irs program accomplishments · form 990 part iii · fy2024
What they reported doing
- #1 primary $18KIN 2024, FANLORE SAW OVER 5,000 NEW PAGES AND OVER 163,000 EDITS MADE, BRINGING IT TO 72,936 TOTAL PAGES, WHICH HAVE BEEN EDITED 1,531,996 TIMES SINCE ITS FOUNDING. 2024 ALSO BROUGHT THE CREATION OF 21,496 NEW USER ACCOUNTS. WITH HELP FROM SYSTEMS, FANLORE WAS UPGRADED TO MEDIAWIKI 1.39, WHICH INCLUDED STABILITY IMPROVEMENTS, CODE TWEAKS, AND BUG FIXES.THE COMMITTEE CELEBRATED AND AWARDED BADGES FOR THEIR ANNUAL IFD CHALLENGE, BINGO CHALLENGE, AND STUB SEPTEMBER CHALLENGE. FANLORE ALSO PARTNERED WITH COMMUNICATIONS' FANHACKERS TO RUN AN EXCITING FANDOM FRIENDSHIPS CHALLENGE, INSPIRED BY FANHACKER'S ZINE OF THE SAME THEME. THIS FANLORE CHALLENGE ENCOURAGED USERS TO BROADEN THEIR FANNISH HORIZONS BY COMPLETING SIX EDITS TO A WIDE RANGE OF FANLORE ARTICLE TYPES, ALL IN THE THEME OF FANDOM FRIENDSHIP.
- #2 $5KTRANSFORMATIVE WORKS AND CULTURES RELEASED THREE ISSUES IN 2024: NO. 42, A SPECIAL ISSUE ON "FANDOMS AND PLATFORMS," IN MARCH; NO. 43, A GENERAL ISSUE, IN SEPTEMBER; AND NO. 44, A SPECIAL ISSUE ON "CENTERING BLACKNESS IN FAN STUDIES," IN DECEMBER. ALL THREE ISSUES WERE RELEASED ON SCHEDULE - CONTINUING TWC'S PUBLICATION RECORD SINCE THE JOURNAL'S FOUNDING.
named programs · 6 · from sources
What they call their work
Archive of Our Own (AO3)
Online repository preserving fanfiction and other fanworks, providing free access and long-term storage for user-submitted content.
Fanlore
Wiki platform documenting the history, practices, and culture of fan communities, maintained by volunteer editors and contributors.
Open Doors
Project to rescue and preserve at-risk fan sites by importing their content into AO3, supported by technical volunteers.
Tag Wrangling
Volunteer team organizing and standardizing tags on AO3 to improve searchability and categorization of fanworks.
Transformative Works and Cultures
Peer-reviewed academic journal publishing research on fanworks and fan cultures, including special issues on topics like platforms and Blackness in fandom.
Translation
Committee translating OTW materials and communications into multiple languages to increase global accessibility.
activities · 6 groups
What they do
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LGBTQ+ Community Events and Celebrations 1 activity
- Organizing public engagement and celebration eventsOrganizes public events and online activities to celebrate milestones and promote participation, including themed bingo, special site skins for AO3, the annual International Fanworks Day, and the Fandom Friendships Challenge co-hosted with Communications' Fanhackers.
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Archival Digitization and Preservation 1 activity
- Preserving at-risk fanworks through Open DoorsPreserves endangered fan-created content by rescuing and archiving at-risk fan sites and fanzines, including database-driven archives and hand-coded HTML sites over twenty years old, through the Open Doors initiative.
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Free Expression Defense & Advocacy 1 activity
- Providing legal advocacy for fanworksProvides legal defense and advocacy to protect transformative fanworks from commercial exploitation and legal threats, educates fans about legal developments affecting fandom, and participates in coalition efforts such as opposing the NO FAKES Act of 2026 due to concerns about misuse of takedown systems.
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Literary and Cultural Publishing 1 activity
- Publishing Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) journalProduces and publishes Transformative Works and Cultures, an international, peer-reviewed academic journal focused on transformative works and fan communities, releasing three issues annually including special editions on topics such as "Fandoms and Platforms" and "Centering Blackness in Fan Studies."
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Language Access Services 1 activity
- Supporting multilingual access through translationTranslates organizational content—including site pages, news posts, FAQs, and support emails—from English into multiple languages to increase global accessibility, coordinated through a volunteer team of over 200 members.
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Uncategorized 3 activities
- Enhancing tagging and metadata systems on AO3Improves browsing and search functionality on the Archive of Our Own by organizing and standardizing tags, including adjusting canonical “No Fandom” tags to enhance consistency and usability for users.
