EDIT: The donations process is being migrated - at least for a test - from the monthly process to twice per year (spring & fall). Members who are logged in may click the link at the end of this post for additional donation methods.
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A bit of info regarding forum donations...
This forum is paid for via donations. No person is required to make a donation. Donations are voluntary. There is no forum benefit / unlocked forum that comes from a donation. The benefit is self knowledge & satisfaction of maintaining something that is of value to you. There is no requirement to be a member to make a donation (non-members do occasionally send in a donation). As of January 2016 the monthly donation goal is $60.00.
Donations are typically processed electronically via the "Donations Bar" which utilizes PayPal. It is possible to send a donation to the forum via methods other than PayPal*. Donations may be sent to the forum at any time, though, donations are typically processed via the Donations Bar which is typically turned on near the end of "mostly" every month. Donations in excess of the monthly goal are rolled forward to the next month(s).
The donations bar appears near the top of each page and looks like this:
A donation sent via the Donations Bar is somewhat manual. When the donation process is started, the Admin receives a PM that the process is started (someone clicked the donate button - if it is a logged in member, the member name is included, if it is via a not-logged-in session the IP address is included). The process is handed off to PayPal. When the donation is completed at PayPal.com a receipt message is sent from PayPal (the funds were transferred). At that point, the Admin manually acknowledges the donation as complete and the Donations Bar reflects the donation (and the donor receives a thank you message).
There are times where donations are sent but the Admin is unable to process the donation acknowledgements and donations in excess of the goal are received. In such times the excess is rolled forward to the next donation period(s). On a rare occasion a large donation, covering more than one month, is processed. Again, the excess is rolled forward. For the times when there is an excess of the donation goal the donations bar is not turned on the following period.
* To send a donation to the forum via a method other than PayPal, please send a Private Message (PM) to the Administrator or use the Contact Us function. Members might wish to read this post for additional contact options.