After over three years of funding UTW essentially out of our own pockets, I’ve made the difficult decision of opening monthly donations.
Those of you who’ve hung around here for a while will probably remember this call for help over a year ago. Since then, I’ve focused on cutting costs (the generosity of the distro team in particular for providing their services without asking for a cent in return has allowed me to make some very substantial cuts), and I’ve been paying roughly $100 USD a month since last year.
The various DDL services we experimented with since early 2012 only made us a few dollars a month, and I never did manage to find another effective way of raising money, so I was forced to cover the costs of running UTW out of my own pocket. This was perfectly fine and well until I resigned from my job in July last year to attend medical school. Since then, I’ve been paying the $100 a month from my own savings despite having zero income. Though this was clearly unsustainable, I persevered for almost a year, as I strongly felt (and still do feel) that our subbing operations ought to be motivated by our love of anime and the desire to produce the best work that we possibly could.
Of course, there’s no keeping up with such expenses when no money is coming in, and I realized that I had to somehow monetize our operations if everything was going to keep running like it always had. You may have noticed the ads that I was experimenting with these past few days, but not only did they prove to be an absolute nuisance to you all, the revenue they generated was negligible compared to the trouble they caused. As such, I have removed them all and made the difficult decision of turning to you, our dear supporters, for help.
Please do consider donating to us if you’ve ever felt appreciative of our work and wish to directly help us out. I’m hoping to raise $100 USD a month, just enough to cover our costs, but any extra money we receive will be set aside for the following month or be used to buy the various services, equipment and goods that we need in order to keep churning out our releases. Thank you very, very much for contributing!
rofl, I was actually happy when i read that post… Because my credit card was going to run out and since you’re my favorite fansubs, I was kinda disappointed that I couldn’t donate. Until I found out that you can’t use CC with Paypal if you still have funds. Enuff said, I was just happy and donated a lucky number. See you around.
If my comment says 10:39, it might actually be possible that I was the first to donate xD
Will happily donate =D
Keep up the good work guys.
Boom.
Just keep doing what you guys do and we’ll worry about July when we get there. It’s a small price to pay for everything I’ve received for nothing all this time.
Cheers!
I just sent you my humble participation, as a thank you for the awesome free work you did for your dedicated work on fansubbing :
– EVANGELION REBUILD BD,
– FATE ZERO BD
– the ongoing TV series SUISEI NO GARGANTIA, by hoping you’ll have enough resources for subbing the BD release.
I hope this list will serve as a small reminder for other people like me who could not enjoy some cult series of the modern anime without your help.
You guys are amazing. Donations were open for less than an hour and I already have enough money to technically pay for this month, June and July.
I’ve closed donations as I wouldn’t know what to do with the money if I received any more. I’ll probably reopen them in July or August depending on the costs. Perhaps we could even expand our operations!
Thank you, everyone who donated. It’s difficult to express how humbled and grateful I am of your generosity.
There!
You didn’t let me donate last time, so I’m donating now!
I do so, because I appreciate your work, the quality of your work, the fast releases, and ’cause your awesome!
Put the money to good use
Before I even noticed the post, Donations shut hahaha. Will definitely try and donate next time, guess it’ll be a race to see who notices the button first eh?
absolutely. how do i setup a monthly? (like $3 a month or something?)
I’m glad to see you in surgical gown my colleague
and I just want to say thank you, your team and all your hardwork
That’s all.
Ah, donations are closed already… I’ll just have to wait ’til next time.
Thanks for all your work.
Donations closed… I’ll donate the next time đ After all you’re one of my favorite fansub group.
Damn, closed already? I was gonna donate $100 as a big thanks for the pass three years of bringing majestic quality subs. O well.
Why not use extra to get BDs so you don’t have to rely on rips from people who were jailed? I’ve seen other groups do that.
Damn so fast the donations close LOL
I’ve been following Raze, Nikon, and Jacob since the days beginning of Fakku, and not once, but TWICE I miss the opportunity to toss money at you for doing what we love[subbing], curses!! You should just open up a Ramen fund or something, I’ll happily treat you out to something nice for what you’ve done for all of us.
Quality on a pedestal above the rest. YOU guys are amazing.