- Operating Fanlore wikiOperates Fanlore, a wiki dedicated to documenting and preserving the history of fanworks and fan communities, with 100% uptime over the past 90 days. In 2024, added over 5,000 new pages and 163,000 edits, created 21,496 new user accounts, and upgraded to MediaWiki 1.39 for improved stability and functionality.
- Operating the Archive of Our Own (AO3)Operates the Archive of Our Own (AO3), a non-profit, non-commercial platform hosting over 18 million transformative fanworks across multiple media types, built on open-source software developed and maintained by the organization. Ensures 100% platform uptime and provides technical support, abuse reporting, and incident resolution for users.
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financials · form 990 · fy2024
revenue
Total revenue$877K
Contributions & grants$877K100%
Program service revenue$00%
Investment income$2130%
Other revenue$104
expenses
Total expenses$599K
Program expenses54%
Admin / overhead22%
Fundraising23%
Salaries & benefits$0
Grants paid out$0
Largest expense lineFacilities
balance sheet
Total assets$3.75M
Cash$3.48M
Investments$0
Liabilities$19K
Net assets$3.73M
Liquid reserves69.8 mo
4 years on record · 2020–2024 · YoY revenue -10.4%
leadership · form 990 part vii · fy2024
Who runs it
board members · 7
- ANH PHAM — PRESIDENT
- ERICA FRANK — BOARD MEMBER
- JENNIFER HAYNES — BOARD MEMBER
- KATHERYN SODERHOLM — VICE PRESIDENT
- QIAO CHU — SECRETARY
- RACHEL LINTON — BOARD MEMBER
- ZIXIN ZHANG — BOARD MEMBER
relationships · 18
Who they work with
- AO3 Network — Primary platform operated by the OTW for hosting fanworks.
- Archive of Our Own Network — Core project and platform operated by the Organization for Transformative Works to host fanworks.
- Archive of Our Own Network — Operated by the OTW as a core project for hosting fanworks.
- Archive of Our Own Network — Primary platform operated by the OTW for hosting and organizing fanworks.
- Archive of Our Own Partner — Primary fanwork archive platform operated by the OTW.
- Archive of Our Own Partner — Project operated by OTW to host and archive transformative fanworks.
- Center for Democracy & Technology Partner — Collaborated with CDT in a coalition letter opposing the NO FAKES Act of 2026.
- Communications' Fanhackers Partner — Partnered to co-host the Fandom Friendships Challenge on Fanlore.
- Fanlore Network — Fandom wiki project run by the Organization for Transformative Works to document fan culture history.
- Fanlore Network — Operated by the OTW as a wiki for preserving fan culture history.
- Fanlore Partner — Fan-created wiki for documenting fan culture, operated by the OTW.
- Fanlore Partner — Project operated by OTW to document and preserve the history of fanworks and fan culture via a wiki.
- GitHub Partner — Hosts the open-source code for the Archive of Our Own (AO3) to enable public contribution and collaboration.
- GitHub Partner — Platform used to host AO3's codebase for public contribution.
- Transformative Works and Cultures Network — Peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works focusing on fanworks and communities.
- Transformative Works and Cultures Network — Published by the OTW as a peer-reviewed academic journal on fanworks and communities.
- Transformative Works and Cultures Partner — Academic journal operated by OTW to publish peer-reviewed research on transformative works and fan communities.
- Transformative Works and Cultures Partner — Peer-reviewed academic journal published by the OTW to study transformative works and fan cultures.
strategies · 4
How they approach the work
Named approaches extracted from this org’s sources. Where others share an approach, follow it to see the full set of orgs running it.
- Community-Owned Preservation Modelmethodology: community_stewardshipBy operating as a fan-run, donation-funded organization, the org ensures community ownership and control over fanworks, which in turn sustains long-term preservation because fans are both stewards and beneficiaries of the cultural heritage being protected.
- Digital Preservation Rescue and Migrationmethodology: digital_preservation_rescueBy actively identifying and migrating vulnerable fan content into stable archival systems, the org prevents irreversible loss of fan cultural heritage, because centralized, technically sound repositories ensure durability and future access that decentralized or obsolete platforms cannot provide.
- Fan Empowerment Through Infrastructure Ownershipmethodology: fan_empowermentBy building and maintaining fan-centered digital platforms like AO3, the org empowers fans with ownership and control of their creative works, which increases engagement and ensures preservation because creators are more likely to contribute and sustain systems they trust and govern.
- Open and Collaborative Technical Stewardshipmethodology: open_source_collaborationBy using open-source development and standardized tagging, the org enables broad community participation in platform maintenance and content discoverability, which enhances system resilience and long-term accessibility because improvements and metadata curation are distributed across skilled volunteers.