=][= 2026-2027 Annual B&C Fundraiser =][=

[Brother Tyler]

The Bolter and Chainsword needs you!

 

Since 1999, the Bolter and Chainsword has been providing Warhammer 40,000 hobbyists with a platform for understanding and enjoying the hobby and for engaging with hobbyists around the world.

 

The site is funded by donations. There are no paywalls to participate here: members don't pay any membership fees and members don't have to pay to unlock any features or access increased/improved capabilities. We don't have any advertising. What we have is generous members who are willing to donate funds to keep the site running.

 

Several years ago, we received a very sizeable donation from a member, and that donation was sufficient to support the site for quite some time. About half a year ago, that donation ran out and I have been paying for the site out of my own pocket. Canoness Tyler tells me that's no longer an option, however, so we're returning to our donation model.

 

What do your donations pay for?

• Monthly hosting fees
• Semiannual licensing fees
• Themes (skins) and associated imagery
• Emergency maintenance

We also like to keep some money in reserve to cover emergency maintenance since that might require professional help, replacement servers, etc. It's difficult to predict what that might cost, so we aim for a cushion (operational reserve) of at least $500 (and $1,000 is a much better target).

 

In addition, we try to collect a little money every year to save up for periodic server upgrades/migrations and software upgrades, the latter of which includes licensing fees. This amounts to about $300 per year, which should accumulate over a 3-5 year period to cover these costs.

 

Everyone who works here (administrators, moderators, etc.) does so on a completely voluntary basis - no one is paid for the work that they perform here day in and day out. Your donations don't go into anyone's pocket, not even mine. I manage the funds (and pay taxes on them - part of my monetary contribution to the site), but all funds collected belong to the site/community.

 

If we're ever able to collect more money than is necessary to cover our fixed fees, the operational reserve, and the migration/upgrade fund, that money might be used for contest prizes or to commission special themes/imagery for the site. Alternatively, it will roll over for the next year. That money never goes into anyone's pocket.

 

Our goal is to collect $2,500 USD by the end of June, 2026. This will cover all of our fixed fees for the year. We are planning to upgrade/migrate our servers and update the software to Invision 5.0 soon, so our target this year is a little higher than we expect it to be in subsequent years.

 

What do you get in return?

 

Aside from the satisfaction of knowing that you're contributing to keep the best site on the Internet for the Warhammer 40,000 hobby up and running, you'll receive a supporter badge for 2026:

 

 

Anonymous donations are allowed, too, as are donations from non-members. In those cases, the supporter badge will not be awarded.

 

Okay, you also get:

• Articles - a way to present useful hobby content for other hobbyists to view, and to view similar content published by other hobbyists
• Blogs - a way to share and organize your hobby-related content in a way that you can control and access far more easily than the Forums, and to engage with other members about the hobby-related content that they share
• Downloads - a way to share your hobby-related files with other hobbyists and to download files shared by other hobbyists
• Events - a way to remain aware of, and to make others aware of, hobby-related events via our calendar
• Forums - a way to engage in discussion with hobbyists from around the world
• Gallery - a way to host your hobby-related images for sharing with other hobbyists (and a way to see other hobbyists' images)
• Clubs - a way to customize all of the above into your own little niche, engaging with other hobbyists on areas of special interest

And all of the above is freely available to everyone.

 

How can you donate?

 

The easiest way to donate is via PayPal. You can make a one-time donation or you can set up a recurring donation. If you make a recurring donation, please let me know so I can forecast our monthly totals. Whether you choose to make your donation one-time or recurring, make sure to mark your donation as a gift. If you're a member and you're logged in, look for the Donate sidebar widget on the main Forums page. If you're not a member and desire to donate via PayPal, you can send your [gift] donation to .

 

If you prefer Venmo, you can submit your donation to: bolter-and-chainsword

 

If you prefer to use some method other than PayPal, contact me at the email address above and we'll work something out.

 

If you desire for your donation to be anonymous, please send me a PM after you make the donation so that I know to not award the supporter badge. Be sure to include the email address or name used for the donation.

 

We'll keep track of the donations that we receive and will provide regular updates. These will occur via the color-coded announcement that will appear at the top of the forum as well as via a reply in this discussion. In addition, members using the dark theme will see a fundraising banner in the rotation and that will provide both the total amount of funds raised on the right side and a green bar that will stretch across the bottom to show the percentage we've reached.

 

If we're not able to reach our funding goal via donations, we'll either have to look into advertising or the site will have to shut down (and if the latter happens, we'll refund all donors, minus PayPal/financial management fees).

Edited May 6 by Brother Tyler
Added Venmo

[Nicholas_the_Renegade]

What's your average monthly users? 

[Brother Tyler]

2 hours ago, Nicholas_the_Renegade said:

What's your average monthly users? 

 

This isn't an answer to your exact question because I'm still working the numbers, but I'll get to your question. Note that the system only provides data for the last six months, so I have November 1, 2025 through May 1, 2025 (though I'm not including the May data).

 

We had 850 unique members log in during the month of April. This is anomalous as other months (November through April) range from 95 (December) to 182 (March). I suspect the increased presence of members is due to the rumors about WH40K 11th edition, but there are probably a few other topics that have piqued members' interests, compelling them to log in and participate (e.g., big event previews and the like).

