The Life Lines Collective is not a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and even if we were, we would still want to be open with our supporters, listeners, and the public about how we use our financial resources. Above all, we want to be clear that though we are not a nonprofit, we are stewarding our resources well and not profiting off this effort.
After our Kickstarter campaign and paying off an initial interest-free loan from an anonymous benefactor who helped us cross the finish line, we invested in our website and, more importantly, built the app that allows incarcerated contributors to access our publication system via phone. We raised a little more than $17,000 in the campaign; after Kickstarter took its cut, we got about $15,600. The loan was $2,900; wrapping up the Kickstarter rewards ran us around $400, and the phone system and website cost us about $7,800. All of our digital properties are now maintained and improved on volunteer time.
We keep our expenses low. Our annual operational costs are, on average, $1,930 (about $160 per month). This includes:
$240 to run our phone system application
$720 for a collect phone account so contributors can access the system free of charge
$30 to operate our server
$90 to lease our domain name
$100 for our post office box
$500 for accounting and taxes
$250 for state-level annual reporting
These figures vary according to market rates and the number of active contributors we have, and are meant to be estimates rather than exact amounts. We also dream of expanding the content we offer and our contributor network, which costs money. If you have any questions about our finances, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at lifelinesjournal@protonmail.com.
As always, we welcome your donations through our website.
Thanks for your support!