What Happens to Your Money (Patreon)

You might be wondering what happens to the precious, hard-earned money you pledge each month to Dave Hakkens & Friends. As requested by our Patrons György Névery and Janine Vangool in a previous post, I will now try to explain in details our current financial situation and how we’re spending your money. Let us know in the comments if you think we could do better.

As previously mentioned we began the year with big plans and ideas to push Precious Plastic to the next level while becoming financially sustainable. The strategy was to do commercial work to cover running expenses and pay our team of 7 full times a minimum wage, which amounts to about 1600€ in The Netherlands where you can pay a simple latte up to 4€.

Patreon money under this scenario was gonna go entirely into funding R&D projects which tend to struggle to generate money and pay for themselves in the beginning. Plus, we thought it would be way more fun and exciting for our Patrons to see their money going into daring, innovative and sustainable ideas with the potentials to change the world. 

The original plan got scrapped due to CoronaVirus, even though we had already secured about 150.000€ worth of projects by March 2020. We had to pivot fast, as in the meanwhile we were also kicked out from our workspace. The new (temporary) plan is to use Patreon money to cover for expenses (hosting websites, moving workspace, electricity bills, renting van etc..) and pay our team a little salary, team which has been reduced to the bare minimum for the time being counting on Dave, Mattia, Katharina and Joseph (each of which takes care of essential tasks to run Precious Plastic and One Army Foundation). 

Want numbers? Here you go. To date (May 15th), Patreon is generating 2800€ (after conversion and fees). From this, we reserve 800€ for expenses and unforeseen and the rest is divided between the four of us. So yes, 500€ each. Which is about a third of minimum wage or what we planned to pay ourselves at the beginning of the year. But is also 500€ more than zero, and for this we’re super thankful to each and every one of you for believing in us and our work through the years. Our pockets are half empty, but our hearts are overflowing with your generosity. 

Let us know if you think we could do better or use your money in a different way. 

High five 🤙