Re-evaluating how we allocate funds for 2021

Owing to the changes in the project's financial situation and the advent of the global pandemic, we felt that it's time to reassess how we allocate funds raised by the project, and set out how we do so more clearly.

Up until now, any funds raised in excess of our standard monthly operating costs (now around $80/mo) have been saved up to ensure that we can continue operating well into the future, even in the event of interruption to funding.

As well as cushioning bursts in expenses (e.g, mid-month server upgrades to handle periods of high demand), these savings have been used to fund occasional one-time costs such as hardware & software purchases to further our reverse engineering and reimplementation efforts, as well as software licences for tools we use, and rarely, small amounts have been lent temporarily to our dev team members in times of severe difficulty to ensure that they are able to stay safe and continue contributing.

Since we now have enough buffer to operate at our current expense levels for at least 18 months in the event of a total loss of funding, we have decided to introduce a new model for allocating the money we raise.

Firstly, our direct operating expenses will be paid for, as always. This covers costs such as server hosting fees, including CDN/caching services and 'serverless' function usage; domain name registrations; SSL certificates from commercial CAs (where necessary); object storage costs; and other expenses incurred as a result of this.

- These costs are typically covered by around 20% of our income.

Secondly, we will allocate funding to pay for any physical perks we promise to our Patrons, such as the Kaeru stickers mentioned previously for Patrons on the $5 tier and up.

- We anticipate that these will take up a further 10 to 20% of income, on average, spread across a year.

Thirdly, we will reserve a minimum of 10% on average per year to cover unexpected / burst costs, and to cover any dips in funding (the 'rainy day fund'). The 10% figure here is an absolute minimum; in most cases we expect to be able to save more than this, though we'll review this figure from time to time and raise/lower it when necessary.

Finally, remaining funds (which we anticipate to be around half) will be made available to go towards:

- Paying for hardware and software purchases to enable us to carry out further development. This might include:

    - Hardware, such as test devices, parts and tools;

    - Software, such as games to analyse;

    - In particular, licences for paid tools which enable us to work more effectively, such as design software, debugging proxy software, and other reverse engineering tools.

- Emergency grants to team members and staff in times of difficulty, such as that caused by the pandemic, to help ensure that they are able to continue contributing to the project;

- Supporting essential open-source projects we depend on, and those of significance to the community (e.g Flipnote archival);

- 'Developer tips' to keep our dev team motivated and compensate them, at least a little, for the *huge* amount of work they put into the project, which is at least equivalent in effort to a part time job.

Any funds left over after this will be directed into the 'rainy day fund' mentioned previously.

We understand that with any change to how a project's funds are spent, some may be uncomfortable with this; of course, if for any reason you no longer wish to donate to Kaeru, you can cancel your Patreon pledge at any time. Additionally, if you have pledged within the last 7 days we are happy to refund your pledge, although we will be sorry to see you go.

Please do give us your feedback on these announcements, and let us know in particular if you have any ideas for where we should go next. :)

Wishing you all a happy new year!

Lauren @ Kaeru Team