I ran a content forum and blog that needed $6k at cost back in pre vps days and raised it several years in a row off community donations. I refused to show ads

I ran a content forum and blog that needed $6k at cost back in pre vps days and raised it several years in a row off community donations. I refused to show ads because they were all ticket brokers / scalpers. It is actually kind of a pain and takes work to raise money this way. For me, I had to do a personal appeal, email drips, and I even added membership status indicators to usernames and gave access to “exclusive” content. It did work though with the thermometer thingy and some pluck.