Fundraising

If you'd still like to help with data analysis costs, you can donate directly via our bank account. This has the advantage that we are not charged administration fees by JustGiving, and also we are not taxed on the donations as our income is below the tax threshold. As we're not a charity, Justgiving donations are treated as earnings of the person who sets up the fundraiser and are subject to tax at their marginal rate. However, funds paid directly into our account can be offset against costs.

If you're interested in donating via our bank account please contact markmcintyre99 at googlemail.com for further details.

What do we spend the money on?

Each day we collect data from over 200 cameras, often receiving tens of thousands of events. Processing all this data uses a lot of compute - up to 480 cores and 500GB memory sometimes! - and even though we're using efficient "serverless" cloud computing, it can cost a much as £2500 per year just for data processing and storage. We are continually looking to reduce this cost, but at the same time we're gaining new cameras, so its a constant battle! Additionally, groups.io costs us $220 per year and is likely to increase due to growth in membership. Going forward, we're also keen to do more outreach and public engagement, which will mean spending money.
You can see a breakdown of our AWS costs here and regular financial reports are available on the Society page.