Form 990 for tax year 2023

Totals

Total revenue

$979,278

Total expenses

$634,956

Contributions and grants received

$979,205

Grants paid

$0

Program service revenue

$0

Investment income

$73

Other revenue

$0

Total assets, end of year

$3,469,035

Total liabilities, end of year

$18,502

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$3,450,533

Program services expenses (Part IX)

$350,690

Management and general expenses

$185,314

Fundraising expenses

$98,952

Program service expenses (Part III)

$350,690

Program services were 55.2% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Mission and programs · 2023

• THE ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN'S RESILIENCE WAS TESTED MULTIPLE TIMES IN 2023 DUE TO A SERIES OF ATTEMPTED DDOS ATTACKS. WHILE THE FIRST ONE IN JULY MANAGED TO TAKE DOWN AO3, FANLORE, AND THE OTW WEBSITE FOR A FEW DAYS, SERVICE WAS RESTORED QUICKLY AND SITE ACCESS REMAINED STABLE THROUGH ALL FURTHER ATTACKS. DETAILS OF THESE EVENTS WERE LATER <A HREF="HTTPS://ARCHIVEOFOUROWN.ORG/WORKS/54711364">REPORTED ON</A> BY SYSTEMS.DESPITE FURTHER ATTEMPTED ATTACKS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, THE SITE REMAINED STABLE AND ACCESSIBLE. INDEED, ITS RAPID GROWTH NOT ONLY CONTINUED IN TERMS OF HOSTED FANWORKS, PASSING 12 MILLION IN NOVEMBER. IT ALSO PASSED 6 MILLION REGISTERED USERS DURING THE VERY WEEK OF THE JULY DDOS ATTACKS. TRAFFIC REACHED 31 BILLION AO3 VIEWS, AVERAGING 84.9 MILLION PAGE VIEWS OF AO3 PER DAY, 6 BILLION MORE THAN IN 2022. USERS CREATED 111,021,602 BOOKMARKS DURING THE YEAR, OVER 13 MILLION MORE THAN IN 2022.ALONG WITH PROVIDING MANY MORE SITE CHANGES AND UPDATES DURING THE YEAR, AD&T IMPROVED USER SAFETY AND COMFORT WITH TWO MAJOR UPDATES. ONE WAS THE ABILITY FOR LOGGED-IN USERS TO MUTE OTHERS, AND SECONDLY THE ABILITY FOR AO3 ADMINS TO TURN OFF GUEST COMMENTS ACROSS THE ARCHIVE, WHICH HELPS PROTECT IT AGAINST SPAM ATTACKS. ADDITIONALLY, A POST CLARIFYING THE ARCHIVE'S STAND ON AI AND SITE SCRAPING WAS MADE IN MAY. SYSTEMS BEGAN THE YEAR WITH A LOT OF WORK. A RUBY UPDATE, A CHANGE IN THE ARCHIVE'S SQL SOFTWARE TO MARIADB, AND A HARDWARE SWAP ENDED UP CAUSING SOME TEMPORARY PROBLEMS THAT REQUIRED ADDITIONAL HARDWARE AND SOME CODE MODIFICATIONS. LATER IN 2023 THEY ALSO UPGRADED THE ARCHIVE TO DEBIAN BOOKWORM, AND ADDED TWO NEW VIRTUALIZATION SERVERS. MEANWHILE, TAG WRANGLING WRANGLED APPROXIMATELY 5.5 MILLION TAGS, AN ENORMOUS INCREASE OVER 2022'S 4.85 MILLION, AND POLICY & ABUSE SHARED A GRAPHIC ABOUT HOW WHAT AREAS ITS APPROXIMATELY 23,600 TICKETS COVERED. </P><P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="HTTPS://MEDIA.ARCHIVEOFOUROWN.ORG/AO3/2023%20PAC%20PIE%20CHART.PNG" ALT="A PIE CHART SHOWING THE NEARLY 23,600 POLICY & ABUSE TICKETS SUBMITTED IN 2023, DIVIDED BY TYPE OF COMPLAINT. NON-FANWORKS: 47%; REJECTED COMPLAINTS ABOUT OFFENSIVE CONTENT: 18%; PLAGIARISM AND COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: 9%; HARASSMENT: 8%; COMMERCIAL PROMOTION: 7%; POLICY QUESTIONS: 3%; OTHER: 3%; INCORRECT FANDOM TAGS: 3%; INSUFFICIENT RATINGS OR WARNINGS: 2%. THESE CATEGORIES REFLECT THE SUBJECT OF THE COMPLAINT, AND (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF OFFENSIVE CONTENT), DO NOT INDICATE WHETHER THE REPORT WAS UPHELD OR REJECTED."/>THE SUPPORT COMMITTEE RECEIVED APPROXIMATELY 24,800 TICKETS, WHICH WAS A MAJOR INCREASE FROM 2022'S 18,000, REFLECTING IN PART THE ATTACKS ON THE SITE. SUPPORT ALSO TOOK OVER VARIOUS DUTIES FROM POLICY & ABUSE IN 2023 SUCH AS DUPLICATE WORKS ERROR REPORTS AND FANNISH NEXT-OF-KIN SIGN UPS, IN ADDITION TO THOSE TRANSFERRED DURING LATE 2022 WHICH WERE LOSS OF ACCESS TO AN ACCOUNT, QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS CONCERNING ORPHANED WORKS, AND WORKS LABELED WITH AN INCORRECT LANGUAGE.THE AO3 DOCUMENTATION COMMITTEE MADE VARIOUS UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, INCLUDING AN UPDATED ACCESSING FANWORKS FAQ, AND ADDING FIVE NEW TERMS TO THE AO3 GLOSSARY.

