Financial Records
Old Ways is not registered as a charitable organization. We don't receive special tax status. We don't write off our expenses on our taxes. And, unfortunately, the financial gifts you send this way are simply that - gifts of gratitude. Even so, I personally feel that it's tremendously important for us to be as transparent as possible where money and spirituality meet.
We do not charge for anything we do here at Old Ways. Our classes, articles, videos, lessons, and podcasts are offered free of charge. All of our writers donate their time and writing. While we accept monetary gifts, we don't solicit them. In fact, we've even chosen to take an ethical stand and keep the site completely advertisement free so as not to earn money from your visits.
Old Ways is a spiritual organization and, as such, we have certain ethical standards we need to hold to. One of those standards is a complete transparency where the exchange of money is concerned.
Here is the sum of the donations we've received for 2010.
| Month | Donations |
| January 2010 | $45 |
| February 2010 | $30 |
| March 2010 | $0 |
| April 2010 | $45 |
| May 2010 | $150 |
| June 2010* | $0 |
| * donated so far this month |
Our operating expenses are pretty reasonable. Web hosting costs us $6.99 a month. We do all of our design work in house (Jeffrey handles all of the web design duties) so there is no expenditure for that. The US Internal Revenue Service suggests a reimbursement rate of $0.50 per mile for privately owned vehicles and most of those miles are accumulated going to sacred sites to video the areas for you. (It's actually not a "pleasure outing" where we go out and Jeffrey happens to record some video. Jeffrey actually spends the entire trip setting up shots and recording the video you see here. When we do something to "get away" for personal time and happen to record video at the same time, we will not take those miles into account). Considering our stand on certain items (donating our time, our criteria for recording mileage, etc.) our monthly expenses for 2010 are as follows.
| Expenses January 2010 | Amount |
| Hosting | $6.99 |
| Mileage (492 miles at $.50 mi) | $246.00 |
| Total | $252.99 |
| Expenses February 2010* | Amount |
| Hosting | $6.99 |
| Mileage (0 miles at $.50 mi) | $0.00 |
| Total | $6.99 |
| Expenses March 2010 | Amount |
| Hosting | $6.99 |
| Mileage (140 miles at $.50 mi) | $70.00 |
| Total | $76.99 |
| Expenses April 2010 | Amount |
| Hosting | $6.99 |
| Mileage (0 miles at $.50 mi) | $0.00 |
| Total | $6.99 |
| Expenses May 2010 | Amount |
| Hosting | $6.99 |
| Mileage (125 miles at $.50 mi) | $62.50 |
| Total | $69.49 |
| Expenses June 2010 | Amount |
| Hosting | $6.99 |
| Mileage (70 miles at $.50 mi) | $35.00 |
| Total | $41.99 |
| * expenses so far this month |
As you can see, we are not profiting from what we offer you.
| Items | Amount |
| January 2010 Donations | $45.00 |
| January 2010 Expenses | -$252.99 |
| February 2010 Donations | $30.00 |
| February 2010 Expenses | -$6.99 |
| March 2010 Donations | $0.00 |
| March 2010 Expenses | -$76.99 |
| April 2010 Donations | $45.00 |
| April 2010 Expenses | -$6.99 |
| May 2010 Donations | $150.00 |
| May 2010 Expenses | -$69.49 |
| June 2010 Donations* | $0.00 |
| June 2010 Expenses* | -$41.99 |
| 2010 Total | -$185.44 |
Once again, this is not a request for additional funding. We consciously made the choice to offer Old Ways free of charge and knew full well the expenses that embracing that approach would entail. From our perspective, donations are simply one of the many ways that you can express gratitude. This page exists simply for us to be accountable to you and to uphold the standards we've set for ourselves as spiritual teachers, leaders, and seekers by keeping the financial end of Old Ways completely open and transparent.