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FUNDING FAQ

Where does Erowid's funding come from?
About 50% of our funding has come through a yearly grant from the Pro-Mind Foundation. Another 40% comes from small donations and membership dues. The last 10% is made up of referral fees for sales of books linked to from Erowid, licensing fees from organizations or publications who use Erowid images, and consulting fees for work that Erowid does with other organizations.

Why does Erowid need money to operate?
The upkeep and development of Erowid is a 3+ person job. Funding is primarily needed to support the person hours necessary to continue adding to and maintaining the site. Two full-time employees are an absolute minimum to keep the site relatively current and functioning. Happily, as of January 1998, we have been hosted by Hyperreal who has generously offered to host Erowid at no cost.

Why don't you put up banner ads?
With the number of hits Erowid gets we could probably make money off the site using the standard business model (banners, ads, and sales) but we feel this could negatively impact the integrity and usefulness of the site. As an example, information provided by companies who are selling vitamins, nootropics, legal highs or chemicals is dramatically more likely to be positive than that provided by third-party information sources who do not derive their funding from the sales of those substances. We want to avoid any conflict of interest which would lead to situations where our funding would increase if we change the information we provide. In addition, banner ads slow page loading time and clutter pages with flashing and distracting ads.

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