In the interest of transparency, the Wildfire Games team would like to report on the finances of the project as of 2014-04-21.
0 A.D. has funds in three places: (1) Funds earmarked for the project and held in trust by US-based non-profit organization Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (hereafter “SPI”); (2) A private account in the US, under the name of former project leader, Jason Bishop (Wijitmaker). This account is a legacy of the time before we became affiliated with SPI; (3) Flattr, a Sweden-based microdonation provider.
SPI Earmark for 0 A.D.
As of 2014-04-21, the 0 A.D. earmark is USD 34,272.78.
We had intended to start using these funds to pay a programmer to develop 0 A.D., but unfortunately, he has parted ways with Wildfire Games several months ago, and we wish him all the best.
We are now planning to use the funds to pay other programmers, who may already be contributing to the project voluntarily, to work more intensively on core features and on improving the game’s performance, so that the game won’t lag so much.
Part of these funds are planned to go towards buying the perks we promised our donors. We will be distributing surveys to our donors shortly to make sure which perks they want. Then we will budget accordingly.
We know donors have been waiting for their perks for a long time. We sincerely apologize for the long delay in perk fulfillment.
Other Accounts & Total
In our “legacy” US bank account, we have USD 383.54.
On Flattr, we have EUR 430.82 available, which are approximately USD 595.13.
In total, we have USD 35,251.45 in all three accounts.
Concluding Remarks
A monthly report of funds held by SPI in trust for 0 A.D. is also available on the SPI website under “approved minutes of past meetings“. Currently, the latest report available on the SPI website is from November 30, 2013. We have obtained updated data from SPI through personal correspondence with its treasurer, Michael Schultheiss.
The 0 A.D. project finances are managed by the Treasury Committee: Erik (“feneur”), Adarash (“MishFTW”) and Aviv (“Jeru”). We welcome your comments on the forums.