OTW Membership Drive

The OTW Membership Drive is a semi-annual event in April and October in which the Organization for Transformative Works asks for donations to support its work. It is organized by the Development & Membership committee.
==Drive Totals==
Year	April Goal 	April Total 	October Goal	October Total
2008	NA 	NA 	NA 	$2,338.00
2009	NA 	$11,142.00 	NA 	$15,573.00
2010	NA 	over $8,000.00	NA 	$18,308.46
2011	NA 	over $3,600.00	NA 	$21,456.00
2012	NA 	$38,379.50 	NA 	$18,896.33
2013	NA 	$53,243.99 	NA 	$52,381.30
2014	NA 	$61,433.50 	$70,000.00 	$174,570.34
2015	$100,000.00	$96,684.00 	$175,000.00 	$170,000.00
2016	NA 	$97,155.54 	NA 	$139,159.45
2017	NA 	$145,000.00 	$115,000.00 	$137,846.82
2018	$100,000.00	$130,084.00 	$130,000.00 	$193,068.87
2019	$130,000.00	$245,655.00 	$130,000.00 	$247,098.69
2020	$130,000.00	$458,501.00 	NA 	$89,688.51
2021	$50,000.00 	$264,918.85 	$40,000.00 	$195,009.65
2022	$40,000.00 	$275,724.51 	$50,000.00 	$276,467.69
All amounts are in USD.
From 2009-2011 the first drive of each year was held in March. It was moved to April in 2012.
In 2015, the April drive was exceptionally held in May, starting on May 1, 2015It's Your Turn - May 2015 OTW Drive, AO3 News, published on May 1, 2015..
==Memorable Moments==
On April 26, 2020, from 6:00 to 7:00 UTC, the total funds raised showed on the banner as $420,469.69.
=="AO3 Discourse Season"==
The OTW drive has always been an opportunity for critique, but many fans have noticed a pattern of increased criticism, mainly from antishippers, about the AO3 taking place on social media during and after every drive. The pattern may have started with the October 2016 drive, and at least since 2018 fans on tumblr and twitter have been commenting on it. The semi-annual event has been referred to in a number of ways: "AO3 fundraising wank", tweet by bossterkeaton, 4 April 2019., "anti-ao3 wank", tweet by rubywisp, 16 October 2018., "ao3 discourse season", tumblr post by who-is-page, 13 October 2019., tweet by dataghosts, 10 October 2019., tweet by ohminiplane, 24 April 2020., "ao3 donation season", tweet by smoreyellow, 19 October 2021., tumblr thread started by bauliya, 15 October 2021., or simply "it's that time again", tweet by beastranpo, 15 October 2021.. Some of the criticism focuses on specific AO3 policies or technical aspects of the site, but a lot of criticism about the drive itself also circulates; some fans ask why so much money is needed or argue that it's a scam or contains immoral content and people should donate to individual fan creators instead, tweet by barksport, 10 April 2020., tweet by SucculentBud, 9 April 2021.. Many fans criticize the criticisms, arguing that much of it displays a lack of knowledge about OTW and the AO3, nonprofits in general, or the cost of website hosting., tumblr thread started by woman-respecter, 11 April 2021., 16 October 2018. As of 18 October 2022, this tumblr post has 154,402 notes.
Another common complaint levied against the drive is that AO3 is allowed to ask for donations, but AO3 users are not, tweet by princessxemnas, 8 August 2020., tweet by manglegrove, 10 April 2021., tweet by venatrixlunaris, 18 October 2021., tweet by hairmetals, 15 October 2022.. In turn, this complaint usually prompts other fans to argue that these fans are ungrateful and don't remember the dark times before AO3 when everyone got a C&D letter from Anne Rice, that profiting from fanfic is illegal, that the OTW/AO3 would get sued, and/or that the OTW would lose its non-profit status if AO3 users were allowed to advertise on the site. Still other fans then point out that the counterargument itself is a myth and that while AO3 prohibiting commerce probably adds some protection, AO3 being noncommercial has nothing to do with OTW being a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the main reason that AO3 doesn't allow commercial promotion is that AO3 was started by fans who viewed fandom as a gift culture and didn't want advertisements clogging up the place. Furthermore, AO3 allows fannish original fiction, and the site chose to draw the line between fanwork and non-fanwork based on whether it was noncommercial rather than whether it contained pre-existing characters or settings.
Meanwhile, other fans have expressed frustration that their legitimate criticisms get ignored or lumped in with the uninformed hot takes.
===Related Links===
*The Mary Sue: (Oct 15th, 2019)
*What’s going on with all the “if you donate to AO3 you’re evil” posting on Tumblr?, reddit discussion (April 14, 2021)
* (April 2021 drive)
* (October 2022 drive)
== References ==
Category:Organization for Transformative Works