I'm not a lawyer or accountant, so take this with a grain of salt. However, I have been treasurer and bookkeeper for a non-profit for a number of years. including preparing the Form 990 tax returns.

I think that the processing fees for a *donation* via Patreon would be an administrative expense to the organization of raising funds, but the total donation would be tax deductible for a donor. This is similar to fees paid when accepting credit cards or Paypal donations.

However, my understanding is payments via Patreon typically pay for additional content, receiving content earlier, the option to receive personal assistance, etc. In that case the Patreon payment is a purchase of services and not a contribution, so is not tax deductible by the payer and would have to be reported by the non-profit as either related or unrelated income to the IRS.

Not to be mean but you posted on Patreon twice in September and both posts were on the same day. Going a month between updates isn't going to drive memberships.

Also I'm disappointed in the response which is basically "this one group tried something for two months and it wasn't wildly successful therefore it must be a bad idea". The group is still getting $2k a year from Patreon when they only created 6 videos and 5 pictures. Raising money always takes work.

$2k a year from Patreon when they only created 6 videos and 5 pictures.

Bluntly, $2K is chump change. How many staff hours went into creation, editing and uploading.

Could somebody do better? Maybe, but are you a content creator or a preservation organization? Mission drift?

This is how Patreon describes itself:

Patreon is the best place for creators to build memberships by providing exclusive access to their work and a deeper connection with their communities.

The issue here is opportunity cost, i.e., what else could you have done with your time and effort?

You could make more than that with a bake sale or a raffle.

I guess museums shouldn’t have brochures then. Are you a preservation group or a brochure printer!?

Can’t create a website either.

Lock yourself in a box and don’t create any content if you want. Weird.

The title of the thread includes this phrase "a new source of funding".

Brochures are always booked under "advertising/marketing expense". All businesses need to advertise their existence and offerings. Nobody would say "Are brochures are a new source of revenue".

If you want to use Patreon as a response marketing channel to your youtube videos, that's fine, but isn't a "funding source" and there's no particular advantage to charities in having a "middleman" between them and their contributors.

A creator like British World War II historian Mark Felton might have some advantage in using Patreon for two principal reasons:

1.) Mission: he has a global reach and video content located in a searchable library that is his sole product (apart from his books). He can't put a "donate here" button on his videos, he's not operating a museum and isn't looking for people to visit a physical location or support a physical location or restoration.

2.) Cost: Without an electronic payment, there'd be a far more limited contribution base, and he'd have currency exchange costs and the administrative costs of collecting and negotiating checks from foreign banks.

My two cents: I think for some of us, Patreon wouldn’t work well and wouldn’t be worth the time invested. For some, yeah maybe so. Patreon is for hosting “creators” that make content on a regular basis appealing to certain audiences which are hopefully large enough to generate a net income through subscriptions. I could see “how-to” or similar videos posted on a regular basis appealing to a wider audience than only rail fans. Mindless run-bys? Not so much. The key is posting interesting things often on a regular basis. How often? Depends on how interesting the content is or maybe how long of a video you post. I’d take a shot at 10 to 20 minute videos once every week or two. I’d think once a month would be the absolute minimum given today’s attention spans. You also need to have a way to to preview, promote and drive people to your Patreon account so they’ll subscribe for $X a month. You have to make people want to subscribe. If no one knows it’s there, no one will subscribe. If the content isn’t interesting, no one will subscribe. Can it be a monster money maker? Probably not but at the minimum, you’ll raise awareness to what you do and hopefully cover your costs and put a few extra pennies in your pocket. If it doesn’t do that, then it becomes a why-bother.