As we pray, thank you for UNLIMITED TRANSLATION WORKS!
You need only speak, and you shall receive.
Why you closed donations co fast? I went to school a few hours ago and I didn’t saw this annoucement. I’m back form school and donations already closed…
OK I’ll try next time đ
And I’m sorry for my bad English but I’m practising it on your relases đ
I’m amazed that you funded this yourself (and $100 per month is a significant amount), but I’m even more amazed to hear that you (Raze) were still subbing during the first year of medical school. That’s really impressive. UTW has become one of my favorite fansubbing groups, but please be careful during your second year. I agree with the general sentiment among students that the first year is worse than the second (largely because there’s a lot of adjustment involved, but also because building the foundation for knowledge is more difficult than building upward), but Step 1 is a beast. Best of luck.
I suggest you re-open donations, it probably is easier to get people to donate now while you have their attention rather than periodically annoying people with a ‘please donate’ post…
You could just set aside the money for a year of hosting…
I agree with Madox. It’s better to have the donations opened now, as the overall impact of your plea is great. You could as well make enough to run for another half a year, I’ll gladly donate too đ
Oh, dear.. Just read the post and tried to donate some quids, but found it was closed. Please re-open it whenever needed.
Damn, I was going to donate. I’ve never donated to any fansub groups before, but in this scenario, I would’ve gladly opened my wallet because, well, of the OUTSTANDING work that you’ve provided.
Please reopen again before I spend that money on anime figures T _ T
Once again, thank you guys for all the support. I feel kinda silly now for having resisted asking for donations for so long!
Below are three of the reasons why I decided to close donations so quickly:
1) We’ve already raised way more money than targeted, and receiving any more would be greedy of us. I want you guys to know that you can trust us and that your money will be properly spent.
2) Leaving donations up increases the risk of someone reporting the donation account, which could result in it being closed (probably with all your donations in it, too).
3) PP has a monthly withdrawal limit of $500 a month, so even if I wanted to receive money to pay for the rest of 2013, I wouldn’t be able to. Leaving the money in the PP account would be a pretty bad idea too, in case they randomly decide to close it or something.
Sorry if you didn’t get the chance to donate, but having seen your generosity and enthusiasm to help, I have no doubts that I can count on you all again in July. đ
BTW, I did have one request. A small one at that.
Can you please group up the images that show at the end of the episodes (Suissei no Gargantia ie,), and release them with the batches?
Dunno if it’s any hassle for you, I was thinking it like a bonus for us. But if it’s too much work, I’d rather have your great quality releases =)
Dude you practially payed 1200 bucks out of your own pocket, its fine to ask for some money in return to keep the group going, especially if people know what bang they get for their buck.
Send me an email with your paypal account email/name so i can donate in private, if the donation cycles are only open one hour every 3 month i would never get a chance to do so^^
Greetz (‘-‘)/
Haha, damn too slow. Agree with others, I had friends in medical school and keeping up with expenses on top of subbing while doing that is impressive. Imports aren’t nothing either. Regarding 3), yeah definitely don’t leave money in a PP account, I’d be careful about what bank account you link it to as well (I made a throwaway free savings account and I don’t leave money in that either). PP probably works fine for your scale, but don’t forget there are other donation methods out there as well if they ever drop the hammer as they are wont to.
We all appreciate what you do. Looking forward to next season!
I have a request. Next time please keep donations open for 24 hours, so everyone gets a chance to donate!
If you get ”too much” money, that just means you can go longer before opening donations again.
Meh, read the post, wanted to donate, but donations already closed. Guess I will have to wait until the next time you open the donations, your stuff is definitely worth it.
This is one of the few things I would donate to for sure. I’m usually quite tight with my money. However, ninja time windows for donating don’t exactly let me get around to it.
In a way, donation time periods are way better because with so many people willing to donate, getting to donate is like an honor. Plus, we don’t have constant donation window things hanging around the page and being annoying.
$312 so fast and donations closed .___. guess i will have to wait for next time to donate, to them who did manage to donate thanks from the community as well as the subbers đ
Whoa, donations closed already. Guess i’ll wait until July to donate! Glad people are supporting you guys. Also, a unrelated question, but hopefully I might get an answer.. I’ve been holding off watching anohana until a batch has been made with the fixes.. I’ve read the update on the right side regarding anohana.. are there any further updates or should I just download the UTW version that is on this site right now. Thanks!
