- hellinget
- Sep 28, 2023
- 3 min read
Hello everyone. I have some important information about the charity I need to inform you of.
When I first started the charity, I had stated multiple times that, "Every penny you donate goes toward games for kids." This has been true. If there was a fee from GoFundMe, or a tax, or I overbought, then I covered it out of my own pocket. This wasn't that big of issue when I was only getting a few hundred dollars. Now that its getting into the thousands, its more noticeable. On top of that, there are business expenses that are adding up. I have website fees, marketing fees, non-profit fees, filing fees, business cards, travel, etc. The grander this organization becomes, so too do the expenses.
While I would love to be able to cover expenses out of pocket, I simply cannot. Not reliably anyway. I have my own personal expenses. I have my own savings for financial stability. I also have my own hobbies and interests that I need to fund.
Learning about how non-profits worked opened my eyes a bit. Contrary to my ignorance, people can in fact, profit from them. A non-profit is a company, and employees need wages. Now, I am the only employee, so the situation is a little different. I do not intend for Games On The Table to be a source of income for me. Not yet. The funds from donations are not substantial enough to give me anything of worth. And I don't want to gouge the donation money. However, I am at a place where donation funds need to be partially used for company upkeep, as all non-profits do. I am no longer just setting up GoFundMes and handling the money responsibly as intended. Games On The Table is in the inaugural state of an official organization. I need to treat it as such.
While not explicitly needed in GOTT's current state, I do have By-laws, I do have a conflict of interest policy. I have intentions and a standard of how I want this non-profit run. This brings up 2 points I want to make.
Running this organization is hard. I have to do a ton of learning, most of it on my own. I contacted 4 different organizations this year meant to help businesses get started and essentially all of them were useless. I have made mistakes, I have procrastinated, and I have worried. I have also relied on others who have fell short. I am not asking for sympathy, I'm simply stating that this isn't a hobby. This is something that takes effort and it can be difficult. Especially when this is not my job. This is not a source of income but rather an expense. (An expense that is worthwhile mind you.)
I know that my time and effort is valuable. This organization and its intentions matter. So do my efforts. Eventually, I would like for my efforts to be compensated. I don't foresee that happening soon, but if this organization becomes a part time job or even a full time job, then I need to be compensated to be able to sustain myself as well as the company. Currently, I do not intend to start "paying" myself until Games On The Table reaches $5000 in yearly donations. This was a quasi-arbitrary amount I established. Maybe it will be less. I have a lot to learn about how to allocate thousands of dollars for purchases. Having expenses to pay for with company funds will trim that down. But at some point I have to decide what is moral and feasible to give to myself or to give to future employees.
I have been making a lot of progress, albeit slow and complicated, this year. I'll keep updating as progress is made.
TLDR: 100% of your donations went to buy games. Due to expenses, that won't be the case in the future.
Thanks for the support.
Ethan J Helling