 

The system takes snapshots of presence throughout the day, typically 96-98 times, showing both logged in members and guests (which might be members who aren't logged in or unregistered viewers). During April, at any one time we had an average of 40 members logged in and 291 guests viewing the site. The number of members logged in at one time ranged from 32 to 48. The number of guests viewing the site at one time ranged from 196 to 405. Note that the snapshots aren't identified by particular times, but the higher numbers (in each rating) tended to be in the earlier samples and the lower numbers tended to be in the later samples. I assume the first sample is the first sample of the day, the last sample is the last sample of the day, and the others are shown in sequence since neither is arranged from highest to lowest or lowest to highest (i.e., the numbers increase and decrease from sample to sample).

[Brother Tyler]

I'll be heading out early Saturday morning, not returning until some time on Sunday (yes, I have a life outside the B&C ), so here's our update for the first day.

 

First, the banner this morning showed us at $45.60 USD. There were two donations that I hadn't counted, however, because I didn't receive the emails that I normally receive, so our total should have been $50.80 (adjusting for conversion rates), or just above the 2% mark.

 

Many generous members have donated on the first day, bringing our total to $512.80, or slightly over the 20% mark. A huge "thank you" to each of those members.

 

The next update will be sometime Sunday or early Monday.

[Nicholas_the_Renegade]

Ah. It's a pleasure to meet another who is particular about data. 

 

Welp. If you send me the details for the bank account you use for the site I'll set up a recurring fortnightly transfer of $5 to chip in, and I'll leave it going for the rest of the year. 

[Brother Tyler]

Today's update:

 

We had one member donate over the weekend, bringing our current total to $527.80, or just over 21% of our goal.

 

And here's a chart giving a brief answer to the question posed previously:

 

 

The system takes 96-98 snapshots each day, recording the number of guests (non-members and members who aren't logged in) and [logged in] members viewing the site at each point in time. I took the average for each day, so the low and the high represent the lowest/highest averages, not the actual lowest/highest number of members/guests at each point in time. A quick skimming of the data shows member lows generally in the teens, with highs above 60 and occasionally jumping above 100. I'm not sure where I got 850 unique members for April in my earlier post - I probably failed to update the start date when entering the data parameters so that number covered a longer period than I thought. The current number of 453 seems a lot less anomalous, though it's still clearly an outlier. If you ignore the low/high numbers for unique members each month, the average comes out to 135, which seems a lot more accurate. Realistically, the number of actual users viewing the site each month is probably slightly higher than that since some members don't log in unless they need to, being content to view content without submitting their own, reacting to other members' content, or commenting on other members' content. That number is represented by some unknown quantity of "guests" each month.

 

We have 52,900 members, but the vast majority of those are no longer active. If we had just 135 members each donate $20 USD (roughly £14.77, €17.10, or $27.89 AUD), we would meet (and slightly exceed) our target. Obviously, not everyone can afford to donate that amount, and many members can't afford to donate anything at all.

[Doghouse]

I'm going to try and donate at the end of the month.

 

Is June a hard deadline for the total needed? I'd gladly make largish donations over the next few months if it helps keep the lights on. 

[Brother Tyler]

Donations are accepted year-round. The June deadline is intended to facilitate forecasting for planning purposes.

[Brother Tyler]

Update: With a few more donations from generous members , we have now collected $559.80, or just over 22% of our goal.

[Brother Tyler]

With help from more generous members , we're now up to $699.80, just under 28% of our goal.

[Brother Tyler]

We now have Venmo!

 

bolter-and-chainsword

 

The Venmo account information has also been edited into the announcement post.

[Brother Tyler]

With the latest donations from generous members , we have now raised $749.80, just under 30% of our goal.

[Silas7]

I'll budget in some for the site

[Brother Tyler]

More generous member  donations have brought us up to $779.80, just over 31% of our goal.

[Brother Tyler]

Friday evening update since I'll be gone for the weekend and there won't be an update until late Sunday or early Monday - we have now raised $857.80 from our generous members , 34% of the way to our goal.

[Brother Tyler]

The latest donations from generous members  have put us at $1,057.80, just over 42% of our goal.

[Brother Tyler]

Thanks to generous members , we have now raised $1,082.80, over 43% of our goal.

[Brother Tyler]

Generous members have increased our total to $1,098.80, just under 44% of our goal.

[Emperor Ming]

Donated from UK

 

We should all be giving a little something right

 

Unless of course you want to use dakka dakka

[Brother Tyler]

Thanks to the generosity of our members , we have now raised $1,209.80, 48% of our goal.

[Doghouse]

On 5/1/2026 at 6:03 AM, Brother Tyler said:

or the site will have to shut down (and if the latter happens, we'll refund all donors, minus PayPal/financial management fees).

 

Just read this bit. 

 

I'll donate what I can in two weeks, no way we're letting that happen. 

[TheWarmaster]

I can’t find the donate button on mobile?

[Brother Tyler]

Try https://www.paypal.com/donate?token=UyEWEU27SZJ9HijIK_NhSuUzQxt_t2ryljRPVwircBfMFDhU72pI19zoxoG0ah5JY4F9iDoCCy67IVYT

[Brother Tyler]

Thanks to generous members , we have now raised $1,309.80 - 52% of our goal.

[Lord_Ikka]

Either my brain is fried or something is up with my settings but the Donation sidebar isn't showing for me...