The Portrait Artist Forum may appear to be "free." However, as with all things, there are costs associated with maintaining it. For example: (1) Renewal of software license every year (2) Installation of software upgrades during the year. Usually these are due to the developer finding a security loophole, so these upgrades important to maintain. We pay a technician to do these installations. Usually there are an average of 2-3 of these a year. (3) Spellcheck feature does not automatically come with the vBulletin forum software. This is paid to a third party provider and is priced at $10/1,000 checks. (4) Bandwidth costs. Though these are difficult to exactly identify since they are included in with the main Stroke of Genius web site. However, the bandwidth and associated costs definitely jumped up significantly after the creation of the Forum. If you truly cannot afford to make a donation, we prefer that you do not. There are some very kind, generous people who may want to scrimp on other things to make a donation, but we'd rather you keep your money for the things you really need — and thank you for your kind and generous thought! Set-up an automatic recurring annual donation. This is the preferred method since our costs are ongoing, not just one time. Suggested minimum donation is $30 per year, but you can enter more or less in the field below. This will automatically be debited from the account you specify each year until or unless you cancel it. Use cancel button below to cancel an existing recurring donation. $ OR Make a non-recurring donation If you intend to only donate one time or are not sure, you might want to consider donating a larger amount. However, all donations of any amount are welcome. If you would like to donate every year, consider using the automatic recurring donation just above. You can cancel at any time. Please note that If you use this non-recurring donation, there is nothing to remind you that a year has passed since your last donation. $