This is actually pretty great, just a few weeks ago i was thinking to myself “it sucks there’s no Donate button for UTW” as i love you guys’ work and would happily donate to you.
Change that “would donate” to “am donating” đ
…oooorr not, didn’t see the closed bit, till next month then! I may actually make it a monthly thing, i’m not subscribed to any MMO’s right now anyway, so got a bit to spare each month for you guys <3
Eeh, closed already? I also wanted to contribute something. :< Love you guys for your hard work and admirable dedication to your fans and anime in general so I'll make sure to donate once it open again!
Paying $100 monthly out of your own pocket? And still apologizing for delays every single time? You're a fucking saint, Raze.
I agree with WW.T: to start with a 24h donations window sounds reasonable
My body was *so* ready. ^^
Sorry I didn’t get a chance to donate, but I’m so glad that you’ve got enough!
The amount of work you put into the work you do – never feel guilty asking for donations.
I’m a new convert of Unlimited Transation Works – and after grabbing Evangelion and Suisei, and a couple of others I’d have been more than happy to donate!
Another time, and thank you again for all your hard work!
I love when things like this happen. Services offered for free, where everyone looking on assumes that the users are greedy and selfish… yet when funds are low, there’s no shortage of people wanting to help. You guys are all awesome. I didn’t see this in time to donate, but thanks for saving my favorite fansub group ever.
Nice. Some groups have problems raising $100 in a month.
You raised $300 in less than 1 hour.
That’s uTW for you đ
This shows how much we appreciate your work.
Ask and you shall receive. You guys are worth giving some money to keep going. Congrats on the quick show of support!
Crap, just noticed the thread and donations are already closed. Well, if you re-open them I’ll be sure to donate then. Please, don’t be embarrassed to ask for donations; we all know and appreciate the work UTW puts in to give us leeches our anime fix; it’s only fair to ask for even a little in return.
Fuckkkk the donation van already left. UTW, I fucking appreciation everything you’ve done for these past three years. Consider me to be among the first when donations are re-opened. Fantastic job as always.
haha. u guys got owned. first come, first served đ
Will donate if there is a next time. Feel free to ask anytime.
You guys are such amazing people. Thank you for all your work and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do. If the donation opens up again I will make sure to put in what I can!
Hey guys, now that you are with us for the next 3 months, when do you think the ghibli short could be ready?
if you need money just call us, we are a forgetfull people, but we LOVE your work
Wow! I just noticed this post and it’s already outdated.
I’ve donated last time and I missed this.
Feel free to ask for help again. It’s okay to see this kind of post every 2-3 months.
Keep it up! đ
Pretty much the same as everybody else who posted after donations got closed. You guys do such good, professional work that a lot of people trust you with money đ
If anything, I saw keep the donations open until $500 next time, and use some of it to get those stupid expensive Japan Blu-Rays. I know my Fate/Zero set by itself cost about that much.
PS: Plzplzplzplzplz sub the upcoming Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya! I’m sure you guys are going to already, but just in case, plzplzplzplzplz đ
this reminds me of the donation rush in Bakabt, with donations of a day easily covering a period of several months. the only difference is that this is primarily altruistic đ
GIVE ME NEKO BLURAY NOW, THEN WE CAN TALK
one fundraiser with my pals you’ll never need another cent
was about to get my visa when i saw that donation are closed already. :C i guess we just have to wait for the next opportunity to give our thanks back. you guys are the best!.
I’ve followed you guys since your release of Summer Wars and Angel Beats and you’ve always put out top notch quality and content, of course I would be more then willing to donate. You guys are my favorite fansub group out there.
>B|
I demand that donations be opened once more. I just got my latest paycheck, and I just found this post right now. All the demanding.
lol im too poor to donate right now, but you guys obviously have an awesome fan base (me excluded) donations were opened for less then 2 days and the money came in so fast u had to close donations lol… Now If the rest of the world, or even all of the pretend christians would donate money at a similar rate world hunger would be over in a flash lol.
^ You mean less than one hour.
