maddy McCall]

18. I can't imagine anyone even comparing our three guys to that...

moneywhore Bev.

I don't have any questions about how my donations to DU are spent. The fact that, on every morning on which I have logged onto DU, and it has been here, is enough evidence to me that the three guys are spending the money on the site.

I do know that they allot themselves VERY meager salaries. Hell, I wouldn't put up with this place for the little bit of money that they draw. They work 24/7 keeping this place afloat.

It's the best forum on the net.

(I'm not scolding you. :D I'm just saying that the evidence of how they spend donations is right in front of you. :) )

[Runcible Spoon]

20. yeah Bev was a total sleazy embezzling hosebeast.

and the admins DO work their asses off to keep this place going. I just think it IS a fair question, and the admins telling RA to buzz off IS a fair response ;) But I don't think RA is out of place for wondering...

[Maddy McCall]

22. Just posted a statement on DU's expenses below.

I agree. Nothing wrong with questioning. :D

[Runcible Spoon]

27. thanks sweetie.

:yourock:

[Maddy McCall]

17. I was just being funny. Jeez.

We all know the three amigos are around DU all of the time. Hey, we crashed awhile ago, and were back on line in 30 minutes, thanks to the three guys.

I was just asserting a little humor into a serious lounge topic. Seriously, though, Skinner did post a thread a year or so ago in which he laid out all of DU's expenditures. It costs a lot more to run this place than I would have ever guessed.

[Runcible Spoon]

19. ahh OK. sorry!

my humor detector needs batteries :hug: :loveya: I just think RA got jumped on a tad bit on this thread.

[Radical Activist]

28. Well I knew I was kind of sticking my neck out

by even asking the question, but like the Governor of Illinois, I have testicular virility.
http://capitolfax.blogspot.com/2005/05/pool-report.html

I honestly don't think Skinner would mind questions like this. He would only mind if there were something to hide, and I don't think he's hiding anything.

[Runcible Spoon]

21. OK I'm going to donate now!

needs my star action!

[Maddy McCall]

23. HERE IS AN 'O4 STATEMENT OF DU'S EXPENSES FROM SKINNER

Thank you to everyone who has already donated to DU this week. We are pleased with the response we have received so far in this week's fund drive, but we still have a long way to go to reach our goal.

Good websites don't grow on trees; they cost real money. We depend on the contributions of our members to cover the lion's share of our expenses. Without you, there could be no DU. Our traffic has increased about 25% since our last fund drive in November, and we expect traffic to continue to increase during this election year.

Based on our costs for the last three months, and our projected expenses in the near future, here is our expected budget:

PROJECTED MONTHLY COSTS TO RUN DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND

2,300.00 - Website Hosting, Bandwidth, and Technical support, etc.
895.00 - Rent for our One-room Office
350.00 - Credit Card Processing Fees and Other Bank Charges
200.00 - Fundraising Expenses (Letterhead, postage, bumperstickers)
550.00 - Lawyer, Accountant, Etc.
250.00 - Phone, Fax, Long Distance, Cell phones
150.00 - Computer Hardware, Software, and DSL
100.00 - Moderator Training (conference calls)
200.00 - Miscellaneous Expenses
8,200.00 - Salaries & Taxes for three Administrators

TOTAL: $13,195.00 per month

This is slightly more than we asked for three months ago, by about $200. The increases are spread around different categories, but the most significant increase is under "Lawyer" and "Technical Support" -- we had some significant technical disruption activity (DOS Attacks, etc.) in the last three months, so we've spent a lot of time and money dealing with it. I don't think it's really in our best interest to share the details, but I will say that we have had some extremely satisfying progress behind the scenes on this, and there are still some leads to follow.

I know you have a choice about where you spend your time and your money. If you spend lots of time here, I think it makes sense to kick in a few bucks to help us out. I hope that you consider DU to be a worthy cause. We could sure use the help.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1104739&mesg_id=1104739

[Maddy McCall]

24. Let me add...we have twice as many members now...

I would imagine that expenses are much more than they were a year ago.

[Radical Activist]

26. Hey thanks!

[48pan]

25. DU is private. It's...

none of our business.

[The empressof all]

31. Locking

The administrators will get your questions much faster if you follow the procedure for contacting the administrators. See link below.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/contact.html


Thanks TEA