  Expenses $269,417

• FANLORE SAW AROUND 5,000 NEW PAGES AND 141,000 NEW EDITS MADE, ENDING THE YEAR WITH 66,000 PAGES AND 1,353,000 EDITS EXPLORING THE HISTORY, CULTURE, PEOPLE, AND ARTIFACTS THAT MAKE UP FANDOM. PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO SOME ERRORS IN DATA COLLECTION, THE NUMBER FOR 2022 WAS INCORRECT, AS THERE WERE APPROXIMATELY 135,000 EDITS MADE AND THEY ENDED THE YEAR WITH 1,212,000 EDITS.ACROSS THE YEAR, THE FANLORE COMMITTEE CONTINUED TO ENGAGE WITH EDITORS AND FANS THROUGH FOUR MONTHS OF THEMED POSTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA: FEMSLASH FEBRUARY, COMICS MONTH, FANDOM IN COLOR, AND PODTOBER. FANLORE ALSO HELD ITS THREE ANNUAL CHALLENGES: THE IFD FANLORE CHALLENGE, THE BINGO CHALLENGE, AND STUB SEPTEMBER. FANLORE ALSO SAW TWO NEW CHAIRS INDUCTED, JOANNA PERNICK AND NOAH A., AND FANLORE CHAIR REBECCA SENTANCE STEPPED DOWN.

  Expenses $15,119

• THE OTW'S INTERNATIONAL PEER-REVIEWED ONLINE JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC FAN STUDIES, TRANSFORMATIVE WORKS AND CULTURES, RELEASED THREE ISSUES IN 2023: NO. 39, "TRANS FANDOM," GUEST EDITED BY JENNIFER DUGAN AND ANGIE FAZEKAS IN MARCH; NO. 40, A GENERAL ISSUE, IN SEPTEMBER, WHOSE OPENING EDITORIAL WORKED TO STAKE OUT THE "STATE OF THE FIELD; AND NO. 41, "CHINESE FANDOMS", GUEST EDITED BY ZHEN TROY CHEN AND CELIA LAM. ALL WERE RELEASED ON SCHEDULE CONTINUING TWC'S PUBLICATION RECORD SINCE THE START OF THE JOURNAL. TWC ALSO CREATED 2 NEW ASSISTANT EDITOR POSITIONS AND WELCOMED THREE NEW EDITORS TO THE SYMPOSIUM TEAM, WITH A SHARED MISSION TO ELEVATE HISTORICALLY MARGINALIZED VOICES IN ACADEMIA AND FANDOM.

  Expenses $3,719

• TRANSACTION FEES

  Expenses $40,139

• POSTAGE AND FREIGHT

  Expenses $20,494

• BOOKS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

  Expenses $1,210

• BANKING FEES

  Expenses $592

As filed on the 2023 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those.

Grants on this return

No itemized grants to organizations on this return.

Provenance

Return type

form_990

Tax year

2023

Filed

11 November 2024

IRS schema version

2023v5.1

Source object

202413209349314456

Check it against the return as filed: the GivingTuesday Data Lake hosts a public copy of the original XML.

The source document this was parsed from is served over the API, which is where bulk and document access live.