Oh really? wow, i didnt realize there were so many comments, so i just looked at the date on the top one on this page and assumed… thats pretty crazy
was reading the post thinking yeah I can give’em 5-10 $ get to the end and see that you guys have closed the donations at this time. I guess I have to be quick to give you my money when you open donations up again. For me donating a few dollars a month to you all is something I want to do with all you do for us every week. keep up the great work and keep making me want to support you guys.
damnit. Just saw this today and I wanted to donate T_T
If there’s any deserving fansub to receive donation, that’s you UTW
I never made any donation to any fansub or scanlation before, and decided to make you guys the first one. Just to find the donation was already closed.
chill out man, I believe many people were already dead set on giving a donation to you guys for a long time, So just open the donation again so we can also cover for the 2nd 3rd 4th month too. Maybe can rach more than that.
heck, I dont even care if you guys want to use a bit of it as your own pocket money. The releases you guys made really made our day better.
“heck, I dont even care if you guys want to use a bit of it as your own pocket money. The releases you guys made really made our day better.” – lenyekpenyek
^ What this guy said…
in fact where do i go to throw you general donations? is there any particular equipment/software you have your eyes on at the moment? ive registered feel free to throw me an email if i can throw you money in any other way to the currently disabled donation button đ
I’m following you guys since when you just started, and also had the honor of sharing my blu ray raws with you guys ( b gata h kei ) ofcoure i’ll help utw out and donate some ! though its closed now i geuss it can wait until next month ^^
Hell We Love ur Job, im srry I just saw this late…
Hope I can help next time this opens so i may send u some pesos from mexico (lols) (well like 20-30 dollars for the love of ur job guys)
aww donations closed…..:( guess theirs always next time
I hope you’ve learnt how readily donations are available and won’t put any ads on your site ever again.
You guys really deserve these donations; very few groups can match your quality. Hell, take some to pay back your own savings investment; you earned it.
Still, I’ve been wondering for a long time how fansub groups cost so much; everybody puts out these huge $100/month estimates and I’ve always wondered what the breakdown was. Where’s the money going? How much does hosting cost, how much does distro cost, how much do raws cost, etc.
You may also consider to accept bitcoin in next donation.
Yo I think her name is Brenda no Frenda
I wouldn’t have minded, personally, if you had done a combination of ads, download stuff (I always used torrents, but there are ways to monetize those also), and donations.
Pretty impressive how grateful the community is ^_^
Open up the god damn donations….. I just received my pay and got home from a trip when I saw this post (and the closed donations button -.-)
Idem dito. unable to donate because its closed.
To i am interested as to what your currently using to warent $100 a month. (just curious)
How about you kids actually google how much Blu-ray costs in Japan instead of asking for no good reason. He has to host IRC, and of course this site which probably gets a ton of traffic when you weeaboos flock here going whereismyanimu!!!?!!?
Turds.
Send me an email, I’ll gladly match what has been donated so far.
idiotsthesedays , people seem to be asking more out of curiosity
but yeah… to anyone asking The bandwidth required for a popular site like this, plus reg fees plus if they purchase everything they sub would amount to a lot…
I run a server (which i wouldnt be surprised if they do on here for file storage and better download stability of links) and that can come to $60 minimum if you have optional extras like backups or additional domains
Also UTW people… if im understanding this correctly you are aware that if you contact me and idiotsthesedays youre looking at the next 6 months paid for too right?… and thats just from two people… based on what im seeing here you could probably have your savings back in a very short time ^.^
I have been following you forever, and have absolutey zero problem with donating to you guys to help cover costs. I donated during that 2012 time as well. I love your work, appreciate your time, and hope you keep going.
Please send out notices when donations are open again, and I will gladly donate.
Count me in monthly. I’ve been following you guys for a long time; there’s no better fansub out there.
I suggest you make a post like this monthly, as you open donations; so we’ll get notified.
Im actually surprised at the comments above me .I never expected that there are still a lot of grateful people on this planet .And just like someone said, “If everyone is like that, world hunger would be solved in a flash”
I hope I’ll be here when when the donations button is available again . And thanks for all the hard work .
Pingback: Donation Drive | Unlimited Translation Works
Just glad I made it in time to donate, the previous times it was always closed before I got a chance to. Thanks for the work.