Posted by an

https://www.transformativeworks.org/the-otw-is-recruiting-for-open-doors-import-assistants-and-fanlore-policy-admin-volunteers/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=264590

Are you interested in the rescue and preservation of fanworks? Are you a good wiki editor? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:

• Open Doors Import Assistant – closing 30 April 2025 at 23:59 UTC [or after 35 applications]
• Fanlore Policy & Admin Volunteer – closing 30 April 2025 at 23:59 UTC [or after 40 applications]

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don’t see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

Open Doors Import Assistant

Do you enjoy spreadsheets, self-paced projects, and helping protect fanworks from getting lost over time? Are you interested in the rescue and preservation of fanworks? Do you still guiltily—or not so guiltily—love the first fanwork that opened your eyes to fandom?
Open Doors is a committee dedicated to preserving fanworks in their many formats, and we’re looking for volunteers to support this goal. The work we do preserves fan history, love, and dedication to fandom: we keep fanworks from offline and at-risk archives from being lost, divert fanzines from the trash, and more.

Our import assistants contribute to our goal by:

• Importing works to AO3 from rescued digital archives and fanzines
• Searching AO3 for existing copies of works that creators have already uploaded themselves (to prevent us from importing duplicate versions when we import an archive)
• Compiling and correcting spreadsheets of works from an archive to be imported and/or tags to use on those works
• Copyediting/proofreading works from fanzines that have been scanned from PDFs (to ensure that the scanned works were transcribed properly by the software we used)

The training is self-directed, and so is the work for the most part, though we also have weekly working meetings/parties for people to all chip in and work on tasks together! Import assistants can generally alternate the types of tasks they work on. At any one time, we usually have several tasks of different types available.

To apply for this role, you must be at least 18 years old and legally of age to open explicit fanworks in your local jurisdiction.

If you’re interested, click on through for a longer description of what we’re looking for and the time commitment. For your application to be considered, you will be required to complete a short task within 3 days of submitting your application.

Applications are due 30 April 2025 [or after 35 applications]

Apply for Open Doors Import Assistant at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

Fanlore Policy & Admin Volunteer

Do you have an interest in preserving fannish history? Do you have an interest in wiki editing, or writing help documentation? Fanlore is recruiting for Policy & Admin volunteers!

Fanlore’s Policy & Admin volunteers are responsible for dealing with all the behind the scenes stuff to ensure that Fanlore runs smoothly. We respond to questions and complaints; shape Fanlore’s policies, tutorials, and guidelines; and assist Fanlore gardeners and other editors. No extensive experience is required—just a strong interest in documenting and preserving fandom, good communication skills, and a willingness to work with a team and further Fanlore’s mission. Join us!

Applications are due 30 April 2025 [or after 40 applications]

Apply for Fanlore Policy & Admin at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/the-otw-is-recruiting-for-open-doors-import-assistants-and-fanlore-policy-admin-volunteers/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=264590

Posted by an

https://www.transformativeworks.org/april-2025-membership-drive-for-fans-by-fans/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=262837

Ever since its foundation in 2007, the Organization of Transformative Works (OTW) has been run for fans, by fans. We’ve been happily overwhelmed by the continued growing interest and support in our projects from the fans of different generations around the world, and we’re extremely grateful for the financial support from OTW members and donors, which has helped us build up a reserve fund while covering our projects’ day-to-day expenses. These funds and your kindness and support are crucial when one of our projects encounters issues, such as the downtime and slowness that the Archive of Our Own (AO3) experienced over the past few months. We’ve been taking important steps to resolve these issues and remain thankful for your support and patience during this period.

While our volunteers have been hard at work keeping AO3 stable, this period has once again proven the strength and resilience of fans. Thanks to your generous donations and continuous support, we have been able to keep AO3 and the rest of our projects, running as a non-profit driven by our volunteers. In light of this, we would like to encourage you to donate and become a member during our first membership drive of this year!

As per usual, we have prepared various donation gifts:

By donating US$45, you can get a random selection from our sticker stash (be prepared for a surprise)!

You can also become a member of the OTW by donating US$10 or more. Keep in mind that being a member of OTW is not the same as having an AO3 account—OTW members can vote for the annual OTW Board elections and their information is not connected to any of their accounts on AO3, Fanlore, or any of our other projects.

You can also set up a recurring donation and save towards the gift of your choice. Once you select the gift you’d like, your future donations can get added to the total, even if your current donation amount isn’t sufficient. Those of you in the U.S. might also be able to double your contribution via employer matching: please contact your HR department to find out if this is an option for you.

Curious about how donations are spent? Visit our past budget posts or annual reports to find out more. If you have any other questions regarding donations and membership, you can visit our FAQ or contact Development and Membership.

While our members and their donations are crucial for us to keep our projects like Fanlore, Open Doors, Legal Advocacy, Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), and the AO3 running, don’t be discouraged if you can’t contribute financially! We appreciate the endless support and commitment of this community: whether it’s publishing or commenting under a work on AO3, editing on Fanlore, or reaching out to Open Doors about fanfiction archives that are at risk. You can also check out our Volunteering Page to find out how to get more involved through volunteering opportunities.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/april-2025-membership-drive-for-fans-by-fans/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=262837

Posted by xeno

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-finance-2025-budget/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=262898

Through the last year, the OTW Finance team has continued to ensure that the organization’s bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. Preparation for the 2024 audit of financial statements is currently ongoing!

The team has also been diligently working to meet the OTW’s 2025 needs, and is proud to present to you this year’s budget (access the 2025 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2025 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$286,821.53 spent so far out of US$625,370.81 total this year, as of March 31, 2025.
• 67.7% of the OTW’s expenses go towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses, as well as costs highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year’s projected AO3 expenses also include US$430,000 to purchase new servers, as well as US$20,000 in server related equipment to increase the capacity of existing servers to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

• US$1,916.55 spent so far out of US$7,382.51 total this year, as of March 31, 2025.
• Open Doors’ expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives, as well as an allocated share of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$626.80 spent so far out of US$2,564.30 total this year, as of March 31, 2025.
• Transformative Works and Cultures‘ expenses are the journal’s website hosting, publishing, and storage fees, as well as an allocated share of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).
• Additionally, in 2024, the University of Amsterdam provided €1,000 (US$1,061) to Transformative Works and Cultures, which will be used to help fund the Fans of Color Research Prize. One prize was awarded in 2025.

Fanlore

• US$15,556.57 spent so far out of US$34,188.35 total this year, as of March 31, 2025.
• Fanlore’s expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs, as well as its portion of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$72.45 spent so far out of US$2,572.45 total this year, as of March 31, 2025.
• Legal’s expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary, as well as an allocated share of OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Fundraising and Development

• US$13,516.79 spent so far out of US$122,896.79 total this year, as of March 31, 2025.
• Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, outreach work by volunteers at various fan conventions, and the tools used to host the OTW’s membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors, as well as an allocated share of OTW-wide productivity tools (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$33,497.25 spent so far out of US$127,869.36 total this year, as of March 31, 2025.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as productivity, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2025 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together will account for about 33.0% of our income in 2025. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you’d like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases and keep on hand for legal contingencies. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive’s servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. The growth of the Archive and other projects of the OTW also requires more volunteers and administrative support, further increasing expenses. The budget spreadsheet projects a withdrawal of US$250,000 from reserves to cover the costs that exceed the amount of revenue projected to be received this year. This amount may be withdrawn as needed during the year.
• US$104,626.71 received so far (as of March 31, 2025) and US$680,350.00 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW’s finances, please contact the Finance committee. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

To download the OTW’s 2025 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-finance-2025-budget/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=262898